I struggled with the title of this post for a while, because a lot of what I have to say is about religion and about Christmas. I’ve already done one Christmas post, Bah Humbug, but this one is different.

In America, they’d call me Patriotic. But here in Australia, I get tagged as Racist or Intolerant. Strange how you can end up with a good or a bad label, depending on your “audience”.

The basis of this post is about people from other countries who come to Australia. Let me point out that I have nothing against that. I KNOW that some people have come from aweful places. After all, I’ve been to Iraq and Afghanistan. I KNOW what these people live with day to day.

But what I DO object to is when these people come to MY country and then decide that I have to live by THEIR rules. Or that they are going to pretty much ignore the Australian way of life.

Muslims are the main antagonists here, which is an oxymoron in itself. Islam instills in its people strong family values and great hospitality. The term Jihad doesn’t even directly mean go out and kill the non-Islam. It’s just a name given to any act done for Allah. So, if you’re a fatty, and you decide to go on a huge diet to lose 50kg, THAT could be tagged as a Jihad.

And I also have no problem with these people (not just the Muslims) coming here and wanting to maintain their own religion, customs and traditions. Hell, if I moved to China, I’d still celebrate Australia Day and Christmas, regardless of what their country did. But here’s the difference: I WOULDN’T demand that China change their ways to accommodate ME, I would EXPECT to live by THEIR laws, and I would expect to have to learn a fair amount of Chinese.

In Australia, things are getting ridiculous. And I intend to be that grumpy old man, sitting on the porch with his shotgun until the very end, fighting this crap. Australia is a Christian nation. I’m not exactly Christian myself, but I live by the rules set down by my country. In Australia, we celebrate Christmas and Easter as the birth and death of Christ respectively.

But because of “minority” groups (and listen up Prime Minister – Islam won’t be a “minority” for much longer), we are not allowed to put up Christmas decorations in our shopping centres. Our primary schools have been directed that they are not allowed to celebrate Christmas or Easter at school. The kids don’t get to make decorations, or colour in pictures of Santa, or make a basket for the Easter Bunny to deposit his eggs.

But it gets worse. Kindergartens are no longer allowed to make a Nativity. You can’t have “Secret Santa” anymore, it has to be “Secret Friends” now. Incidentally, that all sounds a little suspicious to me! And I’ve even heard discussion that thay are changing BC & AD to something else (Old Period and New Period, I think), because of the “Christian” undertones of BC & AD.

And why is all this happening? Because Australia doesn’t want to upset the non-Christians who come here – many of whom do so illegally by the way.

To this I say that Australia needs to get some balls. Whatever happened to the Australia that used to kick arse, instead of kiss it? I SAY, if you don’t like our rules, get out. What would happen if I flew to Afghanistan, tried to get in without a visa, then used THEIR legal system to FORCE them to let me stay and THEN demanded that the people around me speak English and that Afghanistan stops worshipping Allah in public – because it offends me.

Would they send me home? Or would they just take me out the back and shoot me?

Australia is a great country. And it has been made up of immigrants since the first white man came here. You’ll find we’re actually quite tolerant of all people, but not those who come here and force their will on us. Australia follows America’s lead on a lot of things, but for some reason we refuse to adopt the “Fuck you” attitude of the Yanks.

I REFUSE to pander to these groups. I will continue to say “Secret Santa” and I will continue to live my life the AUSTRALIAN way. And if I ever hear an immigrant whinge that we don’t do things like back home, I will happily tell them to leave. In fact, I’d probably even throw them a few dollars to help pay for their flight.

If you’ve read my Bah Humbug post, you’ll know that I’m a pagan. That means, I follow a non-Christian religion. In that post, I discuss how closed-minded Christian religion can be, and how open the pagans are.

If I was the Minister for Education, rather than “close down” religion, I’d insist that they teach ALL religions. Let the schools continue to celebrate Christmas and Easter, but let’s teach the kids about Ramadan, Hanukkah, Vesākha and God-forbid: Paganism.

Christian religion touts “Love thy neighbour” and they insist that they way to World Peace is tolerance. And yet we are prohibited from teaching our kids about all the different religions in Australia. Surely, if we educate our kids and expose them all the religious events they are going to encounter in their later years, they will understand WHY other religions do what they do, and be tolerant of them.

So what do you think? Are you an Aussie with the same thoughts as me? Do you think I’m an idiot? Are you an immigrant, struggling to maintain your own identity? Tell me what you think