Racial violence erupts in Sydney

Thousands of young white men have converged on Cronulla Beach in Sydney, Australia, and attacked people of Arabic and Mediterranean background.

Police and ambulance officers were pelted with beer cans and bottles, and an ambulance was attacked. Several people were injured in the alcohol-fuelled violence, and at least 12 were arrested. The authorities have condemned the outbreak of racial violence as "not the Australian way".

By Sunday night, the violence appeared to have spread to a second beach suburb, Maroubra, where men armed with baseball bats reportedly attacked cars. And police said a man was stabbed in the back in south Sydney in what media reports said appeared to be further racial violence.

The clashes follow assaults a week ago on two volunteer lifeguards at the southern Sydney beach, reportedly by youths of Arabic and Mediterranean backgrounds. Mobile phone text messages began circulating after the beatings, encouraging people to retaliate on Sunday and employing racial slurs.

'Not Australian'

Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Goodwin said innocent people had been targeted.

"The behaviour that's been seen down here at Cronulla today is nothing short of disgusting and disgraceful," he said. "It's certainly not the Australian way."

The area's Mayor, Kevin Schreiber, accused the mob of looking for a fight.

"As mayor and as a resident of Cronulla, I'm devastated by what has occurred on our beachfront," he said.

"It is the actions of a few, but let's not kid ourselves that people didn't come from far and wide to participate."

The president of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, Keysar Trad, accused the media of whipping up racial tension.

"Sections of the media took this issue far too far, and one can only surmise that the way these issues was dealt with on talk-back radio amounts to incitement," he said.

Sydney has many beaches, but Cronulla is one of a few that is easily accessible by train and is often visited by young people from the poorer suburbs of western and southern Sydney. Area residents accuse the visitors of being disrespectful and of sometimes intimidating other beach-goers.

Following up with:

Riots shock Australian press

Two days of racially-motivated rioting on Sydney's beachfront has prompted shock and soul-searching in Australia's press.

Images of brawling youths are splashed across the front pages of all Australian newspapers, with headlines crying "shame", "race warfare" and "blood on the beach".

Many see the fighting between youths of European and Middle Eastern origins in the beach resort of Cronulla as a challenge to Australia's image as a modern and open society at ease with itself.

'Un-Australian'

"A nation's reputation for tolerance has been severely damaged," the Sydney Morning Herald says in its editorial.

"Australia has changed suddenly and inexplicably into an uglier and darker place," the paper adds, and believes Australia cannot carry on as usual.

"Australia is now in a racist cul-de-sac. To progress from here, the whole country needs to stop, examine what has gone wrong in Sydney's beachside suburbs, and find a way to reverse direction."

Writing in Melbourne's The Age, Tony Parkinson see a "tidal surge of intolerance" threatening the "breezy, open and inclusive" ethos symbolized by Australia's beach culture.

"What is happening could not be more un-Australian," he adds.

There feeling that the hatred on show in Sydney has been simmering under the surface for a long time is widespread.

Brisbane's Courier Mail speaks of a "ticking bomb of racial hatred" which "had to explode".

"Like a long-dormant volcano, the violence erupted with unexpected ferocity, as if some subterranean reservoir of hate could no longer be contained," Sydney's Daily Telegraph, says.

"Some hard lessons need to be learned," the paper warns, stressing the need for Australians to acknowledge the country's multi-cultural nature.

'Police matter'

But some agree with Prime Minister John Howard's insistence that the riots have not revealed a fundamental rift in Australian society.

"This is not so much a clash of civilisations but, rather, a series of disputes between some aggressive Australians of Lebanese Muslim background and a group of aggressive (and drunk) Australians of Anglo-Celtic background," Gerard Henderson writes in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Instead, he argues, the violence is a "police matter which should be resolved in the courts".

Sydney's The Australian agrees, and lays most of the blame at the door of the police and the government of the state of New South Wales.

