Abbott, has totally shot himself in the foot over this one. Its proving to be a disaster for the government from all sides. After initially stoking the fire with his "Burqa's are confronting" statement and taking that general line. Abbott is now backtracking to the point of trying to untangle the whole sorry mess. The message from the bridge had been one of full steams ahead, but now the message to Brommie down below from Captain Abbott is reverse all engines, hard to starboard, no port! stop all engines, no wait! Gee, Brommie its all your fault, you didn't tell me!
On Friday Abbott claimed he was oblivious to a decision by Bishop and Senate president Stephen Parry to isolate women wearing a burqa or niqab from public galleries until early Thursday evening, hours after an angry backlash from the public and his own MP's.
Abbott later contacted Bishop to ask for the decision to be reversed, setting the scene for a test of wills between Mr Abbott's leadership on one side, and Ms Bishop's independence as Speaker. Naturally Bishop as House Speaker can tell Tone to go take a running leap as she is in charge, and she calls the shots.
Some in the government are now seriously questioning Abbott's leadership, and is he the right man for the job? I think not. Malcolm where are you!
I must say it has certainly been "good" entertainment on the forum with some of the 'Usual Suspects' going on a feeding frenzy, with Jayb, wanting to do both Santa Clause and The Easter Bunny in for their crimes against humanity and good old Jay of Berlin, chiming in with his usual, its all the faulty of those Jewish Bolsheviks from Toorak.
Fortuity once more the regular voices of reason have shone through with Poirot, Suseonline, May May, Foxie and one or two others contributing excellently to the debate, with great material on the broader complexities involved. I can't add anything to improve on their perceptiveness on the issues presented here. Well done gang.

Hi Is Mise,

Yeah, that was me. My limited understanding of the supposedly miraculous was that Muhammad, as an illiterate, went into a cave to meditate, as was common amongst desert people, but came out with (I presume) scrolls purporting to be the literal word of Allah.

Hence, miracle. Illiterate man, scrolls, therefore word of god.

Of course, I don't know how a businessman and trader could operate, even then, if he were illiterate, or innumerate. I should imagine that every desert trader would have been pretty cluey about arithmetic, conversion of weights and measures, market prices, exploitation of different markets, etc. And still would be.

Joe

I managed to get a clip of Tone and Bronnie addressing the parliament on this very issue on Friday;

So here it is;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjz16xjeBAA

See, there you go May May... I say 28 Million potential terrorists worldwide and you come back quoting me as saying there are 28 million terrorist. Not all extremists will become terrorists, in fact only a small percentage, but 28 million is a large pool to draw from. If you don't believe the 2% figure do some research before coming back ill prepared.

There is a distinct pattern in your shoot from lip grandstanding that is dishonest. It was your aggressive manner that lead me to believe you were a man, but was unfortunate sexist stereotyping on my behalf. Maybe you should start dealing with the facts instead of denying there is a real problem facing the future of the world with it's roots are in Islam. The truth sometimes hurts, but its still the truth.

May May,

"ConservativeHippie, if your figure of 28 million Muslim terrorists worldwide was true, we'd be having multiple bombings and suicide attacks in every Western country every minute of every day. Nice try Hippie. Maybe next time you should try dealing with facts, instead of stereotyping entire masses of people, in order to make your argument seem relevant."

Precisely

http://www.smh.com.au/comment/islamic-state-a-better-name-might-be-unislamic-state-20140930-10o0ok.html

Richard Glover hits the nail on the head.

"Cory Bernardi and Jacqui Lambie have announced their own jihad against Islamic dress, as if bombers in burqas were our most pressing issue. Others turn to social media. "All this violence is right there in the Koran," rant a thousand voices on Facebook, before going on to quote certain lines, as if the Christian Bible doesn't offer the odd smoting."

(ooh, just like Loudmouth and others here delight in doing!)

"This of course is the exact project of the terrorists. That's why they call it Islamic State, when a better name maybe unIslamic State. It's why they use terms such as "jihadists" for their recruits, when "disaffected loser" would be more accurate. It's why they talk about people becoming "holy warriors", when "brainwashed dupes" would be more precise."

"Amid all this, there's a hunger for hope. Last week, a 10-year-old called Mohammed called my radio show and spoke about the lack of racism in his Sydney school. Everyone gets on, he said, we all play together and really the adults could take a leaf out of our book. Whacked up on social media, his advice has since been shared more than 50,000 times. From the names I see on Twitter and Facebook, the sharing has been done by Sydneysiders from both Muslim and non-Muslim backgrounds."

"When next someone conflates Islam with terrorist violence, understand that they are doing the work of Islamic State; when next someone directs hostility towards a woman in traditional dress, understand that this is a gift to those who would divide us."

You grown-ups here having the vapours should take a leaf out of the book of the 10 year-old.

Wounded Goose,

"I've never seen any woman in a burka, in the flesh, so to speak. Nikabs, yes, every day. Women should be allowed - well, they ARE allowed - to wear pretty much whatever they like. Fine with me.

"On the other hand, I can understand the need to restrict anybody wearing any sort of covering over their faces - bikie, hoodie, face-mask-wearer, etc. - from parts of Parliament House. Fair enough."

Like I said.

And yes, the Bible does go on a bit about smiting and butchering and slaying, etc., especially in the Old Testament. Life in all traditional societies, as they were back in the OT days, are usually brutal, murderous and exterminatory. Thank goodness those OT days have been over for three thousand years now.

Except in IS-controlled area in 2014. Oh, well, hopefully it won't take them three thousand years to catch up with the rest of the world. But as long as they have apologists such as yourself, and other extreme-Right-wingers, with respect, they can be shielded somewhat from criticism.

Keep your head on your shoulders, Poirot. But don't go to the Middle East :)

Joe