E-mail bigotry

Why is the world in a mess?

Here's a thought for a big part of it - far too many people are intolerant and bigoted. Adamant that only they are right, believing everyone else must agree one hundred percent with them and do as they do.

Different from me? Not acceptable.

Another example has just arrived in my e-mail box, and I get similar messages regularly. They come from 'Christians' whipping up anti-Muslim sentiment.

Let me declare my position. I have very little time for any religion.

I don't have a problem with religions per se, but with the fact that they're a rallying point for an awful lot of nastiness.

People whose beliefs and actions are actually far from that of the religion itself gather under its banner and effectively hijack it to push their own perverted version of it.

The e-mails I get originate in the US, as this latest does.

It says, and the highlighting is not mine, it's on the e-mail:   

These pictures are worth more than a thousand words!! Please take note that police and fireman are onsite! It is sanctioned.

NYC on Madison Ave

A Christian Nation cannot put up a Christmas scene of the baby Jesus in a public place, but the Muslims can stop normal traffic every Friday afternoonby worshiping in the streets. Something is happening in America that is reminiscent of what is happening in Europe .. This is Political Correctness gone crazy. Scary! Isn't it?

This is an accurate picture of every Friday afternoon in several locations throughout NYC where there are mosques with a large number of Muslims that cannot  fit into the mosque - They fill the surrounding streets, facing east for a couple of hours between about 2 & 4 p.m. - Besides this one at 42nd St & Madison Ave, there is another, even larger group, at 94th St & 3rd Ave, etc., etc. - Also, I presume, you are aware of the dispute over building another "high rise"  Mosque a few blocks from "ground zero" - With regard to that one, the "Imam" refuses to disclose where the $110 million dollars to build it is coming from and there is a lawsuit filed to force disclosure of that information.

This is in New York City on Madison Avenue, not in France or the Middle East or Yemen or Kenya.

PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY CHRISTIAN YOU KNOW!!!!


"For evil to flourish, all that is needed is for good people to do nothing." - Edmund Burke


I hardly know where to start.

The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees freedom of religion.

The senders of the e-mail obviously disagree with that amendment, or at least the part that refers to religion. I wonder whether they think the other parts, freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, are wrong too. My guess is that it's just the religious freedom bit they don't like. Or at least, if it applies to any religion other than their own particular branch of Christianity.

(I wonder where they stand on the Second Amendment too...)

Scary! Isn't it?  What's scary?  People saying their prayers scares you?

"A Christian nation cannot put up a Christmas scene of the baby Jesus..."  Who are they blaming? I've never heard people from other religions demanding such things.

There are examples of this kind of stupidity but it comes from 'Christian' councils, officials, individuals, usually on the ridiculous basis of  'we don't want to offend anyone' - forgetting that they are offending Christians.

...this is not in France, Middle East or Yemen or Kenya  (you've spotted the Obama reference there of course, and the old France-bashing dig).  It is indeed in New York City. But NYC is in the USA, which guarantees freedom of religion. So the problem is...?

"For evil to flourish etc".  Evil? What evil is being shown?

The photo shows pious people, too many to fit into their place of worship, peacefully and legally observing their religious devotions.

No prizes for working out the agenda of the senders of these e-mails.

More information

Thanks to jadaoun for pointing out in his comment the Snopes page on this subject.

In fact the whole thing is based on a lie. It's a complete misrepresentation.

The photographs are of an annual event, like the St Patrick's Day Parade and others.

You can read the Snopes information here.

This really makes me angry.

There was the worst kind of tragic event in Melbourne a few days ago when a three year old child was found dead, dumped at the roadside twenty kilometres from his home.

He was a little boy called Gurshan Singh, who happened to be Indian and who was on holiday in Oz with his parents. Dad went out, mum was in the shower and it's thought the little boy wandered out through the front door.

Police said he was fully clothed, there were no signs of injury. A post mortem didn't reveal a cause of death, toxicology and forensic tests were being done and the investigation continued.

In spite of that the screams of racism began immediately.

To see the extent of the utter stupidity and bigotry of so many people, look at just one newspaper, the UK's Daily Mail.

The paper headlined the story with a racism slant:

"Murder of Indian boy, 3, in Australia sparks diplomatic row after spate of racist attacks"

That had the brainless bigots rushing from under their rocks.

Remember, little Gurshan Singh's body had only just been found, no cause of death had been established, he had no injuries, police had just begun their investigation.

A selection of the comments to the Mail's story:

"Racists killing three year olds? Sick and deeply disturbing." Alan, Planet Reality


"This has been happening for the past year! I'm a British born Indian and every time there is a racist attack on an Indian Student it is widely reported on the Indian news channel

A few weeks ago another Indian student in Australia was burnt alive in a racist attack." shania, London.

(Actually Shania, an Indian couple has been charged with that murder. Don't let the facts get in the way of your bigotry though).

"How can someone's hatred of a race be so great as to kill an innocent 3 year old boy." Nat, London

"HOW can anyone do this? When will people realise we are essentially all the same. Skin colour? So what, there is just no excuse for racism these days" karen n, manchester

"Has Australia failed to embrace diversity more than any other country. Australia will have problems to attract visitors if these issues are not tackled promptly." Romi May, Handsworth

"I have always said Auustralia has concentrated racism." Mukeye, TO

"Perhaps the Aussies need to remember that they are in fact ALL immigrants!" Shorty, Suffolk

"Seriously , both America and Australia have massive problems related to self worth and hatred of ethnic minorities" john, China

"It never ceases to amaze me when I hear of racist attacks in these countries when the original inhabitants of those countries were blacks or dark skinned." ira, FL USA


People with more sense responded to the stupidity of such comments to say that the cause of death and, if it was murder, the motive had not been established.

So Shania came back screeching:

"To all of you saying this is isn't racist, YOU CLEARLY DO NOT KNOW THE FULL STORY!!!!!!!! I have been following the series of attacks this is just one of them. What about the attacks targeting Indians specifically from India??? you cannot say that is purely coincidence

I am not saying all Australians are racists but to dismiss this as not racism is noting but sheer ignorance." shania, London

Shania knows what's going on, she's absolutely positive. And anyone who doesn't agree with her is showing their sheer ignorance.

Right.

And another bigot, the oxymoronically named 'truthspeaker' from Newcastle has the answer to it all:

"When will the authorities just admit that this is what happens when you try and force people together from very different races."


None of them are prepared to wait for the facts to emerge before shouting their version of the truth. They're not interested in the facts because they may contradict their bigotry.

