To Be A Muslim, Or Not A Muslim... that is the question!

OK, Johnny Howard is pursuing Muslims and the press is showing clear bias in the portrayal of Muslims as bomb packing death merchants.  The Press collectively also fete’s over Michelle Leslie because she is a “beautiful model, who only took one little itty-bitty ecstasy tablet”.  Then we find out she is a Muslim and she dons the big black tent like garments (a Birkha?) and she is roundly criticised for being a Muslim.  Tsk tsk, how can a model be a Muslim?  It seems as though us Westerners have a problem with a model that is a Muslim because it doesn’t fit our racial stereotype…

Then she serves her time (note, she was guilty, she served 3 months.  She was NOT found innocent!) and the Press clamour over her for her story… which I am bemused as it’s a clear case of drug user busted at a party and convicted under the laws of the country she was in – nothing worth promoting there.

But heres the kicker… she is now being criticised because she is no longer wearing the garb that got her the Muslim tag!  She has dropped the Birkha (sp?) and is now donning the mid-riff top and tight jeans.  “But You’re A Muslim!” cry the press and they denounce her for not being true to her faith.  If you wore a Birkha and were a faithful Muslim, would you want to come to Australia?  You’d be in for a strip / body cavity search faster than you could say “10kg of Fertiliser Up My Backside”.  Have we ever considered the view that she perhaps doesn’t want to be a Muslim in Australia?  Have we considered that when she swans about in Muslim countries her clothing of choice may be a Birkha?  That perhaps she is trying to fit into Australian society and our obsession with the Body Beautiful?

I am being facetious, but really isn’t it about time our Press showed a bit of maturity and tell the news the way it is?  There have been more press devoted to Michelle Leslie’s ecstasy tablet than Van Ngyuen’s 5kg of heroin and the reason why, pure and simple, is that Michelle Leslie is “beautiful” and Van Ngyuen is a poor Vietnamese boy from Sydney’s west.  Shappelle Corby only got the press she did because she was “beautiful with a nice set” and yet another Vietnamese Australian girl rots in a Thai jail forever.

And I haven’t even touched on the fact that you are not supposed to profiteer from criminal convictions in this country, but I won’t because my argument gets shot down when you mention Mark “Chopper” Read who has made a living on the back of the fact that he used to kill people for money… that is for another day.