"While this riot does not demonstrate Australia is an ethnically divided society, this is no reason to ignore its lessons", it says.

"At times the police appeared to have lost control of the streets to a drunken mob - yet another mark against the failing government of Premier Morris Iemma."

Most commentators believe both parties to the violence are equally to blame in a complex web of resentment.

"Whether it is young, angry, violent Lebanese men or young, angry, violent Cronulla locals, it makes no difference to me - they are all heading down a dangerous and destructive path," Salam Zreika - a woman of Lebanese origin - writes in The Age.

Source: BBC News
__________________________________________________

My thoughts from an Australia and currently resides in Sydney: (copy & paste)

An opinion from an Australia and currently resides in Sydney:

This is a demostration of an explosion of tensions between the different racial groups in Australia (its between the Celtic-Anglo and the Lebanese down at the beach; the Lebanese in Cronulla are pictured as "control-freaks"- so therefore, its natural that they retaliated) and it was only a matter of time when the hatred erupted in a very gruesome manner. Besides, they are much deeper reasons than alcohol from my experiences on the streets.

And this lovely quote sums everything that I want to say:

"If immigrants start respecting the ways of the country they move to, instead of imposing there way of life, religion, customs and language on the natives of that country, then maybe the natives will accept them. When I was in Brasil I didn’t insist that English was spoken in hospitals, doctors and schools. I didn’t insist on English food or religion. I adapted to their way of life, whilst still keeping my believes and culture without imposing it. Adapt and be accepted."

And knowly how the Lebanese gangs are; they are always up for revenge.

But what is morally wrong is that they use their national pride to mask their actions like wrapping themselves up with the Australian flag. Pretty damn sickening.

I know its kinda late to announce this, but I was waiting if anyone else cares.

So is there an australian way to racial violence? :rolleyes:

I know what you mean... I thought about announcing the whole Neo Nazi rally rioting that nearly demolished my old neighborhood a month back, but alas... didn't think anybody cared overly much.

But since this is similar to that... I am inspired to speak.

This kind of stuff points to the reason I hate most people in general - this whole 'eye for an eye' mentality. I'm a glutton for vengeance as much as the next guy, but I leave such thoughts where they belong - in my head. To go around whacking people with baseball bats is just as stupid as walking into a crowded room and blowing yourself up.

It can be just as deadly too. A baseball bat can kill a man just as easily as a bomb, you know. Sad thing is, a baseball bat is a lot easier to get in large numbers than a bomb, all all you need to do to kill somebody with it is swing hard enough. Of course, nobody bothers to think of that, they just figure they'd beat the **** out of somebody until their heads get smeared across the pavement.

The whole reactionary psycology of drunken groups of people is enough to make me sick when I think that otherwise these people are laid back and smarter than this (supposedly).

All violence like this does is hurt the community, that's all. No great change will occur in the society, all this does is smear the reputation of the country. Way to disrespect your own people, jackasses. :rolleyes:

Not that I know of.

Anyway, I reckon the media should stop conveying this with such a huge racial bias to these riots when its not. Its actually is a conflict between a couple of individuals and its just so to happen that the younger locals support this.

The French riots? omg, your from france?

Hmm, so much for my perception of Australia as doucehbag-free.

I live in Maroubra, and the riots have gotten a lot of attention. It's between the Lebs and the Australians, even the lebanese as far away as Brisbane are getting text messages. It's not called for, the original bashings weren't called for, and neither is the retaliation, so much for a multicultural country. It's not just over your race or your colour, it's simply dic*heads being dic*heads, and that's what it comes down to. I can appreciate what both parties are doing though, protection and respect are large issues, but the police should of put a stop to it before it got to the point of a hundred cars being smashed, or molotov cocktails being thrown at houses.

If you cant understand that I'm not going to explain it. Makes perfect sense.

