Is Mise,

I live in Melbourne.

And I work alongside people of various cultures
and religions -
in the aged-care facility where I volunteer
weekly. No problems whatsoever.

cont'd ...

I should also add that our neighbourhood is
made up of a wide mix of different cultures.
And we all get along just fine. In fact, more
than fine. My husband was hospitalised recently
and all the neighbours offered help and got
involved. It was quite lovely to have such genuine,
caring people nearby and as neighbours.

Belly,

"Their children,, like the children of every wave of migration, will in time assimilate.
In fact many already have,even rejecting the faith of their parents."

Just as they do in India, been a thousand years or so and today there are more Muslim women getting around in head to toe black coverings than there were two years ago and there were then more than my visit three years before.
They are being told to be seen to be Muslim.

Now there's assimilation in action.

My first ancestors in Australia were Scots and many of their descendants, including myself, still wear their distinctive dress, listen to the same music and have the same politico/historical viewpoint; most of them still follow the same religion (not incl moi) and marry into the same tribal group, Celts tend to marry Celts., as I did also.

The extreme right exists, it feeds on lies and fears, it names words like progress/progressives far left
It is often powered by totally wrong words such as Trump use, it is in fact conned by its own leadership.
If any left behaved that way it would be laughed at.
Read SMH story about the right in this mornings press, it is very much worth the read.
A middle path is the only path worth treading, if that story and the one Abbott gets unmasked in by his own members, also in that paper this morning is true the ultra right may be marching in circles going no place

//Muslims in Australia are asking for two public holidays for their two annual Eid celebrations.//

I do hope they get them.... I don't care about their religious significance any more than I care about the religious significance of Easter. It's all bollocks.

But I do like a public holiday. And why shouldn't we have more of them? I hardly think that two extra public holidays a year is going to cripple our productivity.

Toni,

I go the other way, abolish all religious based holidays, as well as religious exemptions for working certain days.