Violence Rages In Australia For 2nd Night

Gold9472

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Violence Rages in Australia for 2nd Night

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/ap/2005/12/12/ap2386144.html

12.12.2005, 03:24 PM

Violence spilled into a second night Monday as scores of youths drove through predominantly white suburbs of Sydney, smashing windows of cars, homes and stores and raising fears of spreading racial unrest.

Prime Minister John Howard called the violence "sickening," but denied it was rooted in racism. Arab community leaders said the unrest would heighten racial tensions as cell phone text messages warned of retribution by the Arab community and attacks by neo-Nazi groups.

About 5,000 white men, many of them drunk, targeted people believed to be of Arab or Middle Eastern descent on Cronulla Beach on Sunday after rumors spread that Lebanese youths assaults two lifeguards earlier this month.

Police, who had stepped up patrols on the beach after learning of cell phone text messages urging people to retaliate for the attack on the lifeguards, fought back with batons and pepper spray.

Young men of Arab descent struck back in several Sydney suburbs Sunday, fighting with police for hours and smashing dozens of cars with sticks and bats, police said. They said 31 people were injured, including a white man who was allegedly stabbed in the back, and 16 arrested.

Carloads of youths also tore through the suburbs Monday night, attacking vehicles and throwing bottles through windows. While only one person was reported injured and six arrested, there appeared to be more damage to cars and stores than on Sunday.

Television images of Sunday's riot shocked Australians, who pride themselves on tolerance and credit an influx of immigrants with helping build up the country after World War II.

Tensions between youths of Arabic and Middle Eastern descent and white Australians have been rising in recent years, fueled by the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States and deadly bombings on Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Many Muslims also were angered over Howard's decision to contribute troops to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The president of the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, Keysar Trad, said the violence was "bound to happen" following angry calls to radio talk shows after the attack on the lifeguards. Police have denied the assault on the lifeguards was racially motivated.

The unrest recalled three weeks of rioting in France that began in the suburbs of Paris on Oct. 27 and spread nationwide, baring frustration in communities with high immigrant and Muslim populations.

Police spokesman Paul Bugden said he did not have descriptions of those involved in Monday night's rampage, but said it was linked to Sunday's rioting.

Witnesses told an Associated Press photographer that some youths involved in the attacks were Middle Eastern or Arabic in appearance and others wore ski masks. Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported that police said men of Middle Eastern appearance were involved.

New text messages calling for more violence reportedly were being circulated. "We'll show them!" one message said, according to The Australia newspaper.

Howard defended Australia's policy of tolerance, noting that the nation has successfully absorbed millions of foreigners. "I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country," he said.

His comments were clearly aimed at immigrants and their families. Howard repeatedly has come under criticism for refusing to apologize for past government abuses of Aborigines, Australia's poorest and least educated minority group.

Morris Iemma, premier of New South Wales state, said police would find those behind the violence. "Let's be very clear, the police will be unrelenting in their fight against these thugs and hooligans," he said.

About 300 people of Arab descent demonstrated against Sunday's attack outside one of Sydney's largest mosques, amid tight security.

"Arab Australians have had to cope with vilification, racism, abuse and fear of a racial backlash for a number of years, but these riots will take that fear to a new level," said Roland Jabbour, chairman of the Australian Arabic Council.

In the 2001 census, nearly a quarter of Australia's 20 million people said they were born overseas. The country has about 300,000 Muslims, most in lower income suburbs of large cities.

A resident of the predominantly white suburb of Brighton-Le-Sands, Steven Dawson, said a bottle thrown through his apartment window Monday showered his 5-month-old son with glass, but did not hurt the boy.

Horst Dreizner said a car was rammed through the front doors of his denture store. "Personally, I think it is only the beginning," he said by telephone.

The violence distressed residents of Sydney.

"What we have seen yesterday is something I thought I would never see in Australia," Community Relations Commission chairman Stepan Kerkyasharian told Sky News.

Religious leaders urged calm, with Roman Catholic Archbishop Cardinal George Pell urging people to "reject the extremists in both camps and work together so that this is the end of major disturbances, not the beginning of something worse."
 
Sad news. Why does anyone choose violence? Of coarse it escalates it always does. And obviously their is racial tension. I am sure there is more to the story.

Sad.
 
Howard defended Australia's policy of tolerance, noting that the nation has successfully absorbed millions of foreigners. "I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country," he said.
What a joke. Until the 1970's Australia was a virtual apartheid state. It's true that lots of foriegners came and were accepted into society - but they had largely two things in common - they were white and English was their first language. This was unoffically called the "White Australia Campaign" and it was not fully revoked until the early 70's.

But even today, one can see how differently treated whites and other immigrants are. I know several people (Irish, white, English speaking) who have gone over and stayed there. Meanwhile, the Aus govt runs what can only be called detention centres for 'non-white' asylum seekers. No, no racism at all.

