Race riots in Sydney

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Az
Why on earth are you bringing me this? Was that an arab immigrant who was attacked? does this have anything to do with the case in point? Where there gay riots in london in the next days? did gay people start beating up straights for no reason whatsoever?

If you can't see that it does, then I feel sorry for you.

[Solly]

Can you post some more pics please.

[Datajack Franit]

I feel sorry for YOU, then what?

[Az]

don't feel sorry for me. If you see the case of two warring communities which both have violent elements as equal to seeing individuals being attacked and killed, you're simply wrong.

[Az]

Can you post some more pics please.

[Footie Mad]

But no, surely there can never be trouble caused by people having different ethnicites. I heard on the news that multiculturalism is always great, like different foods and stuff and I like eating!

If you say anything negative about immigrants from foreign cultures and their role in society you are a racist, uneducated, ignorant and a bigot.

[Alexander's Horse]

I'm with the Cronulla Sutherland boys on this one - being one myself. I'll have to call home and find out what really happened. Looks like a media beat up to me.

This trouble has been brewing for a long time - its not the first mob incident down there. Several people I know have been bashed by Lebanese/Arab youths, robberies, the beaches were becoming unsafe. There's been retaliation before.

Its a very tribal part of Sydney. People in that part of Sydney stick together. Those beaches are our home - groups of high schools dominated different beaches when I was a teen. Many of our parents have retired down there to the beach so its become extra sensitive. I know elderly people who've been affected.

Notice the revenge attack was in Maroubra? That's a completely different part of Sydney. The reason for that is there are only 4 bridges out of the Sutherland Shire where Cronulla is. If they trashed cars at Cronulla, they'd never get out of the area with their cars.

It isn't actually about race, its about outsiders.

[Dracon II]

The lebanese have the honour of providing Australia's post-beer foodstuff. Kinda like the status of curries in England, Doner Kebabs are stereotypically the food of choice for Aussies to cap off a hard night out on the turps.

The whole framing of the conflict almost certainly ensures collateral damage. What is in essence a conflict with small groups of obnoxious youth is becoming almost huntingtonian. The use of the term "wogs" is worrisome. If we accept the grievance is in substance with lebanese... wog is a far too broad a term to use (and it should not be used anyway, as it is a racist epithet); as the term is largely used in relation to Italian, Greek and Slavic immigrants. Furthermore, it is also problematic to cut this along religious lines; I'm not altogether knowledgable on these matters, but the lebanese are probably the most Christianized of the middle eastern nationalities... and I would imagine many of the lebanese in Australia would be refugees from the civil war of the 1980's, many of whom are likely to be Christian. The problem is if the Christian vs. Muslim antagonism comes into play; the innocence and decency of most Muslims notwithstanding, it would be dangerous to see this as a religious conflict. The problem is that through the often errant, distorting and dangerously distillating lens of the media, this could become the cultural war that should never have happened.

The biggest problem now is the inevitable Lebanese reaction (already occurring as I type - news article posted below)... and the possible opportunity space for radical Islamists to interpret the situation in ways that could have devestating implications. This could be the most destructive Barbeque ever witnessed. They did not even stop to consider what kind of pandora's box they were opening.

From the Sydney Morning Herald

SYDNEY erupted in a second night of racial violence last night as Middle Eastern mobs stabbed a woman, assaulted others and smashed shops around Cronulla, while up to 600 young men - armed with guns and crowbars - prepared for a battle.

In a terrifying escalation of the conflict, up to 70 cars from Hurstville invaded Cronulla and Brighton-le-Sands to launch revenge attacks, following the vicious attacks by Cronulla locals on people of Middle Eastern appearance on Sunday.

Twenty carloads of men arrived at Cronulla by about 10.30pm, smashing shops, and cars in Elouera Road, and threatening people who got in their way. They reportedly stabbed a woman at Carringbah, but her condition was unknown.

About 11.30pm a group of about 100 Cronulla locals surrounded a car carrying men of Middle Eastern appearance, but police cleared the crowd and let the car escape.

Hours earlier, about 200 men had assembled outside Lakemba Mosque - some armed with Glock pistols - and dozens more gathered at Campsie. They were preparing to travel to Maroubra Beach, where up to 300 locals, many armed with crowbars, waited for an arranged fight, according to "Bra Boys" at the beach.

But some young Muslims said they had gathered to protect the mosque because of a threatened attack on it by a gang from the southern beaches.

