A 'Net-friend wrote:

I agree with you that there is a basis for concern about Moslem immigration. That's why I said, 'No doubt September 11 and the recent gang rape cases in Sydney have bred fear, some of it justified.' However, to bar people from Australia because of September 11 or some specific sex crimes in Sydney is to grossly oversimplify the issues.

First, not all boat people from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan are Moslems. A significant number of the Iranis, eg, are Mandean or Christian, and are fleeing persecution.

Second, even among the Moslems, there are those who are fleeing a regime that has targetted them for holding 'unIslamic values'- 'my' family for instance.

Third, the vast majority of 'good Moslems' were as shocked as you or I by September 11, and, in the case of the Lebanese Moslem community in Sydney, by the gang rape.

But my argument with the Government is this: What sort of morality is it that mistreats already-traumatised people in order to deter others? 'Mistreats' here = shutting them up in isolation for months or years, abusing them verbally, physically and emotionally [by leaving them in the dark re their case], and releasing them on a visa which keeps them in a state of limbo ad infinitum.

As a Christian, it hurts me that this so-called 'Christian nation' [and that's how asylum-seekers perceive us] can do this to Moslems [and others]. And how can we take the moral high ground when Moslem nations/sections of nations mistreat Christians?

That's not to say that I believe that people smugglers should go unpunished. But we shouldn't be punishing their victims!

Neither am I saying that we don't need a screening process. Just that more money should go into making it more efficient and less into turning Australia into a fortress.

My reading this morning, Matthew 12: 15-21, had some things to say about this, concluding with, 'In His name the nations will put their hope.'

We should be offering hope!