Einstein's insanity test

As the post protest debris settles in Sydney, bitter sentiments resonate across the country.

The age old questions persist."Is Islam compatible with the West? If Islam means peace why are all the terrorists Muslims."

Whether the film was free expression or defamation under the mask of freedom is the forgotten question.

The question now is the lurking Muslim problem."We let them in. Now they threaten" headlined a major newspaper blog akin to a science fiction title.

It was a sad day for all, condemnations and 'wake up calls' were issued by Parliamentarians and 'intolerance" considerations from commentators. Electronic messages demanded violent retribution against Muslims.

Witnessing the familiar questions over a decade after September 11, Einstein's insanity test comes to mind. Are we doing the same thing but expecting a different result?

The self-assured narrative suggests an irreconcilable clash between Islam and the West. So in the Western spirit lets turn to free inquiry, and ensure no proposition is left unexamined.

Violent protests and assaults against police are unacceptable! Are they unprecedented?

Reality suggests otherwise, remember the July 2012 anti-Olympic Dam protests (13 arrests), the 2010 Occupy Melbourne protests (100 arrests), the 2009 Victorian power plant protest (22 arrests), or the 2007 APEC protests (17 arrests), to name just a few.

If bad apples are undesirable but inevitable, why the shock about nine arrests? Why? Perhaps because there is something obnoxiously abhorrent about a toddler with a beheading sign and a Mum taking happy snaps.

Described as 'pedestals of hate' by one newspaper with an MP suggesting the child be put in better care. One does wonder whether the fact that neither Mum or Bub actually knew what the sign meant carries any significance in the debate.

Seniorpolice sources announced that the mother turned herself in, she had been in Australia for only two years and didn't know what the word 'behead' meant she recognised the word 'Prophet' and waved the sign around before handing it to her son. Before issuing statements reminiscent of the stolen generation, is it worth testing whether the 'children as pedestals of hate' is another case of 'children overboard'.