Posted on 12/12/2005 6:52:05 AM PST by indcons
JOHN Howard condemned Sydney's race riots as "sickening" and rejected claims they exposed a racist underbelly as community leaders searched for reasons for the violence.
As he prepared to fly to Malaysia for today's inaugural East Asia Summit, where the riots are front-page news, the Prime Minister was also forced to deny his stand on homegrown terrorists was partly to blame.
"I believe yesterday's behaviour was completely unacceptable but I'm not going to put a general tag of racism on the Australian community," Mr Howard said.
"I think it's a term that's flung around carelessly and I'm simply not going to do it."
But the blame was being levelled at politicians and Sydney's outspoken talkback radio hosts who have consistently been critical of Muslim youths.
Dr Mark Lopez, author of The Origins of Multiculturalism in Australian Politics, said locals in the Sutherland Shire, in Sydney's south, had taken "a lot of shit" from Muslim youths.
"I personally think it is possible that the weekend's events represent the early signs of a significant historical shift," Dr Lopez said.
"The multicultural fabric has never been challenged by the context of a war before. It's
going to put multiculturalism under strain.
"The Lebanese gangs and the Aussie hooligans draped in flags are two sections of the community that haven't been touched by the ideology of multiculturalism."
After a meeting with NSW Premier Morris Iemma yesterday, executive director of the Arab Council Australia, Randa Kattan, said tension between the locals and outsiders had been magnified by the rhetoric.
"It is illegal to incite racial hatred," she said. "Why is it that shock jocks inciting racial hatred aren't prosecuted for breaking the laws?"
Greens senator Bob Brown said Mr Howard's initial failure to confront former federal MP Pauline Hanson and his mismanagement of immigration issues had "mired the issue of racism in Australia".
"Mr Howard is very slow to call a racist spade a racist spade ... he has taken Australia backwards from the last half-century which celebrated multiculturalism in our nation," Senator Brown said.
Chris Mogan, the Melbourne Clinic's head of psychology, said global terrorism fears had exacerbated the usual tribal tensions.
"We are moving towards change and it's a bit frightening," Mr Mogan said. "There's a climate of uncertainty and when Australians feel uncertain they get anxious and when some people get anxious they get frightened and others get aggressive."
Nearly three of every four Lebanese who have settled in Australia have chosen to live in Sydney.
Lawyer Wahid Ali, of the Islamic Council of Victoria, said Sydney had developed into subcultures.
"People tend not to mix with people in other communities," Mr Ali said.
Federal Liberal backbencher Bruce Baird, whose electorate of Cook takes in Cronulla, believed the rampage had been building for at least six years.
"Cronulla is the recreation area for Sydney's southwest and we have always had a lot of Lebanese and other western suburbs residents coming in on weekends to what is predominantly an Anglo area," Mr Baird said. "Since September 11 and the Bali bombings -- where a lot of people from down our way were killed -- and those high-profile rape cases, the tensions have been worse. The flashpoint for Sunday morning's riot was alongside the memorial on the beach to the local victims of the Bali bombing."
Victorian Premier Steve Bracks, who is of Lebanese descent, said he would do everything he could to ensure the riots were not replicated in his state.
"I don't think it matters what your background is," Mr Bracks said. "To see those sort of events is not what we understand Australia is all about."
Additional reporting: D.D. McNicoll, Rick Wallace, Elisabeth Wynhausen
"Lawyer Wahid Ali, of the Islamic Council of Victoria, said Sydney had developed into subcultures."
Why is this council involved..according to news reports these are simply Lebenese immigrants..praytell you don't mean they're muslim too???????? Who'da thought...
The "Australian community?" Sounds rather like UN-tinged global speak to me. Surprising, coming from a presumed conservative such as John Howard.
It's clear to see liberal media is as quick over there to make up terms like "racism" when it has nothing to do with racism, and everything to do with the murderous cult which has washed up on their shores. These riots are the result of the FAILURE of law enforcement and immigration to deal with these crimminals effectively. This has and will happen everywhere in the world where Islam is given legitamacy, instead of being banned for being the cult of blood and death it really is.
Since Howard is a staunch supporter of the Iraq war, and the war on terrorism, he will now be branded a racist. Of course it is not considered racist, or ethnic, or whatever, for a group of Lebanese to beat up two lifeguards. The Lebanese involved are just innocent victims.
It's time for the Islamic "subculture" to realize it's now living in Australia. And if the subculture doesn't like it, it should move elsewhere.
"Racism against the poor muslims." Another way to frame this is -- Bully for the Australians for NOT injesting the PC Load of Manure that Islam is a Religion of Peace. They are responding to intimidation in a very natural and manly way.
It is refreshing to see people in ANY country respond to this War that is not a War in a healthy way. I am sorry, but I celebrate the Aussies standing up to this.
So it's racist to object to the gang raping of women because they're infidels?
Mr. PM, please don't let this become your open borders issue.
The CIA fact book indicates that 59.7% of Lebanon's population is Muslim.
It has been a very long time since Lebanon has been an ever so slightly Christian majority country, but for some reason the collective memory of Freerepublic still believes it.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/12/12/051212142205.ve8131q3.html
" More than 5,000 people gathered at Cronulla beach Sunday after e-mail and mobile phone messages called on local residents to beat-up "Lebs and wogs" -- racial slurs for people of Lebanese and Middle Eastern origin."
"***The move followed assaults a week ago on two white volunteer lifeguards at the beach, which is a popular gathering place for Muslims from inner-city suburbs, and allegations that local women were being harassed. ***"
The ones calling it "racism" are guess who? The "lebonese" community leader, or in other words, the muslims. Considering Lebonese are basically white, geneticaly the same as Anglo Saxons, which, along with Irish and Scots Irish, is what the stock of Austrailia comes from, How the heck can it be called racism? There were all shades of skin colors seen in these crowds of protestors (not gangs).
These protests were about the CULT of death invading them, the totalitarianizm of Islam, which is the same as Nazism that the protestors are upset about. It's NOT racism.
Let's not let media assign labels to things, we should at least correct them immediately.
..."The Lebanese gangs and the Aussie hooligans draped in flags are two sections of the community that haven't been touched by the ideology of multiculturalism."....
This is precisely the result of multiculturalism idiot.
Multiculturalism is an attack on the home culture.
Here we have Muzzies attacking the Australian culture and the leadership siding with the Muzzie killers.
If the Muslims riot, we must seek to understand the root causes of their violence
If non-Muslims riot, they are thugs.
The last time the Christians were a majority in Lebanon was 1975, where under Jimmah Cahta's watch, the Muslim hordes, "inspired" and helped by -as John Kerry calls him- "the great statesman" Arafat and the Syria, who slaughtered tens of thousands of them, and took control of the country.
It is a short trip from Oz to Antarctica..
Mohammedanism is a race? I thought it was a disease.
Yes, don't blame the muslims who went around raping and beating people, it is the racist Australians who are at fault!The muslims of course are not racists they are just out having a good time terrorizing people, when blam, a bunch of racists Aussies jump them and start pounding on them. /Sar
It is happening here with every protected class we have to adjust to them, they do not have to become Anerican's, just enjoy the fruits of the freedom they gain by being here.
It's not race, it's religion. Some Muslims believe it's okay to rape non-Muslim women, who they say act like "sluts". The Islamic community would be better off doing something about this, rather than whining about victimization.
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