Dear Banjo Patterson,

A few things need to be cleared up.

Firstly - yes the Christian Prayer (Our Father) has
opened Parliament for more than a century and this
was inherited from the British during colonial rule.
This subject has been brought up many times - and
the current PM still wants it to stay. However, many
Ministers want this changed to reflect a more
current and inclusive society. We shall have to wait
and see if this happens should there be a change in
government.

An Oath of Allegiance - now is available in two forms
with only one of which containing the phrase -
"So help me God."

As far as the role of the Queen goes in this country -
as a constitutional monarch the Queen acts entirely on the
advice of Australian Government Ministers who are responsible
to Parliament and what the Queen does in Britain - is not
the concern of Australia. The British government is
considered a foreign power in regard to Australia's domestic
and foreign affairs.

The Queen is represented in Australia at the Federal level
vy a Governot General. He or she is appointed by the
Queen on the advice of the PM and is completely independent
of the British government.

@Paul

How does this <<the history of Iran under the US backed Shah was terrible>> explain moderate-liberal-cosmopolitan Muslims suddenly adopting the one-eyed principles of fundamentalism?

And contrary to what you have imbibed from Greenie Sunday school sessions -- i dont think the Shahs Iran was as bad as you have been mislead into believing.

Dear SteeleRedux,

The case of the man who wrote those letters to
the families of deceased soldiers violates their
right to privacy and their right to maintain their
good reputation. It was not a violation of free
speech - but as Yuyutsu pointed out - it was
personal harrassment.

@Foxy, Wednesday, 14 January 2015 10:34:25 AM

If you are going to use a slab from Animals Australia you might as well cite the source.

You omitted to mention this too,

"THE head of the meat industry has joined animal welfare groups in opposing the religious slaughter of sheep while they are conscious, amid calls to ban the ''unnecessary and unconscionable'' practice in Australia.

At least 15 Australian abattoirs - including four in Victoria - have government approval to slit sheep's throats without stunning them for local and international halal (Muslim) and kosher (Jewish) markets.

A leading Jewish identity told The Sunday Age that about 500 sheep are killed by the kosher method in Victoria each week.
Studies into unstunned slaughter, including by the federal Department of Agriculture, have found the practice causes pain, distress, terror and panic in animals. Most sheep remained conscious for up to 20 seconds after their throats were cut.

One major abattoir, which had exported unstunned slaughtered sheep to the Middle East, said it stopped the practice due to animal welfare concerns."
http://www.animalsaustralia.org/media/in_the_news.php?article=2536

A leader in The Economist, pretty much sums up my thinking on this issue:

“The magazine was targeted because it cherished and promoted its right to offend: specifically to offend Muslims. That motive invokes two big themes. One is free speech, and whether it should have limits, self-imposed or otherwise. The answer to that is an emphatic no. The second is Muslim Europe—and whether episodes such as this are part of a civilisational struggle between Western democracies and extreme Islam, on a battlefield stretching continuously from Peshawar to Raqqa to the centre of Paris. Again, the answer is no.”

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21638118-islamists-are-assailing-freedom-speech-vilifying-all-islam-wrong-way-counter

Dear Paul,

I very much agree with you about the need to not further alienate moderate Islam.

<<So much evil has been perpetrated in the name of religion, be it Christian or Islam. Shows that all religions are useless.>>

Yes, IN THE NAME, it's not religion, it's people abusing religion for their own ends, so it shows nothing about religion itself.

Now religion won't cook you an egg, nor is it meant to solve political problems, but deducing that it's useless is to misunderstand that its purpose is spiritual, not to achieve worldly results.