I have a friend from Vietnam who came to Australia in the 1980s, having been traumatised by the Vietnam War. After surviving a life and death struggle as a boat person and years in
a refugee camp, she came to Australian. After being here a few months, she thought she was in paradise. She and her family felt welcomed by Australians, Greeks, Poles, Croats and others - and though there were hardships she adapted to and loved her new country. We all ate her spring roles and she ate pies, souvlaki and lamingtons. In the past ten years however, she has become increasingly distressed by what she perceived as the arrogant behaviour of the Muslims who moved into her area. To be fair , it was not true of all who moved into her street, but she found over time, that she was excluded from their world and being edged out of her suburb. In fact she did sell and move out to another part of the south west of Sydney and the same thing is happening again. I asked her what upset her about the Muslims in her area – and she speaks of noise, of rudeness and a lack of the sense of the ‘other’ , a sense of reciprocity, a give and take so common to the many ethnic groups who have lived along side each other in this country. She has noticed a distinct difference in the way she is treated. Now this is not coming from an Anglo – this is coming from a Vietnamese refugee who has gone out of her way to adapt to this country and who now says that Islam and Australia are not compatible.
a refugee camp, she came to Australian. After being here a few months, she thought she was in paradise. She and her family felt welcomed by Australians, Greeks, Poles, Croats and others - and though there were hardships she adapted to and loved her new country. We all ate her spring roles and she ate pies, souvlaki and lamingtons. In the past ten years however, she has become increasingly distressed by what she perceived as the arrogant behaviour of the Muslims who moved into her area. To be fair , it was not true of all who moved into her street, but she found over time, that she was excluded from their world and being edged out of her suburb. In fact she did sell and move out to another part of the south west of Sydney and the same thing is happening again. I asked her what upset her about the Muslims in her area – and she speaks of noise, of rudeness and a lack of the sense of the ‘other’ , a sense of reciprocity, a give and take so common to the many ethnic groups who have lived along side each other in this country. She has noticed a distinct difference in the way she is treated. Now this is not coming from an Anglo – this is coming from a Vietnamese refugee who has gone out of her way to adapt to this country and who now says that Islam and Australia are not compatible. In light of the above, the ABC Four Corner’s program on 10/3/08 was crude and biased in caricaturing the real opposition to Islam in Australia. It purported to speak of the growing resentment in the Australian Muslim community but almost totally to ignored the grass roots fears of ordinary Australians, of all backgrounds, with regard to Islam. ABC journalist Sally Neighbour’s report ‘Dangerous Ground’ presented the Muslim community as a besieged group, victimised by uncaring Australians. In discussing the opposition to the Camden Muslim school (which involves 7 hectares of land in a non-Muslim area) the only reference to community opposition was ’the pig’s head incident’- the action of a sole angry nutter, as if THAT represented the entire community and encapsulated the ‘opposition’ to the Camden school project. THIS WAS A GROSS DISTORTION OF THE TRUTH AND DISTORTION OF THE WELL-GROUNDED FEARS OF THE ORDINARY AUSTRALIANS WHO LODGED OVER THREE THOUSAND SUBMISSIONS TO CAMDEN COUNCIL. (Reference)
It was the ordinary Australians of Camden who were victimised and besieged. They continue to meet and discuss their opposition to the school but the ABC largely ignores them.
If the ABC wished to present a fair report - WHY WERE THERE NO INTERVIEWS WITH GROUPS OF CAMDEN RESIDENTS OPPOSED TO THE SCHOOL??
If the ABC wanted to really explore the reasons for fear of Muslims in the community WHY WERE PEOPLE OF MANY BACKGROUND, EXPRESSING SUCH FEARS, NOT INTERVIEWED?
If the ABC wanted to be fair, WHY WERE NO EX-MUSLIMS INTERVIEWED? Surely this would present another side of the picture. Ex-Muslims are victims too, often too frightened to speak out because of the threats of violence made from the Muslim community. Talk about victimised – the ABC has got the wrong guys- WHY NOT A FEW ASSYRIANS, ARMENIANS AND LEBANESE MARONITES AND MELCHITES? They are Australians too and while being REAL VICTIMS of Muslim aggression, do not spend their lives in this country bellowing about it. Like many victims of holocausts, they go about their lives with dignity and fairness.
In 1998 shots were fired at the Lakemba police station window by unhappy Muslim youths
And speaking of violence and threats – how about this comment from a young representative of the Muslim group interviewed in last night’s program.
