Neferti~ wrote: ↑Tue Sep 25, 2018 4:12 pm
brian ross wrote: ↑Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:22 pm
I have. I have been either ignored or noted.
Muslims first arrived in Australia before the arrival of Europeans, with the Makassian traders in the Top End.
What on earth is a Makassian?
Look it up, Neferti. Education is a useful tool, don't you think?
Makassar.
I grew up in Adelaide, not far from the oldest working Mosque in Australia. Muslims have never frightened me. Perhaps because I was a member of an already oppressed minority in Australian society - Catholics. My father was forced because of the state public service attitude towards Catholics amongst it's members to change to the Commonwealth Public Service in order to gain advancement.
Poor you. Adelaide of all Places ... I thought Adelaide was full of Lutherans back in the day. Lutherans are Protestant. So your Dad went from being a State Public Servant to a Commonwealth one? The Army is a Public Service too, you know. Ditto Teachers, etc.
Adelaide has many different religions in it's population, Neferti. Lutherans mainly inhabited the Barossa Valley to the NE of the city, in the Adelaide Hills. Muslims arrived with the Cameleers in the mid-late 19th century - they were vital to the opening up of the outback, in particular the centre of Australia. Catholics arrived with the first free settlers - in the only Australian colony which was set up as a free settlement. Yes, my father moved from the State public service under Playford to the Commonwealth public service. He did serve in the Army in WWII, as did my mother. They met at Woomera where he was the project manager for the building of Woomera Village (where all the scientists and their families lived).
I can dimly remember the way in which the Catholics finally gained recognition from the Federal Government for provision of funding for schooling. Most people have forgotten that Australia was once riven with a massive sectarian divide between Protestants and Catholics. It has all but disappeared from our society.
Was your Dad Irish by chance? Catholic Irish Lefties always vote Labor, because their Grandad did, regardless. It's in their DNA.
No, my father was Australian, being second generation. He came from working class stock. The "mother's milk" theory of political alignment has been breaking down for the last 70 years and didn't hold true for my father, anyway - otherwise he would have been one of Daniel Mannix's boys.
I see Muslims being treated in a similar manner to how Jews, Catholics, etc. were once treated.
You aren't looking straight, "Brian". Poor you, still pretending that you were hard-done-by as a kid because you were Catholic. Grow-the-eff-up.
Oh, no, I wasn't hard done by. My father was. He worked to make sure I and my siblings didn't suffer any of the deprivations he had. Muslims at the present moment represent about 3% of the Australian population. They are being persecuted, exactly as the Catholics were, exactly as the Jews were, for being different. People like yourself make little effort to understand that difference, preferring your prejudices learnt from the Media. Tut, tut.
Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. - Eric Blair