What’s wrong with this picture?

There so much of interest in the weekend protest by some members of Sydney’s Muslim community.

For a start, this sign caught the eye - “You ban ‘Quran’ you burn in hell. United in Islam we stand”.

A weird feature is that each letter is balloon shaped and alternately rendered in a different primary colour. This lettering was last deployed by hippies in the late 60s and early 70s to preach love or peace, man. Here it’s been used to convey eternal and fiery damnation.

Perhaps small Muslim children were encouraged to join in the fun of the protest against oppression. Or is it a reflection of how entrenched and, therefore, pro forma Muslim protest is that it didn’t strike anybody as odd that the message of damnation was made to look so friendly. Naïve or malign, it’s bloody peculiar.

Could the explanation be that the sign maker was only allowed out of the house if she tricked her sensible but illiterate parent that she was off to a school sports day? It’s hoped so.

Then there’s the message. The protest ostensibly was against moves to ban the burqa. So what’s Quran burning got to do with it?

But, hang on. According to the SMH, the NSW Premier, Kristina Keneally, has recently made a statement re-affirming the right of Muslim women to wear the burqa. So what’s the point of any of it?

Weave all these strands together and surely one gets closer to the truth. This fight has nothing at all to do with Australia. It’s about reflexive Muslim grievance, some strange desire to paint yourself as oppressed.

Sure enough, the give away is not far off. As the spokeswoman, Ms Ardati said, the support of key politicians did not mean Muslims could ''relax''. ''Even if this bill is not passed in NSW now, who knows what will happen in one week, one month or one year?''

But the suspicion is that the whole thing really was just an elaborate ruse by the poor protesters to get out of the house and express themsleves in the only way their men permit.