The police carried out their investigation. Here's today's news:

"Toddler's death: housemate charged

A 23-YEAR-OLD Indian national has been charged with manslaughter due to criminal negligence following the death of three-year-old Gurshan Singh Channa.

Gursewak Dhillon, a taxi driver who is in Australia on a student's visa, was refused bail in an out-of-sessions hearing.

Dhillon had made admissions to police that he had placed the child in the boot of a car while the youngster was unconscious and had driven him to Oaklands Junction near Melbourne Airport and placed him by the roadside."


In the light of that, Shania, Alan, Nat, Karen N, Romi May, Mukeye, Shorty, John, Ira and the rest of you, would you care to add to your original comments?



You'll find the Daily Mail stupidity here and today's report on the arrest of Gursewak Dhillon here.

And my 'racism' tag has some previous posts on the subject of attacks on Indians in Australia.

The anti-immigrant immigrant

I love the irony in the story about Australia's most famous anti-immigrant becoming an immigrant herself.

Pauline Hanson made news around the world with her anti-immigration rantings. In fact it was pure racism, she was anti-immigrants if they were not Anglo-Saxon.

She had a short-lived political career and in her maiden speech in parliament commented that Australia was being 'swamped by Asians', which did great damage to the country's standing abroad, especially of course in Asia.

In particular I loved her reasons for leaving Oz:

"Over-regulation, increasing taxes and lack of true representation are affecting our way of life."

So she's decided to get away from that by moving to what UK blogger Keith calls Britanistan.



BBC report is here.

It's never that simple

A couple of reports recently from Oz prompt me to post again about the attacks on Indians in Victoria.

I posted a couple of times last year, when the media frenzy in India seemed to be at its peak.

The theme was that Indians were being targeted in racially motivated attacks. There were the inevitable protests on the streets, effigy burning, government discussions at the highest level, calls for Indians to boycott Australia because it's so unsafe, the Indian government issuing a travel warning.

Of course, like everything, it's not that simple.

I don't doubt that some of the attacks were racially motivated. Morons, usually young males, usually with the bravery that comes from being in a group and often drunk, attacking lone walkers after dark.

But then you look at context.

According to the Victorian police, in 2007/08, 1,447 people of Indian origin were victims of crimes against the person such as robberies and assaults. This compared to 24,260 Caucasian victims and 36,765 victims overall.



The police go on to say that a lot of international students work and study late at night and are often travelling home by themselves on trains, equipped with their laptops and phones. That makes them much easier soft targets than the average person.

Then to the two recent reports.

At the end of December Ranjodh Singh was stabbed repeatedly and then set on fire. Another racially motivated attack?

At the end of last week it was reported:

"In a new twist to the 'horrific' murder of Indian youth Ranjodh Singh, whose partially charred body was found from the city of Griffith Dec 29, Australian police Thursday arrested an Indian couple in the case and said the victim was burnt alive. Police charged a 23-year-old Indian man and his wife with murder."

An Indian couple.

The report is here.

Early in January we also had:

"In yet another attack targeting Indians in Australia, a 29-year-old man from the country was set on fire by four assailants, drawing strong condemnation from a student body which called such assaults unacceptable and asked authorities not to "dodge" the issue."

The Times of India reports that story here.

Today's report:

"AN Indian man who told police he was attacked and set on fire by a gang of four men has been charged with making a false report to authorities and criminal damage for financial gain."

It was an insurance scam.


That story's here.

As I said, things are always more complicated than the knee-jerk reaction would have us believe.

Escalation of racial tensions in Oz

Racial tensions involving Indian students are on the rise in Australia.

It was inevitable, given the hysteria whipped up by the media and politicians. I said in a post last week the climate is going to get worse in both countries, the extremists are jumping on the bandwagon, the real danger is an escalation of violence..

Now there are reports of exactly that in Sydney and Melbourne:

A protest involving hundreds of Indian students on Monday night turned into a "vigilante" attack, with a group wielding sticks and baseball bats attacking men of "Middle Eastern appearance" in apparent retaliation for an earlier alleged assault on an Indian student.

'Middle eastern appearance' is PC-speak for Lebanese by the way.

So it's escalated from protest marches in Melbourne and Sydney to protests in Indian cities, then to extremist groups jumping on the bandwagon with effigy burning in the streets of Indian cities, and now to ethnic groups, in this instance Indians and Lebanese, attacking each other.

The police and politicians, in Victoria, NSW and federal government, have handled it badly, which hasn't helped.

They've consistently said in the past that the attacks are not racial but opportunistic, which is only partly true and gives the students the impression that any racist element is being denied, is being swept under the carpet, their safety concerns are being dismissed. That's bound to raise tensions.

Undoubtedly some of the attacks are not racially motivated, they're part of the unfortunately normal mugging of vulnerable people. Students living in poorer areas, as their finances force them to do, working late and going home alone - often carrying a valuable laptop - are vulnerable.

But other attacks obviously are racially motivated and denying it was ridiculous and unhelpful.

At least now the Victorian police chief has acknowledged the fact:

Victoria's police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland has admitted that some of the attacks on Indian students were "clearly racist in motivation''.

"Some of the attacks were clearly racist in motivation and that violence is unacceptable and racism is unacceptable in any form.''

There are examples of the escalation in the rough Sydney suburb of Harris Park, where crime is high, and in Melbourne.

A demonstration was called in Harris Park after an Indian student was allegedly assaulted by a group of men of 'Middle Eastern appearance'. Around 200 Indian students, some of them armed with baseball bats and hockey sticks, gathered and attacked men of 'Middle Eastern appearance'.

I don't think there's much doubt that the violence was planned - you're not expecting to demonstrate peacefully if you go armed with a baseball bat or hockey stick.

The Times of India also reports a group of Indians retaliated against racial verbal abuse by stabbing a 20-year-old youth. The stabbing was in St Albans in Melbourne on Sunday when the youth was stabbed once in the neck and twice in the arm.

Police said they were looking for two Indian attackers aged 23 and 29. They added that a car believed to be that of a man involved in attacks on Indian students had also been torched.

In Melbourne Indian students have formed 'security patrols' to protect their own people around St Albans and Thomastown railway stations. That is a very stupid thing to do in countries such as Australia where it simply isn't done. It will do nothing but raise tensions and turn even mainstream Australians against them.

Amongst a lot of coverage in the Indian and Australian newspapers about the escalation there is one article which took a broader look at what's happening. It's by a well respected journalist, Paul Sheehan, who points out that "each incident is another brick in the wall of misconception that Indians in Australia have become the frequent victims of violent white racism.