And all that's without mentioning the discrimination faced by the Aboriginal population. One stunning figure is that Aboriginies - the original inhabitors of the land - now make up only 3% of the population, while they make up some 60% of the prison population (soure: John Pilger, New Rulers of the World). And there is currently a revisionist history movement - endorsed (I think) by Howard - that aims to rewrite the original colonists genocide against the aboriginies.

Yeah, no racist undertones there either.

If these white fuckers want to "get rid of the immigrants" they could lead by example and be the first to fuck off back to Europe.
 
Partridge said:
If these white fuckers want to "get rid of the immigrants" they could lead by example and be the first to fuck off back to Europe.
I hate that argument. I realize you mean those involved but all races are corrupt when you are dealing with the elite, what good comes from branding whites as fuckers and concurers, how does that help anyone, exept the elite?

Its time to stop blaming corruption and racism on whitey and start putting focus squarely on the elite leaders of every color and country. I'm not sure about austrailia but I hear a lot of racism againts whites coming out of america and if you want to talk history it is allways the most powerfull of any color that concur and begin to beleve thier own superiority over other races history shames us all.

Progression is not about the past or blame nor villifing certian groups it is about fixing the problems at hand.
 
I'm obvioulsy not really adovcating that white people be forced from Australia, or the US, or hispanics from Latin America etc. It was rhetoric - it just winds me up no end that people who are obvioulsy decendents of immigrants themselves start complaining about other ethnic groups 'coming over here and doing X, Y and Z'. The sheer stupidity of the argument enrages me, and especially in the case of Australia.

On several forums I used to post at, I'd often encounter white Aussies who would make the bizarre claim that "We're full, we have no room for foriegners". The population of Australia is a mere 20 million. That's just over four times the population of Ireland.

World%20Map.GIF


Compare the size of Ireland to Australia (Ireland, if you don't know, is the small pink island to left of Britain, just above the 'E' in 'Europe'). The reason the White Australia immigration campaign was started in the 50s was because there weren't enough people in Australia, they wanted to attract more.

But yeah, of course I realise the roots of racism lie in the divide and conquer tactics of the ruling class - better for them that peoples' who's common interests should be obvious (decent jobs with good pay and conditions, education, healthcare, transport, more leisuretime, crime reduction etc etc) are instead in conflict among themselves over the trivial issue of what part of planet earth they may have originally come from. And that's why I think that any serious anti-racism campaign cannot have its argumentative basis in the "why can't we all just get along" liberal camp, but in the "we need to struggle for better lives for everyone regardless of ethnicity, and this by its very nature necessitates a struggle against the ruling class and the system that it protects and which protects them". The only real minority in the world is the ruling class, and they are a minority that oppresses everyone.
 
Partridge said:
I'm obvioulsy not really adovcating that white people be forced from Australia, or the US, or hispanics from Latin America etc. It was rhetoric - it just winds me up no end that people who are obvioulsy decendents of immigrants themselves start complaining about other ethnic groups 'coming over here and doing X, Y and Z'. The sheer stupidity of the argument enrages me, and especially in the case of Australia.

On several forums I used to post at, I'd often encounter white Aussies who would make the bizarre claim that "We're full, we have no room for foriegners". The population of Australia is a mere 20 million. That's just over four times the population of Ireland.

World%20Map.GIF


Compare the size of Ireland to Australia (Ireland, if you don't know, is the small pink island to left of Britain, just above the 'E' in 'Europe'). The reason the White Australia immigration campaign was started in the 50s was because there weren't enough people in Australia, they wanted to attract more.

But yeah, of course I realise the roots of racism lie in the divide and conquer tactics of the ruling class - better for them that peoples' who's common interests should be obvious (decent jobs with good pay and conditions, education, healthcare, transport, more leisuretime, crime reduction etc etc) are instead in conflict among themselves over the trivial issue of what part of planet earth they may have originally come from. And that's why I think that any serious anti-racism campaign cannot have its argumentative basis in the "why can't we all just get along" liberal camp, but in the "we need to struggle for better lives for everyone regardless of ethnicity, and this by its very nature necessitates a struggle against the ruling class and the system that it protects and which protects them". The only real minority in the world is the ruling class, and they are a minority that oppresses everyone.
I agree. I do think it has more to do with economy than land mass, I don't know Australia too well, maybe they mean there are not enough jobs to support a major influx of foreigners, in cases like that I support limited immigration. Canada has this problem many skilled immigrants come here expecting a better life and find the market for their skill saturated they are forced to take jobs below their skill level and begin to resent white people, though the resentment should go to the Canadian government that touts Canada as a land of opportunity when really they are fishing for cheap labor to boost the economy. On another note, white men in Canada are feeling marginalized due to affirmative action, there was actually a government dept. that instituted a no white males hiring policy.

[url="http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=8b38e8a9-f7de-460b-9bd7-723991e9d12e"]http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=8b38e8a9-f7de-460b-9bd7-723991e9d12e[/url]

This did nothing but make things worse for minorities.

I agree with you its time to stop putting band aids on the issue or trying to cover it up with pr campaigns and actually address it.
 
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