My God!We have a war in Iraq with thousands of innocent people being killed,and another one in the pipe line,global warming with the ice caps melting,a possible flu pandemic,drought,sunami's,earth quakes,millions of people starving to death,a road toll equivalent to a population of fifty million people,the oceans being fished out and turned into recepticles for plastic shopping bags,and forrests disappearing faster than honest politicians.And we are worried about the Burqa?.My GOD!Conservatives how I hate thee let me count the ways.But Oh what short memory's we Anglo Saxons have.Rememeber all those dirty hippy's with their bell bottom trousers(that's flares for you politicaly correct)and all that hair full of dandruff and other little crawly things.And don't forget the beads,those dirty little beads, green ones red ones(communist ones)blue ones, and heaven forbid black ones.The beads,strewth they're like triffids lose one and fifty return in there place.No folks!not the grapes of wrath.The beads of Anarchy.And the badges NO not Howard for P.M.but save the whales,ban the bomb,make love not war,those little badges how I hated them.And Oh yes how we did indeed hate them,those hippy's. And all those short back and sides,clean cut conservative boys hated the hippy's the worst,cause deep down in their hearts they knew that hippy was gonna have sex with that beautiful blonde haired girl,maybe even marry her and have more hippy's.And whilst those clean cut boys were grafting in a factory or in an office some where those damn hippy's ,would be on a beach some where surfing or fishing,whilst that beautiful blonde was cooking those fresh fish on a fire.Of course most of the hippy's have gone,they probably live next door to you.You may even see him mowing the lawn occassionaly.We have new whipping boys/girls now dont we Muslims.Stop the planet I wanna get off.

Phill

Phil,

'tis strange isn't it, given the acceptance of the bikini.

But that's Islamophobia---it's a political unconcious driven by fear of death that feeds into the blind emotions of the politically partisan conservatives who see John Howard as the strong leader defending Australia from Islamic terrorists who want to establish an Islamic state in Australia.

Yeah I know, it's not rational.The danger is that seeing Howard trying to defend Australia from Osama bin Laden may lead to the view that Howard is above the law. The rule of law mustn't get in the way of Prime Minister Howard protecting Australians from Osama bin Laden.

Now that's not Howard's view. But it is the view of some conservatives: Australia is not a nation subject to, and governed by, the rule of law because the Constitution places Howard above the law and above the non-elected federal judges who defend and protect the constitution.