"Census"

Received this email today:

Friends

I have just been made aware of a 'census' coming in August.

I am NOT in the habit of forwarding emails, but this is of consideral importance to myself & the country I was born & choose to live in.

I will be ticking CHRISTIAN.

Blessings
Leith

Forwarded Message
From: Michelle


IMPORTANT
AUSTRALIA WILL BE HOLDING A CENSUS IN AUGUST
DO NOT LEAVE THE “RELIGION” SECTION BLANK. BE SURE TO AT LEAST TICK CHRISTIAN (OR YOUR UPBRINGING FAITH).
1,000,000 MUSLIMS WILL TICK THEIR BOX.
10,000,000 AUSTRALIANS WILL LEAVE IT BLANK THEN WONDER WHY A MOSQUE IS BUILT IN THEIR NEIGHBOURHOOD!!!
PASS THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.

***

To that I say FUCK YOU.

What kind of intolerance in this world tries to prevent people in a neighbourhood from practising their faith? If people are apathetic about religion (read: don't go to a place of worship on a regular basis) then why does it matter if other people are not, as long as they don't try and impose their views on the rest of us?

Besides which, would this email have dared raged about a synagogue in the neighbourhood? A Buddhist temple?

I happen to live around the corner from the Muslim prayer hall in Artarmon and I have never had anything but polite dealings with its visitors. (Besides which, it means you can usually find a taxi close by).

It's arsewipes who use taxpayers' money to fund chaplains in schools that are the problem.

It's the backward politicians that don't recognise gay marriage because of some distant religious tradition that should be forced to see the world with 2011 eyes.

YES I AM REALLY ANGRY.

(I was going to write "I don't even know who this is!" but then I realised it's this horrible lady I met through my former Meetup group—the one that got me a boyfriend—that I never want to see again.)

My reply:

I'm happy with having a mosque in my neighbourhood. It's too many churches that spoil things.

A