This misconception has hardened into belief in India, where widespread media coverage of the attacks has played on old sensitivities about the treatment of Indians by whites and white Australia.

He goes on to point out that "the attacks on Indians (were) committed by a polyglot mix reflecting the streets - white, Asian, Middle Eastern, Aboriginal, Pacific Islander."

Detailing recent attacks:

"The most recent attacks, in Harris Park this week, allegedly involved assailants of the proverbial 'Middle Eastern appearance'.

In Melbourne, an assault on an Indian student on a train was recorded on video (which) shows a swarm of young men robbing and repeatedly attacking the student. Most of them do not appear to be white.

A recent assault on an Indian student in Glebe was committed by a young offender described as Aboriginal.

Another recent assault on an Indian student...in Port Melbourne, involved three attackers identified as Caucasian.

As he says, the ethnicity of the attackers varies from crime to crime.

All in all it's a sad and sorry saga which isn't finished yet.

Here's another prediction. With non-white gangs fighting each other on the streets and Indian 'security patrols', the next stage will be white bigots, such as I posted about in September, jumping in with their 'white Christians only' rantings about immigration.

If you're following the story here are some links to references in the posting:


Indians stab racial abuser.

Harris Park violence.

Some attacks are racist: police chief.

Street patrols.

Paul Sheehan: Brutal truth about attacks.

And I'll throw this one in, which I came across in The Times of India, just to get the Anons steaming. We're even more racist than Aussies: Jug Suraiya.
As always, the comments make interesting reading too.

Crystal Ball working well

A couple of days ago I located the Life in Dubai Crystal Ball at the back of a drawer, gave it a polish and the picture it showed me led me to write:

The temperature's rising and I expect to soon see photographs of effigies being burnt in the streets of Indian cities.

The old Crystal Ball is working well because today Reuters gives us this:




All major Aussie newspapers are running the photos so the climate is going to get worse in both countries, the extremists are jumping on the bandwagon, the real danger is an escalation of violence.

I tend to agree with the comments of Dr. Yadu Singh in Australia, reported in the Sydney Morning Herald.

The Indian media's coverage of the plight of Indian students in Australia has been "irresponsible" and could backfire on Indians who have lived here for years, a local community leader fears.

Yadu Singh, a Sydney cardiologist, has viewed with growing anger the pronouncements about Australia by the Indian press, after violence against Indian students in Sydney and Melbourne came under the spotlight last week.

Headlines such as "Australia, land of racists" have led to loud street protests in Australia and India, with an effigy of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd set alight in India.

Dr Singh, who heads a committee at the Indian consulate looking at Indian student issues, labelled the reporting "irresponsible".

"There is a problem with Indian media and Indian leadership - they can't assess a situation in a rational way," he said.

"It's the high competition in that industry. They all get on the bandwagon and say 'Oh racism', but it's not like that.

"Something like this happens and they think: 'The whole world is against us.' I mean, burning effigies of Kevin Rudd ... come on.

"This is not a racist country. Every country has one or two racists.

"When Australian [missionary] Graham Staines was burnt to death [by Hindu extremists in January 1999], did everyone call India racist? No."

Dr Singh believed Australians were "outraged with the way Indian media" was smearing the country.

He feared the outrage could mask the genuine issues faced by Indian students, who Dr Singh said were over-represented in robbery statistics in Melbourne and also faced exploitation by employers.

He also feared there could be a backlash against other Australians of Indian heritage, many of whom had lived here for years.

"I was at a function last night with other Indians [well-established in Australia] - other doctors and lawyers - we were all saying this game has to stop," Dr Singh said.

"We are not suffering. We are doing well in Australia."


Street muggings are deplorable, more so in my opinion when they're racially motivated. But so is whipping up hysteria just to increase newspaper sales or to further a political agenda.


Sydney Morning Herald report is here.

'Curry bashing' in Oz

Making big news in India, and amongst Indian communities around the world, are reports of racist attacks on Indian students in Australia.

A protest march was just held in Melbourne, reported variously as having either 300 or 1,000 or 5,000 participants depending which report you read.

It was organised by the Federation of Indian Students in conjunction with Melbourne University's Graduate Student Association. That's an indication of the majority opinion in Oz, people of different ethnic backgrounds living side by side.

But there will always be racist elements and sadly they're coming out of the woodwork all over the world.

Recent governments have a lot to answer for, those of BushW and the last Australian PM John Howard in particular. They created a climate of fear and loathing, of foreigners wanting 'to destroy our way of life', which they promoted to keep themselves in power and to push through their extreme policies.

Howard and his cronies had a huge and disgraceful campaign to drum up hatred against asylum seekers, or 'illegal immigrants' as they called them. Lies were regularly told, photographs were doctored, the hysteria mounted.

They were in power for over a decade which was plenty of time to well and truly create the atmosphere. We're seeing the effects now amongst the teenagers who grew up in that climate and who are carrying out these attacks.

There seems to be an increase on attacks on Indian students, although a number of them are undoubtedly not racially motivated but are standard street crimes.

Community leader Dr Yadu Singh said the attacks had been happening for about four years and were a mixture of opportunistic robberies and outright racist attacks.

In the robbery cases, Indian students often became victims because they traveled home late at night, alone, after working to support their studies, Dr Singh said.

He has another interesting theory too, that thieves knew the incidents were unlikely to be reported to police:

"They are not reporting to police because their experience of police in India is pathetic - they are corrupt, pathetic, not helpful."

There does seem to be a copycat element to the racially motivated attacks though, with the phrase 'curry bashing' becoming more widespread. The phrase spreads amongst college students, the morons amongst them seize on it and think they'll go out for what their pea-sized brains think is fun.

"What we gonna do tonight? Study? 'ave a beer? Find some girls?"

"Nah, let's have some real fun, we'll go curry bashing."

That means they are specifically targeting Indians, or more accurately people from the sub-continent because they wouldn't be able to distinguish amongst them.

The fallout is growing, Australian government ministers are involved, the PM has spoken with Manmohan Singh, actions are obviously being taken.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told TV news:

"We're doing everything that we can, both with the Indian community in Australia and India itself ... but also working very closely with the relevant state authorities."

Mr Smith said Australia was trying to bring the attackers to justice and ensure a safe environment for all international students.

But now adding fuel to the flames the Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan has gone public with his decision to reject an honorary doctorate from an Australian University, which he'd earlier accepted.

The temperature's rising and I expect to soon see photographs of effigies being burnt in the streets of Indian cities.

