Are you so sure we are not?
Read the papers, Bells. Read them with soft eyes. Read what is not said as much as what is, note which words are used in which situations.
But we do not treat the other more softly. Nor are we conditioned to view Islamic extremism with softer eyes. Look at the way the Government has implemented its immigration policies and how it deals with boat people as a prime example. Or the children overboard.. We are primed to view them with fear.. Good grief man! And the Sharia Law stories? The fear it generates?
This forum is a prime example. Had he been Muslim, this post would have been on page 50 and the usual suspects would have been crawling all over it like a dog scratching its buttrash.
Look at how we are treating this act? The media is torn between calling him a terrorist and calling him a mass murderer or killer. The guy blew up a bomb outside the offices of the Prime Minister and then drove to an island and tried to kill all the youth camping on that island. Had he been Muslim, there would be no hand wringing about whether he is a terrorist or not.
The nature of humanity is that it takes far longer to dislodge an idea than to place one in there to begin with. Children are paper for scribbling on, teenagers an easel, adults stone.
Well yes.
Which begs the question, why target the children and teenagers? Their peers won't be pliable to that cause. Quite the contrary.
You've read recently, I presume, the recent discussions on whether or not Sharia law has application in Australia. The subdued arrogance with which some admit it has been here, quietly practised among immigrant communities, for as long as they've been here - and this despite knowing the wider community and the law do not find it acceptable.
I think it is stupid that people are shocked. Of course they have been resorting to it for private disputes. Just as
Jews also refer to their Rabbis for the Rabbinical Courts to deal with their private disputes.
People are carrying on like they are about to start flogging women for wearing jeans in centre square or hanging homosexuals..
You like to present yourself as one who cares, Bells. Perhaps you take a certain pride in seeing yourself as caring more than most, yes?
No.
You're not alone in this.
....
I wonder if you care enough to discard your own ideals, should it ever come to the world you leave for your children, or theirs.
Would depend on the ideal.
Then again, if it is an ideal, then obviously it won't bother me as much as it does others.
But you also forget, I am a migrant to this country, a non-white Atheist migrant who married a half Dutch/ half Englishman born in Hong Kong.. My ideal is for diversity and for growth. Not for insulating and refusing entry based solely on religion or skin colour.
Would I be willing to discard that ideal for my children? I would give my life for my children, in an instant, without thought or regret. But I would not give up my identity, or a portion of my identity that they carry..
How often have you read of something which made you angry...
Daily..
at least for the few minutes you took to read it before going to work and forgetting. A few months down the track, you will be able to say the name Carnita Mathews and few will know who you refer to.
I have a long memory and I stew for a long time. Ask my husband.
And she was charged and sentenced for making a false report.
All the talk, and the talk, and the talk... and then nothing. Forgotten.
But who is at fault for that?
Who willingly forgets?
Governments, including ours, work on the same principles. Daylight savings? Rejected, several times. Rejected and rejected, and yet the debate was always reintroduced. Finally, they resorted to imposing a "trial" upon us. Now its a part of our lives.
You have left your precious NT and moved to the land of Bligh?
AHAHAHAAHAAA!
I am debating leaving the land of Bligh..
We are still protesting that trial you know..
The Western Australian Government, some years ago, introduced a "temporary" increase on vehicle licences, supposedly to be rescinded after one year, to pay for... I've forgotten. What I remember, though, is being one of only a very few who noted that they did not rescind it.
Because we shut up about it..
I wonder how much you really care. About your children, or theirs, or the ones after them. It must be such an anathaema to even entertain the notion that there are some who care more deeply about their beliefs than you do... and are prepared to put aside "humanity" for a moment in order to achieve their purpose.
What has he achieved? What positive thing has Breivik achieved? What has he done that was so necessary?
He has done nothing worthwhile. Nothing necessary as he seems to believe it is.
His egotistical manifesto and his actions, coupled with his desires for his court appearance, which he has been denied.. Breivik does not care about my children or their beliefs, just as he did not care about the children he slaughtered or their beliefs. What he did was selfish and reeks of someone with a huge ego. Someone up himself. His mission, his self proclaimed necessary mission was to support his beliefs. His purpose was selfish and the means he used to make that purpose public was selfish.
If he had wanted to set aside his humanity and show his true purpose, he'd have doused himself with petrol and set himself alight. Not distract police with a carbomb so he could have a couple of hours hunting unarmed and defenseless children and teenagers on a small island. He didn't set aside his humanity. Read his manifesto and you'd realise he had none to begin with. He is all ego. The spoilt child who throws a tantrum when he does not get what he wants. And he is pissed off and whiny that his Government didn't give him what he wanted:
The gunman had said his operation was not aimed at killing as many people as possible but that he wanted to create the greatest loss possible to Norway's governing Labour Party, which he accused of failing the country on immigration.
The bomb in Oslo targeted buildings connected to the Labour Party government, and the youth camp on Utoeya island was also run by the party.
[Source]
That is the reality of what he did. He's a whiny little prick who is too far up himself to see the sunshine.
I can admit it freely, Bells. I do understand Anders Breivik. I understand the Muslim terrorists as well. It is quite possible to acknowledge their courage even while you abhor their beliefs. You can't deny its existence simply because you don't want to acknowledge it.
Oh, I acknowledge it. I just do not think it is courageous.
What he did was selfish, egotistical and self serving. That is not courageous.
And what does that tell you?
That they're screwed.
That they are as egotistical as he is and that they are sheep.
You know, they think they are set apart, the outsiders. But they are mere hero worshipping sheep.
You'll find any reason to do so, because you do not agree with what he has done.
Yet you feel no compunction in assigning the word "brave" to someone who is forced to deal with cancer by neccessity. Why? You either deal with it, or you die.
Having been there for over the last year, there is no bravery involved. You just do it so that your children will have a chance at having a mother for as long as possible. There is no bravery in it.
Bravery is an act of choice leading one to discard their own life or comfort zone, in spite of consequence. Do you honestly believe this man acted out of a belief he would have a better life than if he did not?
You people are all making the same mistake. You can't see the forest for the trees.
I said nothing about the killing of unarmed teenagers being a brave act in and of itself.
The man is up himself, Marquis!
His 'I will disclose my reason in open court'.. His whole manifesto which is like a diary addressed to his brothers and sisters who he thinks will follow him into the fight.. he sees himself as having paved the way for them to now take up the battle with instructions on which bombs to use and how to build and disguise them. The rest that he wrote himself involves whining.. A lot of whining. And his twitter quote.. He is the visionary he went out and did it while others merely talk or dream about it.
Bells, it really doesn't matter to them what you believe.
And yet I am supposed to believe them or understand them?
The eyes of the world are on him, and on Norway. Grab a man by his throat, shove him up against a wall, spit in his face, and I guarantee you he will see nothing but your face for seconds distorted into hours.
I'd rather he see blood after his gonads are sliced off slowly.
The eyes of the world were to be on him as he requested an open hearing so he could voice his reasons and self justification and to make sure we all knew and recognised him, he wanted to wear a uniform.. he has been denied that world wide audience. Now he is nothing but the monster who did what he did.
He has succeeded, has he not? Do you really think blowing up a military establishment would have engendered anywhere near the same reaction and comment?
He has failed.
His manifesto is being torn to shreds and he has been denied his chance to make a bigger public spectacle of himself in court.
