Dear Shocker,

Yes living standards in Albania are extremely low
compared with those of other European countries.
The incomes of most Albanians are small, but
health care, social services, and education are free.

Albania's government went far in opposing the practice of
religion. From 1944 to 1990, Albania's Communist Party
exercised almost complete control over the government and
the economy and allowed the people few rights.

In 1990, however, the government once again allowed the
public practice of religion and places of worship began to
re-open. Today about 70 percent of the people are Muslims,
about 20 percent belong to Eastern Orthodox Churches
and about 10 percent are Roman Catholics.

They all manage to co-exist.

Foxy, what was your point in sharing the article from New Matilda? It would seem that perhaps you may be suggesting, via the article, that it is irrational to have a concern about ISIS.

Note, the article's title uses the word fear, but the survey it quotes asked people about their concerns. 69% of Australian are concerned about ISIS; is that odd. Well no if you look at the other country's results: Lebanon leads the world with 84%% concerned about ISIS followed by 77% of Spaniards, and the UK, France, the USA, Canada, Germany & Italy are with similar percentages to Australia.

So although the author is insinuating Australians are stupid to be concerned about ISIS or Daesh as he chose to call them, we are in sync with the most of the major countries in the West. The concerns are valid because the threat is real.

I really found that was a strange article. Throughout the whole piece Michael Brull was essentially just putting down the government (or more pointedly Abbott and Julie Bishop, via insinuation rather than hard facts), but he didn't really have anything other than his opinion to back it up.

Its disappointing you could get sucked into thinking Brull had a point other than a cheap shot. He was the one leaping to conclusions that to be concerned about ISIS is tantamount to Muslim bashing. I think he proved himself to be what those on the right, would rightly call a lefty stooge.

Dear ConservativeHippie,

My point as always is to present alternative
perspectives to any issue for consideration.
To try to broaden the discussion so to speak.
To make people think and take another look at
what we're being presented with by our politicians
and mainstream media (that runs along mostly
predictable lines).

I am disappointed that you got so little out of the
article. However, whatever floats your boat.

cont'd ...

BTW - I don't think it is irrational to have
concerns about ISIS. It is a terrorist organisation.
What is irrational as the author points out is
movements like Reclaim Australia - and what they
stand for.

Lithuania:
Not your typical example of Islam, they are certainly well integrated but "Due to the long isolation from all the greater Islamic world, the practices of the Lithuanian Tatars differ somewhat from the rest of Sunni Muslims; they are not considered a separate sect, however, although some of the Lithuanian Tatars practice what could be called Folk Islam"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Lithuania

Indonesia:
Doesn't count as it is a majority Muslim (87.2%) country where there have been numerous murders of non-Muslims.

Azerbaijan:
Doesn't count as over 90% of the population is Moslem.

Croatia:
Interesting Muslim history and they are certainly integrated in that State, however there may be a fundamental flaw
"In the 1960s, Muslim community advocated for the recognition of the Bosniaks as a nationality in SFR Yugoslavia. The 1974 Yugoslav Constitution allowed for the official recognition of the Muslims as a nationality, therefore allowing more individuals to declare their alignment with a compromise categorization of Muslims by nationality, in this case separated from a religious basis. For example, Džemal Bijedić, a communist federal prime-minister was a declared "Muslim" and an atheist. The introduction of new categorization may be considered as one of root causes of the sudden spike in the number of individuals declaring themselves as Muslims...."(Wiki)

Malaysia:
Muslim majority again, so no points.
"Parallel to the civil courts, there are Sharia courts which conduct legal matters related to Muslim family sphere. Legal issues like Muslim divorce and Muslim apostasy are conducted in the Sharia Courts. However, there are cases whereby apostasy cases are tried in the Federal Courts. Non-Muslims are not bound by Shariah." (Wiki)
Not an indication of integration.

Try again.

Conservative Hippie.
I was part of an interesting exchange at the Reclaim rally on Saturday.
A middle aged patriot who found himself essentially surrounded by Anti Racist protestors began to repeat his "right wing" talking points about Sharia law, the treatment of women under Islam and so forth.
At first the Anti Racists tried to physically intimidate him, that failed because he was a huge man and by that point several other people including myself had come to his side. When shoving and threats failed to dislodge him they then tried to mock, tease and humiliate him, that failed as well as the man just laughed in their faces and clowned around, waving his Australian flag and dancing about with them.
Then they tried shame, a little old White haired lady about 70 years old arrived on the scene and using her best primary school teacher tone demanded that he hand over his flag as he was being disrespectful and a naughty boy. This produced gales of laughter from both sides and at this point a big fat Lesbian ambushed the patriot from behind and grabbed his flag while a girl in a rabbit costume threw a handful of glitter in his face, he roared with laughter and threw up his hands saying "Fine! It's OK!".
The worst was yet to come, the horror of the "debate" was next, a skinny dude in his forties, a stereotypical Marxist "intellectual" in a flat cap and sunglasses began questioning the patriot's talking points. This went on for some time with myself and a group of patriotic women interjecting and everyone talking over the top of one another. Cont..