Every society has this problem from a moronic minority I'm afraid. Racism, bigotry, discrimination are part of human society around the world. It isn't only, contrary to often stated opinion, a white on non-white issue, it involves people of all colours on people of all colours, religion on religion, class on class, caste on caste, tribe on tribe.

Fortunately Australia is nowhere as bad as many, in spite of the huge reaction in India to these current attacks.

Reading the Times of India I was, as I often am, fascinated by the comments left by readers to these stories. They give a real insight into the range of human thinking. Ignorance of the facts not limiting adamant statements, what I call the arrogance of ignorance. The extreme views of some balanced by the reasonable views of others, the calls for revenge.

Kirpa Raj who lives in the USA is in the 'arrogance of ignorance' file:

Crime is in the genes of Australians who are actually descendants of convicts from England. "Hate crime" is a very soft term. They committed genocide of Ab Origine population, which is a crime against humanity. It is futile to expect any civilized behavior from Australians. India, China, Indonesia, Japan and other civilized Asian countries should occupy/liberate Australia, and put these convicts back in prisons where they actually belong.

I'm sure he wouldn't believe the fact that the vast majority of the 21 million Aussies have no convict ancestors.

He has a fellow travellor in New Zealand too, who's also a conspiracy theorist:

Melchides Rodrigues wants us to know that:

Racism is widely prevelant in Australia and New Zealand. A white (whose ancestors were from Britain) is more likely to be racist toward immigrant Asians than an other persons. Apparently their mental attitude that they are superior than Asians, and their imperialistic (colonial) nature is still widely rampant. They cannot accept the fact that Asians an other non British people , are doing better educationally and job prospect wise.This fact is being covered up by the Australian High Commissioner in New Delhi(John McCarthy), to protect his own fellow Anglo Saxon breathern.

Both happy in their racist, bigoted world, exactly like the morons they're complaining about.

And talking about racists complaining about racism, how about the words of wisdom from Kiran,Kumar:

Out of 95000 Indian students only 500 are real student and rest of them are Punjabis who are here to do anything to earn $$$$$$ and create nuisance wherever they can with best of their abilities. Their so called leaders are all ex taxi drivers who had no life...

Onkarnath,USA has a similar problem:

Why so much crying? Are we safe in India? Can North Indian go to Mumbai and feel safe?

And Jack in Mumbai obviously agrees:

At least now Indians are fighting together. I feel the attack was shameful, But the MOST SHAMEFUL ACT is the one that happened in Austria, Indians Attacking Indians. That's the reason i Feel Australian attack was nothing before it. We Indians are already so discriminative that racism is nothing. India is full of racism and discrimination right the religion, caste, creed, state and language.

JJ has another take on it and wonders why the fuss over these attacks:

When thousand of were Tamilians killed in Sri lanka no body in India made a cry. Why now this cry in the north?

They kind of demonstrate that racism, bigotry and discrimination are alive and well don't they.

There's another side to the view of Australia though. Here's an ABI - Australian Born Indian - who lives in Canberra. Eric Jusula says:

As a first generation Australian who is planning to spend some time visiting India this year I'm very disturbed by what is happening and the media reports in Australia and in India. In my view Australia is one of the least racist countries that I have lived, or traveled, within. Racism exits in all societies to varying degrees. So does violence and crime, and adolescent stupidity. The individuals responsible for the cowardly attacks against Indian students need to be seen for what they are. They are extremely rare, pathetic dregs of society, who will be dealt with as criminals, and disgraces to Australian values.

Australia's first Asian-born cabinet minster agrees with Eric. Penny Wong told TV news that racism in Australia is confined to a minority of people with extreme views, saying that "On the whole I think Australians are tolerant."

Former Indian consul general Mr TJ Rao went even further and said the recent attacks on Indian students had nothing to do with racism.

"This has nothing to do with racism, Australians are not racist people," Mr Rao said. "I have been in this country for 41 years and have never had any trouble.

Well that's an overly rosy opinion because some are, same as the world over, but thankfully they're a tiny minority.

I think the comment form another USA based Indian is a good place to finish.

Ajay Sharma, from Dayton, Ohio makes a lot of sense to me:

Marching peace rallies will not stop evil doers from committing such brutal attacks. The root cause is somewhere else. Irrespective of the country, as long as our planet is divided by man-made borders of states, religion, cast and creed; such heinous incidences will keep on happening. We humans proclaim ourselves as wisest species but we repeatedly behave in a way that is worst than wildest creatures ever wondered on earth!




There's plenty of coverage in newspapers in the UAE, India and Australia and here are some links to various bits of the story I've mentioned in the post. If you're interested in the story they're worth reading.

Melbourne Herald Sun report on the rally.

Foreign Minister's comments in Sydney Morning Herald.

Dr Yadu Singh interview in Sydney Morning Herald.

Minister Penny Wong's interview in The Australian.

Here's where you'll find the fascinating and illuminating comments, sent in to The Times of India main story.

Big B's rejection of doctorate.

Bigotry update

There's a follow up to a post I did back in May about the bigotry from the far right in Australia, because a twist to the story has just been reported.

Back then a proposal for a 1,200-student Islamic school in Camden on Sydney's rural outskirts was rejected by the local council 'on planning grounds alone' - traffic, noise, amenity. That's fair enough and it's what councils should do.

My objection was to the residents who used the opportunity to froth at the mouth with their bigotry. Before the vote, protesters placed pigs' heads on stakes and draped an Australian flag between them on the proposed school site.

Their pin-up girl was Kate McCulloch, shown here at the meeting disgracing the Australian flag:

She summed up the feelings:

Mrs McCulloch, who owns a hospitality business in Camden, accuses Australia's Muslim leadership of saying nothing while mothers and children are used as suicide bombers.

"The ones that come here oppress our society, they take our welfare and they don't want to accept our way of life," she said after the council vote.

The post I did about that is here.

Now a Catholic school has applied to build a 1,000-student school, which has the bigots applauding.

As the Sydney Morning Herald reports:

The Camden residents' group that fought a Muslim society's proposal for a school in rural Camden has welcomed a Catholic organisation's plans to build a school nearby because "Catholics are part of our community".

The president of the Camden/Macarthur Residents' Group, Emil Sremchevich, said the Catholic school plan "ticked all the right boxes", even though he is yet to see its development application.

Pin-up Kate wasn't in the news this time, it was President Emil doing the talking.

A spokesman for the Quranic Society, Issam Obeid, said: "Everyone can see there is a double standard … No one knows anything about the Catholic school and they say, 'Yeah, give it a tick already.' I think racism is affecting this."

