Not sure how anyone could be an 'expert' on something that doesn't exist, Joe. Either Aly thinks we are all stupid, or she knows very little about Islam. Jihad is the real deal; there is nothing radical about it. I wonder what the lady would say if was to be asked 'Do you, as a good Muslim, agree that Australia should be brought into the 'umma' as per Allah's decree?' Now that she is a politician, she would probably lie anyway as well as being comfortable with 'taqiyya', which is the lie Muslims fall back on when they are in the minority.

Mhaze,

The Muslims already insist that Jesus – Isa to them – was a Muslim, and that when he comes back, he will abolish Christianity and everyone will be a Muslim. It's all there in their appalling Koran and hadith.

Runner,
You think my moral conscience has been an evolutionary process? I thought you didn't believe in evolution and that morality magically came down from "on high".

In fact morality is an evolutionary process. We don't burn witches or ritually beat disobedient children anymore despite what the Bible says because society has decided it was the wrong thing to do. We also tolerate left-handed people now and even the Mormons have declared black people are no longer cursed.

I actually put the atrocities of Stalin and his ilk in the same basket as those of all the rest, no matter what their excuse or their association with some Sky Santa or political doctrine.

Right is right, even if nobody's doing it and wrong is wrong, even if everyone's doing it.

Stalin or Hitler didn't personally kill anyone. It was a multitude of individuals who were willing to to carry out their instructions and that's what is always overlooked.

Hi Fache,

The left hand has always been a problem for Muslims, 'haram': we all have one, and a left side, so their belief that 'left' is a sign of Shaitan [Satan] has always made life difficult. Even now, people are supposed to put their left shoe on second, while of course they wash themselves, and their body parts after elimination [how's that for decorous language ?] with their left hand. It probably causes great offence if (supposing you have a busted right hand) you offer your left hand to someone. You don't touch your heart with your left hand.

Meanwhile, of course, us lefties make up around 12 % of all populations, including Muslims. I don't know how those poor buggers get on.

Mind you, when I was a kid, I was forced to write right-handed, but that was back in the days when even Christians believed that 'left' was of the devil: 'gauche', 'sinister', etc. We're not all that far from barbarism.

Hey, why don't the Left seize on that, as well as the LBQPBITER+) angle, to attack capitalist society ? Of course, I think Reagan and George W. Bush were both lefties, but, thankfully, so is Obama. Notice that Trump is right-handed; that figures.

Cheers,

Joe

I believe an offense occurs when an individual is demeaned for things that cannot be changed. However ideas held and actions that are cultural can be criticised. OLO is a perfect example. We freely criticise Hitler, Pol Pot, the North Korean and Syrian monsters because of their ideas and actions. The World needs critics that is what brings about change. However critics must pose real answers to what they oppose.

'Right is right, even if nobody's doing it and wrong is wrong, even if everyone's doing it.'

wow you agree with absolutes Rache. In which case you must be able to see that our morality is devolving not evolving. I mean we slaughter the unborn, push perversion and somehow think we are better than those who burned the 'witches'.

That’s precisely it, Josephus.

<<I believe an offense occurs when an individual is demeaned for things that cannot be changed. However ideas held and actions that are cultural can be criticised.>>

I have made exactly the same point to an OLO regular who used to post with a nom de plume that was intended to bait others into telling him how fitting it was so that he could accuse them of an hypocrisy that didn’t actually exist because of the critical distinction you have made.

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/user.asp?id=6232

The suggestion that we extend 18C to blasphemy is utterly stupid and dangerous on a monumental scale. It would be a world apart from 18C as it currently stands, and if it were implemented then we would effectively be gagged from having so many conversations that need to be had. Particularly the one that isn’t being had on radical Islam that people like Maajid Nawaz, Sam Harris, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali are trying to have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7u_n5MpuNg