[gdl_gallery title=”gallery1″ width=”250″ height=”250″ ]

It’s been said elsewhere but we’ll say it again: the Australian Christian Lobby does not represent all Christians.

Prime Minister Gillard may like to think that she can woo the religious by listening to Jim Wallace but there are other religious leaders who should have a say as well.

And has is becoming more and more the case, it’s the women who are speaking up.

Joumanah El Matrah is the Executive Director of the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights, has some clear messages:

• giving religious groups the freedom to discriminate ‘undermines the substance and integrity of religion by reducing it to a collection of petty bigotries’
• placing restrictions on faith-based organisations regarding discrimination is ‘not an attack on the freedom of religious belief’
• ‘it is not religion that is protected but the institutionalisation of conservative religious forces’
• ‘the government has privileged an extremely conservative reading of faith’
• and finally, “I believe in Australia’s commitment to diversity and human dignity, and I do not want any tear in that fabric in my name as a person of faith”.

Religious Groups Able To Discriminate Against Gays Sinners.