President Emil rejected that:

"Why is that racist? Why is it discriminatory? It's very simple: people like some things but don't like other things. Some of us like blondes, some of us like brunettes. Some of us like Fords, some of us like Holdens. Why is it xenophobic just because I want to make a choice? If I want to like some people and not like other people, that's the nature of the beast."


Cartoonist Wilcox had it about right:


The Mayor has stated the council position:

Camden's Mayor, Chris Patterson, said religion had nothing to do with the the council's decision in May. "And this DA will be treated exactly the same. The council will take into account traffic, amenity, noise."



The Sydney Morning Herald story is here.

Bigotry is alive & well...

On her blog A Year in Exile Melanie talked about the Dunkin Donuts story too, as part of her concern at 'Bigotry, discrimination and prejudice' she'd been appalled to see in the American media.

There's been a story in the Sydney Morning Herald on similar lines.

We're here in Muslim Dubai, where we have other religions' places of worship and schools.

In free, liberal, laid back Australia, where giving everyone 'a fair go' is claimed as some sort of unique attribute, where multiculturalism is official government policy, we have this.

"Am I the new Pauline Hanson? I hope so"


Photo: Lisa Wiltse. Sydney Morning Herald

Mrs McCulloch, a Catholic mother of four, became the poster girl for Camden's Muslim-shy residents this week when local councillors voted unanimously "on planning grounds alone" to reject a Quranic Society proposal for a $19 million Islamic school on Sydney's rural outskirts.

Having railed against Muslims who "take our welfare", Mrs McCulloch, 45, now says she is considering following Mrs Hanson into politics.

Mrs McCulloch, who owns a hospitality business in Camden, accuses Australia's Muslim leadership of saying nothing while mothers and children are used as suicide bombers.

"The ones that come here oppress our society, they take our welfare and they don't want to accept our way of life," she said after the council vote.

Fortunately:

However, not all of Camden is behind her. A 72-year-old farmer in Argyle Street, Camden's main thoroughfare, said giving Mrs McCulloch publicity was the best way to silence her: "Eventually she'll choke on her own words."

Hanson made a noise, got some redneck support, inevitably made a complete fool of herself and has disappeared. Publicising her ramblings worked there, so the farmer probably has it right - publicise them and they bury themselves under their own manure.

Religious fanatics, racists, the sweeping bigoted mis-statements, said with such conviction...these people are a disgrace to the human race. They disgust me.

The story is here.



Just a quick bit of background. Muslims and Australia pre-date Europeans and Australia. Indonesians were trading with Aboriginals in the 17th Century, way before Europeans arrived. In the 1860’s many Afghan cameleers worked the camel trains which opened up the interior of the continent. The famous Ghan railway, of which Australians are very proud, is named after them.

The 2006 census shows that there are at least 340,000 Muslims in Australia, in a population of 20 million. 128,904 were born in Australia.

Be very afraid.

I've just been reading the Sydney Morning Herald and found this story.

The US Dunkin' Donuts chain has pulled an online advertisement featuring celebrity chef Rachael Ray, it says.

Here's the ad that had to be pulled:



Well, you would pull it wouldn't you.

Supporting terrorism as it does.



Uhhh?



Yes, "the ad offers symbolic support for terrorism."


What do you mean you can't see what they're frothing at the mouth about?


Here's a clue..."sporting of a jihadi chic keffiyeh"


Jihadi chic! I nearly fell off my chair.


Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, complained that the scarf appeared to be traditional garb worn by Arab men. The ad's critics say such scarves have come to symbolise Muslim extremism and terrorism.

These people terrify me. More so because they come from the world's most powerful country, with armed forces that its government is happy to use on a whim.

It's not so much the far-right extremists, paranoid loonies frothing at the mouth when they see things that aren't there, who frighten me. Every country has some of them and they're best ignored. As are the far left fanatics, religious fanatics and fanatics of all persuasions.

But in the good ol' US of A a huge company like DD is running scared of them. What does that say about the climate of fear, where the society they live in finds itself?

The lunatic fringe makes a fevered infantile accusation and it's taken seriously. The company buckles at the accusation and pulls the ad.

They should have threatened legal action for the libel of accusing them of supporting terrorism, demanded a grovelling written apology acknowledging the crass stupidity of the accusation, and run a campaign in the media to expose and ridicule the loonies.

Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, complained that the scarf appeared to be traditional garb worn by Arab men. So are sandals. Will wearing sandals come to symbolise extremism and terrorism to these people?

Concede to demands by fanatics and where will it end? The situation will worsen with every win they have.

And since the ad was withdrawn, Michelle Malkin has had this to say on her blog:

It's refreshing to see an American company show sensitivity to the concerns of Americans opposed to Islamic jihad and its apologists...Fashion statements may seem insignificant, but when they lead to the mainstreaming of violence -- unintentionally or not -- they matter. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. In post-9/11 America, vigilance must never go out of style.

At this point I'm speechless.



The story is here.

The arrogance of ignorance

There are far too many people in the world making adamant statements based on a complete ignorance of the facts. So sure that they're right, they confidently jump on their soapbox and spout their nonsense. No attempt to check the facts.

They annoy the hell out of me.

There's a classic example in Gulf News today, in a report on the new Australian Prime Minister's apology for past injustices done to aboriginals. The main emphasis was on the 'stolen generations' of children removed, generally forcibly, from their families and institutionalised or fostered out to white families.

"One female Australian expatriate said: "It's hundreds of years ago, and is there anybody in this world actually alive today who was personally affected by it? No."

Hundreds of years ago? I thought every Australian knew that the country wasn't 'discovered' by Capt. Cook until 1770 and white settlement/colonisation only began in 1788, just two hundred and twenty years ago, with the arrival of the First Fleet.

I'm astonished that any Australian wouldn't know the practice of removing children only ended about thirty years ago in the early nineteen-seventies, given the huge media coverage the 'stolen generations' issue has had for many years.

But here's an Australian telling the world that there's no-one alive who was personally affected by it.

The fact is that somebody taken as a child in 1970 would only be around forty now.

Our 'female Australian expatriate' continues:

"I don't see why Australian tax payers are now wasting money and time on formalising this apology. It distracts from the real issues in Australia today."

Tax payers wasting money? It's simply a statement from the Prime Minister, no money is involved.

The 'real issues in Australia' she's talking about look to me to be education - we obviously need to improve our history and current affairs education when we have Australians talking such nonsense.

The Gulf News story is here.