I saw it as a bit of humour... that's all.

my familiy was down at dee why (a beach near cronulla, for those of you who dont live near sydney) so we didnt know about it till we got home. i hate this kind of violence because not the WHOLE of the lebenese community is involved. Some people are making it seem like the whole lebenses community or all australians in the area took part in the riots. not many people tgook part in them and fewer actually did damage to property.

No, Hetman, I'm American, residing in Toledo, Ohio.

The thing in France was not Neo Nazi-related, to the best of my knowledge.

A radioman in my local area invited the Neo Nazi's down to Toledo in order to solve all of the "gang problems" in the area. They came, wrecked the neighborhood, and left.

Last Saturday they came back, but they were Downtown, which the police promptly closed off so nothing happened.

There's recently been some people here sticking posters up at the railway stations that say things like "If the Austrailians can do it. We can too" and stuff like that.
I think that it is absolutely stupid.

Immigrants are welcomed into countries. If people are against the immigrants in their countries, they shouldn't take it out on the immigrants, they should go to the source - the people letting the immigrants into the country.

But really. Attacking innocent people just because you don't like their customs?
When people move to a new country, they bring their customs and religion with them. For many people, these are hard to let go of.
I don't think people should change their way of life, just because the majority of people in their country do it differently. I mean, you don't force a muslim to eat pork, just because you do.
As long as their customs don't harm the other people, I don't see what's wrong with it.

Many of my friends are from different cultures, and we accept it. We don't go forcing each other to do things that are against their beliefs.

"If immigrants start respecting the ways of the country they move to, instead of imposing there way of life, religion, customs and language on the natives of that country, then maybe the natives will accept them. When I was in Brasil I didn’t insist that English was spoken in hospitals, doctors and schools. I didn’t insist on English food or religion. I adapted to their way of life, whilst still keeping my believes and culture without imposing it. Adapt and be accepted"

Its not really about customs although I have mentioned customs because I felt that's one of the reasons that this situation arised from my personal experiences (The lebanese have been trying to 'take over' Cronulla for ages and people tried to take it back but lebanese keep on retaliating). Its about vengeance from the events a couple weeks before and the tension has been brewing for many years now. It was also to deliver a message to the lebanese but the saddest thing about this is that one race is being blamed for a minority's (relatively; but for teenagers-- its the majority) actions (I mean, who calls a girl/women in a bikini a 'slut' anyway?). This conflict is more based on attitude rather than race if you know the background facts behind this.

And I'm sick of people who yell "RACISM, RACISM" as their defense for everything...

However, here's a racist clip (not for all ages)


About the lifeguard story, here:

"On Sunday 4 December 2005, a group of male youths playing soccer on Cronulla beach, and described as being of Middle Eastern appearance were asked by the North Cronulla surf lifesavers to stop playing soccer, as it was disturbing other users of the beach. The response from the Middle Eastern youths was: "Get off our beach. This is our beach. We own it." Shortly thereafter either two or three surf lifesavers were assaulted."

If you're going to go on about immagration, then take a look at this. That is how crazy it is getting in Europe as the EU and UK governments are so weak against controlling what goes on, immigrants are allowed to claim all sorts of benefits, while having a main source of income too.
The courts of justice are swayed towards those who do not have their origins as British. Example:
White kills Eastern World guy. White in jail for 40 years.
Eastern World guy kills White. Eastern World guy in jail for 5 years.

Again, over here, not sure if it is the same elsewhere, but if you call a Pakistani a Paki, you are supposedly racist. Yet, it isn't racist to be called a Brit because your British? What's up with that? :blink:

That is the kind of differance that goes on, hardly justice now is it? :rolleyes:

The governing bodies are soon going to have one hell of a shake up if they don't want to be ruled by the 3rd World Countries.

Heh I once had a friend come up to me and say "Why is it all the minority groups (specificily refering to azns since I am one) claim racism for everything every time they feel threatened?"

@wolven The linky no work for me....