Lexi

Since you have so kindly invite me to comment, I will.

And my comment is particularly relevant to two core issues here:
1) Abuse by religious authorities/prayer leaders(also known as sheiks)
2) And selective concern for women

While we have been hearing 24/7 about abuse by Christian religious authorities in the West (and rightly so). A bigger badder abuse has been going on in the Middle East and has received little to no comment. And, that is the abuse of Asian & African domestic workers --*across*-- the Middle East.

Exhibit 1
"A HORRIFYING claim that the bodies of around 40 Sri Lankan housemaids are returned each month from Saudi Arabia after they died of unnatural causes is contained in a report in the Sri Lankan Guardian."
http://freethinker.co.uk/2013/03/20/sri-lankan-report-claims-that-around-40-young-housemaids-die-each-month-in-saudi-arabia/

Exhibit 2
" TV celebrity and Arab Sheikh, Fayhan al-Ghamdi in Saudi Arabia...tortured his own 5-year old daughter to death with rods, cables and raping her so hard her rectum split open? She spent months in coma until she died in October 2012.He was not sentenced for her death but was merely ordered to pay bloodlibel.

But what happens if you are a foreign maid, often subject to physical and sexual assault, entrapped as a human slave working in a Saudi household? You of course meet the full extent of Sharia law. Furthermore, the child was more likely killed by her own father with the blame put on the maid. Although media tend to always distort a case to lean towards sympathy for the Saudi, even this article admits that a Sri Lankan maid who was executed in January 2013 claimed she had to confess under duress (torture). Too late now to give her justice."
http://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/while-saudi-cleric-child-torturer-walks-free-saudis-demand-death-penalty-for-foreign-maid/

Lexi (cont)
But *most people* in the West have not heard of this. And I can excuse *most* news sources for not covering it because they have been soooo browbeaten, sooo often, about about "Islamophobia" that they dare not comment on such things.

However, it is very hard to excuse, you Lexi. You OLO's alternate news & views source, who has made a name for herself on OLO by seeking out the little covered news and views --you told us nothing about this!

And, it is also hard to excuse that fearless crusader for female emancipation Germaine Greer who when presented with the opportunity to speak-out about the plight of women in the Middle East on Q&A shied away and was silent.

Selectivity indeed --shame, shame, shame.

Poirot>> phooey <<

P,I really enjoy your exclamations, I can hear it coming out of your mouth as you take in the verbiage.....phooey....lol

Dear SPQR,

Actually I have covered many of the various problems
encountered by women throughout the globe. Much of it
being hard to comprehend that these things could
happen in our own times.
I've drawn attention to relevant reading material at the
time, ranging from -
the internationally renowed author Ayaan Hirsi Ali
of her astonishing life story
"The Caged Virgin: A Muslim Woman's Cry for Reason,"
and also the famous - "Infidel." Then there was the
international bestseller, "La Prisonniere: twenty years
in a desert goal," by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi,
the heart-rendering account of resilience in the face of
extreme deprivation with which one family faced their
tormented fate. That's just to name a few references
that I thought were worth telling people about.

I don't see my job as telling people what to think. But
when I can, I do try to pass on relevant information -
and then it's up to them.

Dear Shadow Minister,

Aren't you pleased now that the facts have come out in
court? You should be. And all you had to do was wait
and not be judge and jury.

Lexi: Aren't you pleased now that the facts have come out in court?

yes we are & I'm sure we all now feel vindicated our assessment. Now poirot & others of her ilk will now claim that this is an isolated incident committed by one person. My question is. How many of these isolated incidences does it take for some people to wake up. This is a Middle Eastern Custom that Australia can do without in it's quest for Multiculturalism. Or is it one we should embrace. Personally I think we could do without this one & the people who bring this culture with them.

poirot: Oh yeah, Jayb, you're always making statements and then having to backtrack. Happens quite regularly.

It only happened once & we both had too. Every time you are proved wrong you divert, that's how we know you have admitted you were wrong.

Happens with irritating regularity, eh.

Lets add another one to the list, Mr Houssam Khaled El-Ali, 43yo operated a shop west of Sydney when he allegedly molested five girls aged from 12 to their mid teens from 2004 and 2008.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/latest/18369521/tobacconist-gave-cigs-to-girls-for-sex/

This isn't a newly imported one, not sure how long he has been in Australia, but deportation would be a good thing if convicted after a good jail sentence.

Some people from some cultures just do not fit in BUT regrettably by the time we find out the damage has already been done.