Are we really that surprised that a Jewish person said "They want to come and live right where you live and they think that you're evil"? For Simmons to believe this is the same as for every child taught in a school in the Middle East to believe that the western world is evil and wants to suppress the Muslim culture.

Uh-oh, here comes the PC brigade again.

Do you not think there's even a grain of truth in what Gene's said? Really not one tiny bit? You liar.

The muslim religion DOES treat its women badly. As a non-muslim who has lived in a muslim community for over a decade, I can't pretend that I agree with the way that husbands force their wives to cover up their bodies, give them little freedom, and in the case of an old mate of mine's mother, beat them. People who claim that Gene Simmons comments are without education are middle class PC berks who have never actually lived in the real world, and wouldn't dare say anything like that in case they happend to OFFEND someone.

I'm not saying that ALL muslims are like this, I'm meerly pointing out that it's not wrong to have an opinion on a religious group, a lot of whose followers choose to live their lives by values that were meant to have died out half a century ago in this country.

Go on, disagree with me, clueless middle class tossers...

funny thing
it doesn't say women should be treated that way in the Qu'Ran. Therefore, saying it is part of muslim culture is like saying the right-wing militias that roam the states are part of christian culture. (example: oklahoma city)

Ok.

I live in Australia - and to be frank - it's caused a bit of an uproar here - being one of the most multi-cultural nations in the world. With so many different religions, races, and cultures.

However, I'd like to say - religion is a choice. You choose to follow that faith, and you choose to live your life by it's rules. Especially in Australia - where we really are a free nation, and you are not condemned if you don't believe.

Now - the heat & layers of clothing issues - Australian winter days rarely get below 20C - we're just coming into winter here which is why I point this out - so it's always warm. Always. Yet I am good friends with quite a few people who practice Islam - and the women say that they are proud to wear their head scarves, and that they have the choice here makes them even more proud that they have made that choice. Therefore in regard to your comments about "disrespect towards women" I have to say that the fact that they choose to wear the clothes and head scarves the way they do - especially in Australia - is in fact not disrespectful at all. It's enpowering for them.

Further more - my brother-in-law is a migrant, who is originally from Israel - and is Jewish in a predominantly Christian, arrogant, ignorant society. He finds people make mistakes about what his relgion really entales (There are so many rules in that religion, too, that I have difficulty following. Especially the Kosher stuff. So, I'm not saying I'm any better) and where he comes from etc etc etc.

So, I firmly believe people should find out about things before they open their mouths. Think before you speak. Make sure you have it right. (Otherwise people on a website hosted on the other side of the Earth to where you are will talk about what a wanker you are.)
Gene Simmons included. Fortunately for him, he probably won't be sent to jail, stoned or whipped in public, or tortured by our military police for speaking his mind. Lucky him. Lucky he is Down Under.

how can that be true if islam came after christianity. its not at all possible

*applauds*

one middle-class tosser, as requested.

Firstly, Simmons is a knobgoblin of the highest order, his new album is unforgivably atrocious. His comments on Islam were a fucking travesty, based upon hearsay and a very blinkered view.
However, to say that pornography in the west makes our attitudes similarly damaging is a step too far. How on earth would you (or anyone) know that women are seen as sex objects, obviously it happens. But so does incest, rape, murder and corruption but it doesn't mean they define the society in which they occur.

hell yea he should

HILARIOUS! sorry that's not very PC is it?

voltaire lover!

very true

it was a vastly insightful comment, whatever the motivation.

My brother in law is Iraeli-Jewish - he moved to Australia from Tel-Aviv only 3 1/2 years ago - but he doesn't go around saying things like this.

I know he doesn't think them and was as appauled as any decent human should be.

you read too much of shitty tabloids.

ah no! undereducated idiotic foreigners are going to steal our jobs.
they are going to bring all their organised criminals into the perfect-no-organised crime uk (ahem ahem)

apparently the polish are really clever. people in the uk need a kick in the backside, before we as a nation have a warped view of the world (as most americans do), the tabloids need to grow up and stop writing so much crap and creating miseducated people.

*standing ovation*

the religious books you descibed may not say those particular things straightout. but religious books are extremely ambigous so can be interpreted in many different ways. Also they constantly contradict themselves, or so im lead to believe.
'its symbolic of...'
'that is a metaphor for...'
they mean whatever the individual person wants them to mean.

what a intelagent and educated coment, cheers

What Simmonds said was indefensible, full stop. Comments like FcNikney Man's 'wearing 3 layers of black clothing when its 25 celsius? And that isn't degradation of women' miss the point. She is wearing black clothing, because she feels a duty to Allah to wear it to show her respect to Allah. She hasn't been forced to wear it.

Muslims are not backwards, stupid, simple people. They have a great culture, art and literature. However it is the fundamentalist approach to Islam, that Muslim religious leaders and Muslim states have taken up, which is the problem. Religions such as Islam can be interpretd in any number of ways. For example look at Judaism, where there are many forms of one religion.

It is people like Simmond's who distort people's views of Islam and Muslims. Their desire to view everything in black and white, when in reality the world is a thousand shades of grey, is over-simplified and dangerous.

'And there endeth the rante'
THOM

Where did u hear that? If that's true, thats krazy.