"You’re going to see a generation of young people who have so much hatred and so much anger and so much frustration within them - and when that happens you’re on basically dangerous grounds," a prominent youth worker tells Four Corners. (source)
Can you see the threat and the set up here? As if one can miss it. Yes, it’s the west’s fault if there is Islamic violence and if you don’t do as we say, it will happen. In the schools where I have worked, we conducted anti-bullying programs to alert children to bullying tactics and the above comment is a perfect example of one. Threat and coercion laced together implying you are to blame for violence directed at you.
Muslims always feel maltreated and humiliated whenever they are not in a dominant position. Open aggression and violence comes with growing numbers of the faithful
Now why is it that in Australia - the Vietnamese, Chinese, Serbs, Italians, Greeks, Lao, Cambodians, Croats, Poles, Latvians, Jews and Czechs among others do not ‘bitterly complain of being treated like enemies in their own country’ as the Muslims do. Is it because, their priorities are different? They do their best to get an education, work – perhaps at menial jobs first – then climb up to something better – and put their efforts into work, achievement, family and community. Is it too perhaps because there has been no constant stream of Vietnamese (or other) suicide/homicide bombers blowing other people up – or in fact, not even one. Each community has its minority criminal element, as each society has, but NOT ONE COMMUNITY follows a holy book, which mandates jihad, a struggle of physical conquest on ALL its followers, as do Muslims. It sure is evident to anyone with eyes and ears and a TV, that jihad is not spiritual struggle (as was hastily put forward after 9/11).
Lakemba Mosque on Friday. Islam in its essence means total separation from everything, which is un-Islamic.
The selectivity of the ABC Four Corners report is lamentable. And in fact encouraging such biased reporting may well in fact fuel the aggression in the Muslim community by giving it air time and more to feed on.
The way forward for the Muslim community is to befriend other communities, learn from migrants who have come here and accept questions regarding the Qu’ran and its plethora of violent passages and if possible, PUBLICLY REPUDIATE ALL VIOLENCE. If the reply of Muslims is that the US has invaded Iraq, then all I can ask is – would you really like Sadam Hussein, that mass murderer, back in power(see our Media Gallery). Most Iraqis greeted Americans as their liberators from a brutal regime. The only people ruining it now are the jihadis and suicide bombers.
Instead of a whingeing stream of self victimisation, Australians attitudes will change if you DO something for others that asserts some common humanity, realise that this is a pluralistic democratic society and that the concerns about Islam are real and grounded on evidence.
Australians celebrate and revere Anzac Day on April 25th each year in remembrance of our brave soldiers who fought in two great world wars to secure our freedom. Every Australian identifies with the slogan “lest we forget” and in services held around the country people reflect on the battles and men who died to secure our freedom. Yet across the world in France, there is one remarkable battle which helped form the Europe we know today and allowed the development of civilization based on Judeo Christian principles. This one famous battle has become known as the battle of Tours and effectively stopped the Muslim advance into Europe. After the death of Mohammed in 632AD, Muslim armies exploded out of the Arabian peninsula to conquer much of the Middle East, expanding across north Africa. From there they crossed into Spain in 711AD and eventually controlled much of al-Andalus by 715AD. It was the victory at Tours by Charles Martel that stemmed the tide and eventually the Muslim marauders were expelled from Spain in 1492 when the last outpost at Granada fell to King Ferdinand of Spain. 
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was born, lived, fought and won battles against religious and social oppression in the 17th century Bharat or India. He was a shining star in the Indian firmament and is renowned as a champion of the downtrodden and depressed masses. He was and continues to be an icon for the classes and masses alike and is seen as a rallying point for peasants oppressed by foreign rulers, Pathans and Moghuls alike. Sexually exploited women found in Shivaji Raje a protector, a benefactor and flocked to his Hindavi Swaraj to find solace and feel liberated under his saffron flag. 
Perhaps some readers might be interested to know that January 28 is considered a feast day among Catholics – actually 2 feast days are celebrated on the same day – one is of ST Thomas Aquinas, the great medieval theologian and philosopher who adapted Aristotle to the western Judeo-Christian worldview. . It is also the feast day of a lesser known person – St Peter Nolasco, the great ransomer of captives from the Muslims.
How often in conversation with a Muslim, do they quote Spain as the crowning achievement of Islam, where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in harmony for about 800 years?
Why do Muslims insist that Jerusalem is their Holy City?
There is a very strongly entrenched view among majority of Westerners today that the three main monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam share one common God and therefore despite the obvious differences, the core foundation of these three religions is the same. 
