EXTREMISTS spreading fear and loathing across parts of the Middle East claim they are fighting for the rights of Muslims everywhere, but nothing could be further from the truth.
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Moderate Muslims look upon the savagery of these brutes in exactly the same way as anyone else would, with horror and revulsion.
The gruesome image of a seven-year-old boy holding up the severed head of a Syrian fighter and posted on Twitter shocked the world this week.
It was all the more horrific for Australians because the boy was from Sydney and had been taken to Syria by his jihadist father who praised the boy on social media.
Such atrocities being committed in the name of Islam in Syria and Iraq are a harrowing stain on the Muslim faith.
Ordinary, law-abiding Muslims living in the West are discriminated against, feared and misunderstood because of the actions of these monsters.
For non-Muslims in Australia, the Islamic faith can be confronting.
We recently witnessed a backlash against a proposal to build a mosque in Bendigo by a minority in the community, egged on by discriminatory and narrow-minded group spreading misinformation about the religion.
Building a mosque could foment terror in Bendigo, they argued.
What rubbish.
It was the type of nonsense that right-thinking Australians find abhorrent and disgraceful.
The key to Australia’s ongoing success as a multi-cultural nation built on the backs of migrants from all over the world is its tolerance of all races and all faiths, Muslims included.
Because of the terror being spread by thugs and madmen in the Middle East, Muslims in this country are being forced to apologise for their faith — something no religious person should ever have to do.
The actions of the jihadists should not cause us to fear or shun ordinary Muslims in this country.
Indeed, to do so would be fundamentally unAustralian.
