Somebody once asked a wise man for a definition of chutzpah. “Imagine,” he replied, “that a man murders both his parents and at his trial begs the jury to be lenient towards him because he is an orphan. That’s chutzpah.” The closest translation that the English language has of “chutzpah” is “hide.”

The Muslims here in Australia are demonstrating a humungous chutzpah when it comes to their education. You have to laugh…

According to “The Australian” newspaper, Muslim university students want lectures to be rescheduled to fit in with prayer timetables and separate male and female eating and recreational areas established on Australian campuses. These are foreign students, mainly from Saudi Arabia. They are here as guests and are attending secular universities.

La Trobe University’s International Director, Martin Van Run, said that the university was not planning to change timetables. Mr Van Run said that Saudi students knew well before they arrived in Australia what the lecture times were. Let’s hope that other universities follow suit.

It didn’t take long before some Islamic leaders joined the demand to have lecture times changed to suit Muslims. Other leaders, however, dispute the need to rearrange the world to suit the Muslims. Sister Abdel-Halim said that it was not feasible to have every single prayer catered for…Oh really?

Well, I know the perfect place where prayers can be slotted into a timetable to suit Muslim students. As well as that, females can be separated from males to their hearts’ content.

That place is called Saudi Arabia.