Freedom of religion is a really great thing

If there was an opportunity to promote a cool consensus position on Muslims in Australia, Mariam Veiszadeh took it.

None of my best friends are Muslims.

Not that I have anything against Muslims.

It's just that women my age were migrants (or children of migrants) of other races and religions. But it is also true that none of my best friends are Chinese or Vietnamese.

So I'm in my little white ghetto in my little white house with my little white friends.

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Despite that, even from deep inside the gated community of class and culture in Australia, even a complete raving idiot could see that not all Muslims, or Chinese, or Vietnamese are the same. And blaming all Muslims for the craziness of rioting and bombing is like blaming me for Martin Bryant or Ivan Milat. Those two serial murderers arose in a culture of white Australia but no-one blames Australian culture. Instead, all the material I've ever read about them talks about individual backgrounds; how those two came to be who they are.

That's what needs to happen now. Find the person - or people - who sent the computer-generated text message inviting - actually inciting - a riot in Sydney on Saturday and discover what it is that transformed them from your garden-variety Muslim (normal, peaceful, law-abiding, nagging their children) to Koran-thumping craziness.

What made them think it was OK to get six- and seven-year-old children holding up placards that incite brutal murder? And how the hell can we fix it - and them - right now?

Of course the problem is fixable. I know this because, when my parents lobbed into Australia (after years in a displaced person's camp), no white Christian Australian was allowed anywhere near their beloved children (me and my siblings). No English at home. No fraternising. We definitely weren't allowed sleepovers. Now I sleep over with a white (formerly Christian) Australian every night of the week. The sky has not fallen in. I have not become (terribly) disreputable.

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Freedom of religion is a really great thing