It would seem that most of the illegal immigrants landing on our shores are Muslim refugees.

They are , usually, coming here from Indonesia.

Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim country, so having reached a Muslim country have they not found a refuge ?

Does their continued journey to Australia not diminish their status to that of economic seekers after a better deal?

If this is the case then they are not really refugees and ought to be sent back to their last safe haven, and without all the present costs.

Simple question "Are you a Muslim?" should be enough.

As a matter of fact the refugees arriving on boats via Indonesia are mainly Afghani, Iranian, Kurdish and Iraqi not Indonesian and they are Muslim. Many boats have also come with Sri Lankan Tamils and they are mainly Hindu and Christian.
Ethnic cleansing is a problem for the Tamils. I have seen the results of their government's brutality by bombing and shooting them in the form of lost limbs and scars. They usually flee when threatened with execution at the hands of the Singhalise. These things are still going on. No oil there, so no grandiose trumpeting from foreign powers about military intervention to save the civilians like we are hearing in regard to Libya.
It's a similar story for Afghani Hazaris, the Taliban are trying to wipe them out, by destroying their homes and businesses killing their families and threatening them with death if they see their faces again.
Really there's a lot of similarities between their experiences and the persecution of the Jews in Hitler's time.

So as Muslims they have reached a safe haven, why do they need to travel on, at great danger, to a land that is full of Infidels?

We should welcome genuine refugees but not economic queue jumpers.

I'm a little disappointed Samuel, I never expected to hear glib thoughtless comments like that from you!
The boat arrivals need to be sorted, there are some who are no doubt opportunists looking for a more comfortable life, but Muslim extremists are in short supply in my opinion, most are apathetic and I've even seen some snacking in daylight hours during Ramadam.
There are others who are the victims of persecution which is practised by assaults on members of their race and destruction of their homes and businesses. I am talking about the Sri Lankan Tamils and Hazari Afghani's. Some arrive on our shores in boats as their families sole survivors from this type of event and have badly set broken bones, lost limbs and other scars aplenty to back up their stories.
I know a refugee whose father and teenage brother were shot by the government as they did their chores in their front yard, and I have seen photo's of them in their coffins taken at their funeral.
I met a refugee a few weeks ago, a former successful business man who lost everything in 2009 after being driven out by the governing army in Sri Lanka. He said he knew that tens of thousands of Tamils have been murdered and lie buried under top secret military compounds that are kept off the UN's inspection route.
Not pretty, easier to pretend we never heard about it?
Lining up in a queue?? I don't think so, not with governments like this one.
I have also met a young Tamil mother, a christian teacher, who was imprisoned in a camp and lacked food. She was with hundreds of others when their government bombed them while lining up for milk donated by western charities for children under four. Her arm was shattered and her brother was killed.
Several Tamils have assured me their president Mahinda Rajapaksa is just like Saddam Hussein, but there's no interevention on the horizon for this government, these are the people the world's able to forget.

http://warwithoutwitness.com/index.php? ... &Itemid=62


http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cf ... lease=1153

Christine,
You miss the point, if Muslim refugees have reached a civilized Muslim country like Indonesia then they have reached a safe haven and are no longer refugees from an oppressive murderous regime but are among people of the same religion and outlook, they are back in the Ummah.
There can be no reason for them to continue on to Australia which is an Infidel country.
The Tamils can continue on as they are still refugees and the great majority of them are Hindus so they would have reason to continue beyond Indonesia and on to Australia which country their religion does not stigmatize.

Well, for a start, Indonesia is not a signatory to the refugee convention. so Indonesia has not agreed to take or treat refugees humanely. Australia has agreed, although we do not always take refugees or treat them humanely. But certainly if you are seeking a humane country Australia has a better reputation that Indonesia. I suspect that part of the reason people aim for Australia over Indonesia is because they are not accepted into Indonesian communities, and they are more likely to be accepted into Australian communities, despite a degree of hostility.

Why would Muslims not be accepted in the largest Muslim country in the world?
Would Indonesia not accept their co-religionists?

How terrible to travel all that way and find that your own did not want you and that you must travel on to the land of the Infidels.

But why not turn North and go to Malaysia which is 61% Muslim or head for Egypt which is 91% Muslim and a gateway to the Muslim world.

But look at what you are saying: you don't want to accept refugees. Why do you suspect that other countries, especially countries with larger populations and lower standards of living, are going to be more accepting of new arrivals than you are?

McFate,

You miss the point also; I'm all for accepting genuine refugees from political or ethnic or religious persecution but I don't think that we should accept economic refugees who are jumping the queue.
Muslim refugees who arrive safely in a Muslim country are no longer refugees from political or ethnic or religious persecution.

Therefore that's where they ought to stay or move on to another Muslim country so that they can remain within the Ummah.

Why would they wish to join the Infidels?

I don't think you understand. Firstly, there is no queue. Australia has the capacity to take in far more refugees than it currently does. Economic refugees are also genuine refugees. Not only that, but if the country they stop at refuses them (as Indonesia does) then how are they supposed to stay there? How is that freedom from persecution? That is specifically persecution because of origin and history.



I think that you are using a caricature of Islam. Like Christianity, there are various different beliefs held by Muslims, and you are picking one of the most extreme. Mostly I think the extremists carry out persecution, or at least have a well-defined sense of national identity and would fight rather than leave.

An Afghani muslim refugee once said if Australia did not advertise itself as a humane destination for refugees by being signatories of the refugee convention, in his opinion the boats would stop coming.