The Official Report

For anyone interested in history, in the relationship between colonisers and indiginous people, in social issues, the official report of the national enquiry is an astonishing document. Much of it is personal testimony from the children and families affected by the programme. That to me is the essence of any historical event. It's the little individual experiences that together make the big event and it's those that turn it from something intangible into something with colour and feeling and emotion.

Here's an example:

"When I first met my mother - when I was 14 - she wasn't what they said she was. They made her sound like she was stupid, you know, they made her sound so bad. And when I saw her she was so beautiful. Mum said, `My baby's been crying' and she walked into the room and she stood there and I walked into my - I walked into my mother and we hugged and this hot, hot rush just from the tip of my toes up to my head filled every part of my body - so hot. That was my first feeling of love and it only could come from my mum."

The report is called Bringing them Home.

Muslim Congressman - bigots out from under their rocks.

The good ol' US of A has its first Muslim Congressman, Democrat Keith Ellison. An American, born and bred in Detroit who can trace his American ancestors back to 1742.

Inevitably the paranoid bigots have crept from under their rocks - first there was Virgil Goode (Republican, Virginia) who sent this letter to supporters:

When I raise my hand to take the oath on Swearing In Day, I will have the Bible in my other hand. I do not subscribe to using the Koran in any way. The Muslim Representative from Minnesota was elected by the voters of that district and if American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran. We need to stop illegal immigration totally and reduce legal immigration and end the diversity visas policy pushed hard by President Clinton and allowing many persons from the Middle East to come to this country. I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped.

Save us from the evil and the stupidity of these people! Apart from claiming a link between illegal immigrants and Muslims (taking a lead from BushW's 'link' between Saddam and Al Qaida) and the xenophobic racism, there's the basic stupidity. Ellison is a Muslim, how can he swear on a Christian Bible! Equally, Goode is a Christian (obviously in name only) so he can't swear on the Quran.

Then in a CNN interview there was this:

CNN's Glenn Beck: OK. No offense, and I know Muslims. I like Muslims. I've been to mosques. I really don't believe that Islam is a religion of evil. I -- you know, I think it's being hijacked, quite frankly.

With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, "Let's cut and run." And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies."

And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.

Beck, you prat, I have a request for you. Prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.

It's one of the most serious problems the world has - racists and bigots. They hypocritically claim to defend but actually don't believe in or follow the standards of their own societies or their countries' constitutions.

No tolerance. Only they are right, only they can be trusted, only they are patriots. Everyone who doesn't agree with their feverish bigotry, anyone of a different faith, or even a different branch of their own faith, is an enemy of the state.

Not only in America of course, it's an international evil.

In a clever riposte from Rep. Ellison, as the Washington Post reports:

Yet the holy book at tomorrow's ceremony has an unassailably all-American provenance. We've learned that the new congressman -- in a savvy bit of political symbolism -- will hold the personal copy once owned by Thomas Jefferson.

THE bigots always claim to speak on behalf of many others, and there's an interesting comment about Goode's constituents here: Not all of his constituents are narrow-minded bigots.

Other links:

But It's Thomas Jefferson's Koran!

Goode's letter.

Beck's interview.

Inciting disharmony

For almost 25 years Australia's senior Muslim cleric Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali has caused controversy with inflammatory and offensive statements. Far from trying to foster community relations he's done just the opposite, inflamed feelings and created tensions.

But equally guilty of promoting inter-community conflict is the Sydney Daily Telegraph in its coverage of the story. More of that later.

Hilali's latest repugnant statement has caused a national uproar. He's been universally condemned by all groups including Muslims throughout the country, except for his small band of hard-core supporters. It's also resulted in the usual redneck Muslim bashing of course.

The cause of the uproar was a Ramadan address, when he blamed victims for inciting rape. To make it worse he clearly referred to an infamous series of gang rapes by Lebanese/Australian youths, for which they received record long sentences.

In blaming the victims of rape for enticing the men he used offensive phrases such as: "If one puts uncovered meat out in the street, or on the footpath, or in the garden, or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover and then the cats come and eat it, is it the fault of the cat or the uncovered meat?

What an appalling man with appalling opinions. That he should be teaching such garbage in a place of worship is an abomination.

But what I found equally repulsive was the coverage in Rupert Murdoch's dreadful tabloid the Sydney Daily Telegraph. A sort-of paper Fox News, it's largely a mixture of 'celebrity' gossip and redneck vitriol. Tragically, but sad to say tellingly, it's Sydney's largest selling newspaper.

The other papers reported on the address and also gave coverage to the outrage in the Muslim community. The Australian printed a rebuttal* of his extreme views on behalf of the community, a thoughtful explanation of why it was so wrong. In other words, fair and balanced reporting.

Two things incensed me about the Telegraph's coverage. First, they said nothing about the outrage in the Muslim community, their front page story was about the gang-rape victims, with statements from them. There was nothing about the broader Muslim feeling. Today they have put the mainstream view, but the damage was already done. A bit like a lawyer being ordered to withdraw a statement - too late, the jury has already, quite deliberately, been exposed to it.

Interestingly the front page story has disappeared from their website. Fortunately I copied it so I have it on file if anyone's interested.

But even worse in my opinion was the Photoshopped photo they used to illustrate the story. Just look at it:


THE victims of Sydney's vicious gang rapes are today leading the national
condemnation of Sheik Taj el-Dene Elhilaly for denouncing women for not wearing veils. / The Daily Telegraph

That is deliberately linking an extremist and his stone-age opinions with mainstream Islam. And that is reprehensible. Totally unnecessary blatant misrepresentation. It is designed to divide the communities, to foster misunderstanding, to create more tensions. It encourages bigotry.

It is an absolute disgrace and has no place in honest journalism.


Links

If you're interested here are some links to various reports/comment on the story.

Here's an edited transcript of his mad ravings

Mufti outrages Muslims over sex comments

*Rantings not Muslim ideals

To pre-empt accusations from 'anonymous', yes I would say the same thing if I came across any paper doing a similar hatchet job on any religion. I would make the same comments if I saw a photograph of an extremist Catholic superimposed over the Vatican, a Protestant extremist superimposed over worshippers in Canterbury Cathdral, or any other example you can think of.

The veil debate - honesty would help.

A problem can never be solved without the essential first step being taken – identify the cause of the problem accurately & honestly. Something that's always interested me, not to say frustrated and angered me, is the inability or refusal of people to do that.

I’m intrigued by the expanding debate over whether Muslim women should be allowed to wear the veil. It's another perfect example of the crux of a problem being neither acknowledged nor addressed.

