Jay,

Their peace speak is only when the world is oppressed by Islam. Yes, the so called Golden Age in Islam is probably bull and they treated the Dhimmi’s as second class. Yes, short lived if ever.

You can get rather confusing sometimes. Islam is a problem, with the combination of tacit support of the so called progressives and Leftists. We are now living in a post Christian world. Christians are the most persecuted in the world. Finally, someone like Prince Charles has actually recently made an official statement on this.

Too many people see the world in black and white. It is complex.

Yuyutsu,

I totally agree with you. The problem is that one extreme creates another. That is, extreme secularism in the West. The West is losing or has lost its soul. There is so much garbage on television, music. etc. I don’t usually watch much telly but have been lately, on other channels other than the ABC and SBS. No wonder Muslims are having trouble coming to terms with the West. They cannot come to terms with the hedonism and its superficiality and liberalism. Why are Muslim women wanting to cover up more in recent times and never seemed to before?

Here is an explanation by a native Egyptian Jesuit who takes into account recent history and the growing extreme secularism in the West; poor education in Islamic countries . Exacerbated by the West’s meddling in the middle east.
http://m.ncregister.com/daily-news/father-samir-on-isis-what-they-are-doing-is-diabolical/%23ixzz3CCHeuFxw#.VAboCz0ayc0

The West is having a psychological crisis and is getting uglier. We're turning into zombies. No passion, mere emotion. I find a lot of your posts very interesting and have had some nice experiences in Hindu cultures, outside of Australia, that is. A healer I once met said that Christianity and Hinduism are actually pretty similar, and I tend to agree.

Spindoc, another link to help in understanding the complexities of the power struggle within the Middle East for power: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salafi_movement

Isis is a Salafi movement within Sunni Islam. Wahhabis are also Salafi, but the Salafi movement believes themselves to be even more superior than the overarching Islamic Wahhabi belief system. That's why they are now perceived as a danger by the royal family of Saudi Arabia. The excesses of the Saudi royal family are anathema to the Salafi movement and it is becoming increasingly precarious, downright dangerous, for several of the royal families in that neck of the woods. They all depend on the notion that their presence is ordained by Allah.

The slaughter of other Muslims by the Salafis is truly horrendous. The rise of the Salafi movement did not happen in a vacuum. Extremist responses never are.

The question for direct Western involvement is essentially, what is our role in this power struggle, if any, and what are going to be the consequences of even a win. Even if ISIS were to be destroyed, will that remove the reasons why it arose? Probably not, which means, we'll have to get used to another acronym or name as the 'Great Evil'.

The genie, rumbling for a number of decades in the Middle East,including Afghanistan, was unleashed with the overthrow of the Iraqi Saddam Hussein regime and the subsequent 'Arab Springs'. Remember the disbelief when finally after decades of dictatorship the Egyptians promptly voted in a democratic election a government aligned to the Muslim Brotherhood. Another puritanical Sunni movement that some argue is also a Salafi strain.

It really isn't a battle between Islam and Christianity. Might appeal to the propensity of Christians for martyrdom, all three Abrahamic traditions have that in common, but it isn't. Though 'Christians' bent on a bit of martyrdom are doing their very best to make it so. And who knows, it's never hard to be included in the enemy list.

Hi there YUYUTSU & ONTHEBEACH...

Thinking back to a serious matter I was significantly involved in, concerning a Lebanese family who were involved in all manner of violent crime. The specifics of which are essentially unimportant other than their particular ethnicity and religious proclivities.

Ever since they'd arrived here as 'so called' refugees, (an apparent consequence of the war in Lebanon), their only activity was to continue with their criminality, in which they'd been hitherto engaged when they had lived in Beirut ? At that time, while I was in the process of conducting initial enquiries, I had occasion to speak with an senior officer of DEFAT concerning the bona fides and the arrival status of this family ? Apparently, DEFAT was well aware of their criminal antecedents while in Lebanon, but as refugees, they had miraculously, been accepted here ? Notwithstanding all male members, had extensive criminal records.

Therefore this troublesome group of home grown Lebanese criminals, became the problem of the poor ol' coppers, for ever and a day, since ! Upon my retirement, both the father and his two sons were all still serving long prison sentences.

For this reason, we MUST severely curb or at least restrict, our immigration now. Or at least, be far more selective and cautious as to who we allow to settle here. Is it not our sovereign right to choose who can relocate to our shores ? Or does the morally corrupt United Nations even override us in that issue too ?

For your further information, and this is FACT ! Currently in Long Bay Gaol...The two 'heaviest' groups there are; (i) The outlaw bikie groups; and (ii) The Lebanese (Islamic) criminal gangs, followed far behind by a couple of smaller Asian gangs (predominately drugs) with a few very frightened anglo's !

Yet we're told that Muslims only make up a small proportion of the Australian population ? Yet they represent the second most dangerous group in Australia's biggest gaol, go figure ?

Can the question be changed so it reads: "In a secular based country, can religion peacefully co-exist with society?" My view is yes.

For example I had one situation where a person told me they screamed "F off my property and never come back" (in Australia) - to a group of Jehovah's Witnesses coming towards their front door. They saw these people arriving and were very angry about it. Personally I was shocked and offended to why someone would want to do something so full on, and not simply ask the Jehovah's Witnesses members to leave, nicely.

90% of television I don't watch, because I don't like it, and the programming is terrible (in my view). However simplisticly blaming television or something converted to youtube or a vimeo is nothing more than someone putting forward an average case in court.

Currently where religion (or where other philosophies) fit into any secular country is a complex issue, that requires in depth thought, policy, discussion and debate.

Constance,
I realise my position is difficult to understand but I'm convinced that Asiatic and European societies are so different that they cannot co- exist in the same living space. Either the society becomes Asiatic in it's structure, with all it's hierarchies and it's peculiar concepts of honour and patronage or it remains wholly European with it's notions of aristocracy subordinated to socialism, the fusion cannot work because the two systems are always going to be in conflict.
You're right in identifying the soulless character of the West but what's happening is that in the absence of an authentic Eurocentric alternative to Californian culture the Europeans are looking toward Asia, to Putin and Islam for answers.

The other problem is that the way "anti Racists" in this country frame their narrative, the way they constantly attack White people and Christians gives rise to alienation and a grievance complex among the lower caste Whites, which has the potential to be an even bigger threat in the near future than any Muslim activism.
We really don't want to see millions of low caste Whites behaving like low caste Asians.