Following Sunday's riot at Cronulla beach - when local mobs had bashed people of Middle Eastern appearance - police confiscated iron bars and other weapons at Maroubra last night and blocked roads around the mosque. About 20 police cars surrounded the mosque, where four men showed their pistols and ammunition to a news crew, and boasted that others were carrying arms.

At 10.45pm, on the Kingsway at Caringbah, about 12 cars sped by, followed by another vehicle that stopped. Four men got out and began attacking patrons of Antonio's Pizzeria. They knocked a woman unconscious on the footpath and smashed the window of a denture clinic.

Thai-born Suchada Goodier, 44, owner of a Thai restaurant on the Kingsway, said she was walking on the street when she was attacked. The group then started bashing her car. "What have I done?" she said.

"I have done nothing."

In Bay Street, Brighton-le-Sands, a young woman was sitting in a car when men approached and opened the door to her vehicle and put a hand up her dress, saying: "We are going to rape you, you Aussie sluts."

A witness, Linda El-Hassan, 19, said a shot was fired at the woman's car but she was unhurt. Miss El-Hassan said she was Lebanese and opposed the violence. "We all came to this country and we are all one in this country."

Page 2 of 2

Gunshots were heard near Northies Hotel at Cronulla and there was an unconfirmed report of a man being shot.

The mobs vandalised cars and Bay Street was strewn with rubbish and a government bus was attacked and its back window smashed. Many police gathered in Bay Street, where a senior officer was heard to say: "Let's get our [riot] gear on and smash 'em."

At Lakemba Mosque earlier, a media crew had been involved in an altercation with some in the crowd about 7pm. A man is believed to have suffered a broken leg during a scuffle.

Islamic leaders tried to calm the crowd, imploring the men over a loudspeaker to go inside and pray. Outside the Maroubra Bay Hotel, police dressed in riot gear prepared for violence.

A Channel Seven reporter, Robert Ovadia, was surrounded by a group who menaced him, spat in his face, threatened to head-butt him and told him that the media had stirred up all the trouble. Ovadia called police, who sent a patrol car. The Herald's reporter at Maroubra retreated under a hail of water bombs.

The Bra Boys had told the media they were not welcome.

Police said there was evidence of text and email messages promoting another confrontation at Cronulla next Sunday. One email congratulates those involved in Sunday's riots but warns of armed retaliation. "This is only the beginning, this is a start of the war! Leb's n wog's won't stand for this and will start singling out the aussies and gang bashing them with drawn weapons. We must continue to come together to help the innocent and family's so everyone can enjoy our beach's!"

The Premier, Morris Iemma, said Sunday had exposed the "ugly face of racism in Australia". But John Howard said: "I believe yesterday's behaviour was completely unacceptable but I'm not going to put a general tag [of] racism on the Australian community ... I think it's a term that is flung around sometimes carelessly and I'm simply not going to do so. I do not accept there is underlying racism in this country. I have always taken a more optimistic view of the character of the Australian people."

[Alexander's Horse]

Oh dear - better phone home......

[Dracon II]

It isn't actually about race, its about outsiders.

A fair statement... but the problem is that, being visibly different, middle eastern Australians are more likely to be branded as such. This was demonstrated by the fact that some of the middle easterners who were attacked or intimidated yesterday were actually Cronulla residents.

I agree with AH in that I think it is a problem that is rooted in gang and youth violence, and in the very Australian problem of how to share a beach between locals and outsiders in a civilised fashion. The problem is that the attempted resolution to the problem has the potential to escalate the problem to a higher, and wider level... one that is disproportionate to the initial cause.

[Alexander's Horse]

Many police gathered in Bay Street, where a senior officer was heard to say: "Let's get our [riot] gear on and smash 'em."

Did I mention that the Cronulla Sutherland area, or "the Shire" as its known locally, also supplies a disproportionate number of Sydney's police

[Arrian]

Woah, wtf is going on down there?

-Arrian

[Datajack Franit]

Islam is a religion of peace. Those aussies better integrate themselves somehow

[Pekka]

That's what I'm saying, go and smash the gangs up. That's the only solution. Locals will never let go before, adn the gangs are formed from PUNKS who love the controversy, they live from this stuff. They need to get a beatdown.

Now because the police has been unable to do it, the locals are laying the law down themselves.

Take no **** from PUNKS, that's the way it is.

But mob mentality is still dagnerous so.. let's hope the cops are on it fast, this way mostly innocents gets hurt. And that only escalates, doesn't help.

[Arrian]

Australia NEEDS you, SC.

-Arrian