Sadly that rarely happens, which means not only that problems are not solved but also that they become worse to the point of crisis and very often violence.

This current furore over some Muslim women wearing the veil is a good example. It’s reached the point of hysteria in the UK, and inevitably the lunatic fringe, for and against, is out in force, ignoring and distorting the facts to push extreme agendas.

That's what happens if a problem isn't identified, then solved quickly. It starts to reach crisis point, and that's when the violence kicks in. Already the Daily Telegraph has reported a woman in the UK having her veil ripped off.

Distorted facts.

An example in the UK of the facts being distorted. There’s been huge publicity over the teacher at the centre of the storm, Aishah Azmi, teaching her class while wearing the veil, with huge criticism about the stupidity of such action. The fact is that she was not wearing the veil while teaching, she wore it only when in the company of adult male colleagues. That fact is not in dispute but is ignored by those pushing their own agenda. And of course those who are against the veil jump on the lie and spread it as a fact.

Communication impossible.

Secondly, the claim is being made that it is difficult or impossible to communicate with someone unless their face can be seen. This is no more than an excuse for the anti-veil forces, a red herring. It has nothing to do with the real reason they want the veil banned. It is both untrue and ludicrous.

Ludicrous? The examples that prove it is so are endless. We all communicate perfectly well every day with people we can’t see, on the telephone, from brief personal messages to highly complex business conversations. We understand perfectly what we hear on the radio. Pilots with air traffic control and base-to-patrol for emergency services or taxis communicate perfectly well through radio sound only.

David Blunkett was born blind yet has been an MP since 1987 and rose to several Ministerial positions. He has never been able to see the people he’s talking with, can’t see other MPs in the hurly-burly of the House of Commons, yet obviously can understand perfectly well what’s being said to him.

I watched the press conference held by Aishah Azmi. She was totally covered, sitting very still at a table. Yet all the assembled media understood every word she said. Not once was she asked to repeat or explain anything she said. I watched on television and I also understood every word she said.

A moment’s intelligent thought demonstrates it is simply not true that we have to see people to be able to understand them.

Let’s be honest.

Let's treat the extremist rantings with the disdain they deserve and ignore them. Let's talk about the majority, the mainstream.

I’m in the middle of an e-mail exchange on the subject with a friend in Australia, where the same debate is arising. As part of his argument against the wearing of the veil he recounted the story of being pulled over by a policeman and asked to produce his driving licence. He felt so intimidated and uncomfortable because the cop was wearing dark sunglasses which hid his eyes that my friend asked him to remove the glasses. He needed to see the cop’s full face, felt fearful because he couldn’t.

I have no problem talking to people wearing shades and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. But others obviously feel intimidated, even frightened, by them. The same obviously is true with women covering their face with a veil, some, perhaps many, people not used to it are intimidated or frightened by it.

The MP who started the debate in the UK, Jack Straw, said that he asked constituents wearing the veil when visiting his office to remove it. His reason? He told the BBC: “I just find it uncomfortable if I’m trying to have a conversation with someone whose face I can’t see.”

It’s no accident that SWAT teams, Tactical Response Groups, are dressed in black from head to foot, face covered by a balaklava, only the eyes visible. It’s deliberately intimidating.

A woman wearing the veil is also a figure covered from head to foot in black, face covered, only the eyes visible. A frightening sight to some.

And there’s the crux of the problem. Not that a woman is wearing a veil but that other people are frightened by the sight of her.

The strongest human emotion, fear; fear of the unknown fear of the unfamiliar, fear of anything different.

So the answer is perhaps less that the few women wearing the veil should be barred from doing so, but more that the people frightened by it need to be educated that there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Note: This is not a comment for or against the veil. It is a comment about the refusal of people to acknowledge the real causes of problems.

Thought-provoking reports.

Some items in today's papers caught my eye:

Dubai's traffic

According to Emirates Today "Dubai's intelligent traffic system is expected to be up and running next month". Well that's good news - but as it's being beamed at unintelligent drivers I'm not convinced that it will be much help.

Is it going to stop people speeding dangerously, using the hard shoulder, pushing in front of queueing vehicles, jumping red lights, making illegal U-turns?

You bet your life it isn't.

Priorities guys - get more traffic police, trained and professional please, out patrolling the streets. Increase the penalties for traffic violations, including confiscating the vehicles of drivers endangering the lives of others. An intelligent traffic system is excellent, but it isn't the most pressing thing to be focussing time, effort and money on.


Another traffic story in EmTod quotes Brigadier Mohammed Saif Al Safeen, Director of Dubai Traffic Police Dept, as saying "another rule to be introduced will see truck drivers who jump red lights being deported."

Excellent news. But truck drivers are mentioned specifically. Does that mean you get away with it if you jump red lights in anything other than a truck? A 3-tonne 4X4 for example? A speeding exotic sports car?

Blair should explain

The muslim veil in Britain is an interesting story too, carried on the front page of Gulf News. Tony Blair has jumped on the bandwagon now, calling the veil "a mark of separation".

He said that the veil presented difficulties with Muslim communities and immigrants needing to integrate into western societies.

What I find interesting is that in the past governments haven't said the same about the sari, worn by many Indian women in Britain. Nor the Jewish yamulke, Pakistani shalwar kameez, Sikh turban. Or any of the many other items of national/cultural/religious clothing being worn throughout Britain.

If they are not a mark of separation, if they don't stand in the way of integration, why is wearing the veil?

And if they do present the same problems why have Ministers not said so over the decades they've been worn in Britain?

W's parallel universe.

Also on the front page of Gulf News, President Bush yet again proves that he lives in some strange parallel universe.

He pushes through a law that allows non-American citizens to be detained indefinitely, to be subject to harsh interrogation, for CIA secret prisons to be operated overseas, for people to be labelled enemy combatants and outside the protection of the Geneva Conventions.

Then comes the surreal "As I've said before, the United States does not torture. It's against our laws and it's against our values."

Mr President, you've just passed a law that makes it one of the US' values. That brings it within your laws.

What you've done, yet again, is to change the things the US has traditionally stood for.

And he went on: "This bill spells out specific recognizable offenses that would be considered crimes in the handling of detainees so that our men and women who question captured terrorists can perform their duties to the fullest extent of the law."

Alleged terrorists, Mr President. Alleged. You've declared them guilty before they've even been detained!

Note "can perform their duties to the fullest extent of the law." The law has been changed to cover what they've been doing. Retrospective lawmaking. Do something illegal, change the law, now it's legal.

