Letter to the editor: Look, Muslims! #soscary

In this country, over a hundred years ago, Prime Minister Henry Parkes ran a huge, unjustified scare campaign against Catholics. They were legally and socially persecuted, leaving divisions in our society for generations. (I still remember the way my grandmother would lower her voice and say, "But she's Catholic", as though the lady in question had a particularly pernicious STD.)

In the 1930s, a huge, unjustified scare campaign was run against Jewish people. In the 1960s, a huge, unjustified scare campaign was run against communists.

Now it's Muslims.

In all these cases, politicians have started the whole thing and/or supported it and exploited it for personal gain.

Surely we're smarter than this by now.

Muslim people, on the whole, work as hard, love their families as much and contribute just as much to our society as any other social or religious group.
The "Islamic State" blowhards no more represent Muslims than the Westboro Baptist Church represents Christians, or the few violent, racist monks in Burma represent Buddhism.

Treat criminal acts by a few as just that: they're criminals. But don't give in to artificially-created fear and hysteria, and allow our government to demonize an entire religious or ethnic group.

Location:Renmark, South Australia

Letter to the editor: terrorism and domestic violence

Terrorism is the domain of sad, pitiful human beings manipulated by egotistical loudmouths for personal gain.

However, that also describes the current state of politics in Australia, so let's sit back for a moment and think.

What sort of society do we want to live in?

One where we cringe on command, and passively allow the government to monitor everything we say, everything we do online?

That has all the hallmarks of an abusive relationship. It's time to face the facts and reach out to one another for support and understanding.

After all, domestic violence kills more Australians every 2 years than terrorists have in the past 35. DV services are being cut all over the country, while our tax dollars are being spent on multi-$billion weapons and widespread surveillance of ordinary Australians, including me, you and that lady with a scarf. (She's an Iraqi Christian BTW. Heck, my grandmother used to pop on a scarf when she went out. Ban the grannies! #scarftax)