This is not what America should be about.

Racial discrimination in the UAE

There's a lively debate going on at the Community Blog, on a posting by SANS headlined Equal Opportunity. It uses an employment advertisement to illustrate the point of discrimination.

Racism and racial discrimination are alive and well in the region. It is an abomination and every step should be taken to remove it from society, but regrettably we have no legislation against the practice.

Unfortunately, SANS chose the wrong advertisement to illustrate a very valid and important point. There are many blatantly discriminatory advertisements every day, any of which would have supported the point much more accurately.

One quick glance through the employment pages of today's Gulf News came up with these examples:







It's a sad reflection of our society isn't it.

Irresponsible statistics & reporting.

There's a posting by trailing spouse on Gulf News' report that statistics show Indians & Pakistanis are the worst drivers.

It reminded me that I was going to write on the subject too, because it is totally irresponsible reporting. If these are truly the statistics published by the RTA, then they are at fault for publishing partial and misleading statistics. And Gulf News is at fault for not delving deeper and giving us the true picture.

If Gulf News have mis- or partially-reported the statistics, that is appalling 'journalism'.

The report shows unacceptable statistical anomalies, partial information at best, is guilty of not comparing like with like.

For example, it tells us that Pakistani drivers caused the maximum number of road deaths, while Indians caused most accidents in Dubai in the first half of the year. It doesn't tell us what percentage of drivers are Indian or Pakistani, so the statistic is meaningless. If, for argument's sake, Indians cause 30% of accidents but make up 50% of all drivers, the stat. gives a different picture.

Another example:
Indians caused most accidents in Dubai in the first half of the year, according to statistics released by the Roads and Transport Authority. It goes on: Indians committed 228 accidents causing 30 deaths and 344 injuries, which is 19.2 per cent of total accident victims.

You see, "caused most accidents" is compared with "is 19.2% of total accident victims."

Is it "accidents" or "accident victims" we're looking at? They are very different things.

Why accidents need to be presented by nationality is questionable. But if stats. are going to be presented in that way, then let's have the full picture so that they actually mean something.

Now of course it may be true that one particular nationality is over-represented in causing accidents. If it is true, and if South Asians are guilty of it, there's a sobering fact that trailing spouse reminds us of - they have to take lessons and pass the driving test in the UAE because their home licences are not accepted for transfer.

And one other point - sub-Continentals "cause" accidents while GCC nationals are "involved in" accidents. I quote: "Pakistani drivers caused the maximum number of road deaths, while Indians caused most accidents...GCC nationals were involved in 163 accidents"

Mindset confirmed.

"We don't do body counts" was a memorable quote from Gen. Tommy Franks, who directed the invasion of Iraq. A moment of truth that must have had the spin doctors in a real spin. Too late, he'd said what he really thought without, for once, the news being managed.

It set the tone, confirmed a suspicion - non-Americans simply don't matter. 'We can't even be bothered to worry about how many Iraqis are killed'.

That's been confirmed by actions over and over again, and now the latest revelation, from the LA Times & Washington Post in today's Gulf News. It clearly shows the mindset of the officers and the men they command. A sample of what it says:

Officer: Haditha killing normal

Los Angeles Times-Washington Post

Washington: Commander of the battalion involved in last November's Haditha killings did not consider the deaths of 24 Iraqis, many of them women and children, unusual and did not initiate an inquiry, according to a sworn statement he gave to military investigators in March.

It...provides a glimpse of the mindset of a commander on the scene who, despite the carnage, did not stop to consider whether Marines had crossed a line and killed defenceless civilians.

(Lt Col) Chessani told investigators he concluded that insurgents had staged a "complex attack" that began with a roadside bomb, followed by a small-arms ambush that was intended to provoke the Marines to fire into houses where civilians were hiding.

"I did not see any cause for alarm," especially because several firefights had occurred in the area the same day November 19, 2005 Chessani said. Because of that conclusion, the commander added, he did not see any reason to investigate the matter, or even to ask how many women and children had been killed.

Incidentally, notice that we have that 'he made me do it' nonsense of an excuse yet again..."intended to provoke the marines to fire into houses where civilians were hiding."

They couldn't win hearts & minds in Vietnam because of their disregard for non-Americans, it's continued ever since and I can't see it changing.

(The original Washington Post report).

Christian fascists?

Remembering this, President Bush said Thursday that an uncovered British terror plot to blow up planes flying to the United States was further proof "that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists.", I wonder whether terrorists carrying out murderous attacks on behalf of their warped Christian beliefs, such as bombing abortion clinics and murdering the doctors, will be classified as 'Christian fascists'?

Or what about these Catholics:

Bomb discovery fuels fears of dissident republican revival

Owen Bowcott, Ireland correspondentThursday August 17, 20

The discovery of a partially detonated 70lb bomb in a house being built for the Ulster Unionist peer Lord Ballyedmond was blamed yesterday on dissident republican groups intent on launching a fresh campaign of terror.

The incident followed the Real IRA's claim of responsibility last week for fires in retail stores in Newry, County Down, and explosions on the nearby Belfast-Dublin railway line. More than £10m damage was caused.

In this week's attack on Lord Ballyedmond's house near Hackballscross, Co Louth, the detonator on the bomb, packed in a natural gas cylinder, exploded but failed to set off the main charge. Irish army bomb disposal experts eventually made it safe.

The Guardian

Just wondering whether being Christian makes a difference...

A whole lotta sense...

Bush's belief in a worldwide Islamist conspiracy is foolish and dangerous

We can only see off the serious threat we face if we separate real Muslim grievances from al-Qaida's homicidal mania

Max Hastings
Monday August 14, 2006
The Guardian

George Bush sometimes sounds more like the Mahdi, preaching jihad against infidels, than the leader of a western democracy.

In his regular radio address to the American people on Saturday he linked the British alleged aircraft plotters with Hizbullah in Lebanon, and these in turn with the insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

All, said the president of the world's most powerful nation, share a "totalitarian ideology", and a desire to "establish a safe haven from which to attack free nations". Bush's remarks put me in mind of a proverb attributed to Ali ibn Abu Talib: "He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, and he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere."

In the United States a disturbingly large minority of people - polls suggest around 40% - remain willing to accept Bush's assertions that Americans and their allies, which chiefly means the British, are faced with a single global conspiracy by Islamic fundamentalists to destroy our societies.

In less credulous Britain one could nowadays fit into an old-fashioned telephone box those who believe anything Bush or Tony Blair says about foreign policy.

The full article is well worth reading.