Racial clashes in Sydney Australia

I can't believe this, I am utterly shocked as an Australian. I live in Melbourne and we Melbournians (just my opinion) are considered a good deal more down to earth and less sensationalist than people in Sydney, but this is still shameful. I never saw this coming, nor did most people.

Thankfully no one has died, and to the best of my knowledge no critical or serious injuries seem to have occured apart from the one knifing which isn't fatal. I have mentioned before that certain parts of Sydney are breeding grounds for idiotic gang culture by youths who are well enough provided for but have too much free time and access to hyper-idiotic ideas, but I never anticipated anything on such a large scale. More appalling to me still is the level of organisation with which it took place, racism in Australia typically takes the form of a spur of the moment slur by an inconsiderate and frustrated person. This is an anomaly.

The psychotic mob which caused this, fuelled by hatred and alcohol, in no way represents the true egalitarian Australian spirit. In no other Australian city has this place, I don't think it will as Sydney is a particular case because of a high crime rate and the New South Wales state government seems to be bungling their job of promoting a multi-cultural society. The lunatics who organised this, the idiots who followed them, and the persons who instigated the violence will be brought to trial and punished. I have no doubt of that.

Leonidas, are you in Sydney? It has been a while since I was up there, so do you have any personal opinions of your own about these events? Oh and if I may point out, please do not use the word lynch when referring to the actions of the crowd as I am quite sure that often means for a mob to collectively decide to kill someone, which didn't happen. Cheers.

It is not Clashes between Arabs and Anglo Saxons broke out. It is: anti-Arab pogrom in Sydney.

Anyhow, as long as the government takes a tough stand in such racist attitudes, the situation shouldn't break out of control. It's worrying that there are ethnic clashes of this sort but it is good that the government and the police is standing tough on it.

OSMANLI wrote:
"Just hope all this stops. I hope and pray that another French riot does not happen."
its hard to imagine it would get that bad. Right now its still very tense. But racist aussie's cant tell the difference between Greeks, turks,  italians, arabs or anyone of our groups anyway, so many more people can get caught in the crossfire, if the police cant control it.

If u dont know already, we all get grouped as "wogs" in the general sense so if i was at cronulla (i knew not to go) i would of got bashed aswell.

Actaully i would like to hear from Ottoman_Turk on this


Edited by Leonidas

Well, this looks brutal...

Hope it doesn't get out of order... i have to say i don't know very much about your society, maybe you could enlighten me a little... all i know is that your GVT is pretty often right winged.

how are your integration policies working out?

do you have a lot of racism in Australia? if yes, which are the main minorities are targeted?

I had some friends that studied in syndney and one of them got beaten up by a bunch of malaysians (i think) or indonesians...

Cheers.

it has created a huge public backlash against extremism

The white Aussie behaviour can be described as 'Extremism'

UPDATE:

Young people riding in vehicles smashed cars and
store windows in suburban Sydney late Monday, a
day after thousands of drunken white youths
attacked people they believed were of Arab descent
at a beach in the same area in one of Australia's
worst outbursts of racial violence.

Sunday's attack - apparently prompted by reports that
Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards -
sparked retaliation by young men of Arab descent in
several Sydney suburbs, fighting with police and
smashing 40 cars with sticks and bats, police said.
Thirty-one people were injured and 16 were arrested
in hours of violence.

The rampage on Monday broke out in Cronulla, the
same coastal suburb where the violence began, and
in neighboring Carringbah, said Paul Bugden,
spokesman for New South Wales police. Calm was
restored by early Tuesday.

Bugden said six people were arrested and one
person apparently was hit by a rock in Monday's
violence. He did not have descriptions of those
involved in the rampage, but he said it "obviously
stems from the last 24-48 hours."

Australian Associated Press, citing a resident who
declined to be named, said men riding in up to 50
cars and wielding baseball bats converged on
Cronulla, smashing cars. Ambulances were called
to help at least one injured man seen lying on the
side of the road.

Steven Dawson said a bottle thrown through his
apartment window in the suburb of
Brighton-Le-Sands showered his 5-month-old son
Caleb with glass, but did not hurt the child.

Horst Dreizner said a car had rammed into his
denture store and he feared the violence would
escalate. "Personally, I think it is only the beginning,"
he said in a telephone interview.

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

The riots began Sunday after rumors circulated that
youths of Lebanese descent were responsible for an
attack last weekend on two lifeguards at Cronulla
Beach. Police said the assault was not believed to
be racially motivated.

Police, meanwhile, formed a strike force to track
down the instigators of the attack, some of whom
were believed to be from white supremacist groups.
Police said they were also seeking an Arab man
who allegedly stabbed a white man in the back.

Morris Iemma, the premier of New South Wales
state, said police would use video images and
photographs to track down the instigators. "Let's be
very clear, the police will be unrelenting in their fight
against these thugs and hooligans," he said.

Prime Minister John Howard condemned the
violence, but said he did not believe racism was
widespread in Australia.

"Attacking people on the basis of their race, their
appearance, their ethnicity, is totally unacceptable
and should be repudiated by all Australians
irrespective of their own background and their
politics," Howard said.

But he added: "I'm not going to put a general tag (of)
racism on the Australian community."

Australia has long prided itself on accepting
immigrants - from Italians and Greeks after World
War II to families fleeing political strife in the Middle
East and Southeast Asia. In the last census in 2001,
nearly a quarter of Australia's 20 million people said
they were born overseas.

However, tensions between youths of Arabic descent
and white Australians have been rising in recent
years, largely because of anti-Muslim sentiment
fueled by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the
United States and deadly bombings on the
Indonesian island of Bali that killed 202 people,
including 88 Australians, in October 2002.

About 300,000 Muslims live in Australia, the majority
in large cities.

"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.

Police had increased the number of officers
patrolling the beach in the Sydney suburb on Sunday
after cell phone text messages urged people to
gather there to retaliate for the attack on the
lifeguards.

Police said more than 5,000 white youths, some
wrapped in Australian flags and chanting racist
slurs, fought with police, attacked people they
believed to be of Arab descent and assaulted a pair
of paramedics trying to help people escape the riot.

Police fought back with batons and pepper spray.

Many of the youths had been drinking heavily, police
said. One white teenager had the words "We grew
here, you flew here" painted on his back. Someone
had written "100 percent Aussie pride" in the sand.
TV broadcasts showed a group of young women
attacking another woman, whose ethnicity was not
clear.

The violence shocked this city of 4 million that
considers itself a cultural melting pot.

"What we have seen yesterday is something I
thought I would never see in Australia and perhaps
we have not seen in Australia in any of our lifetimes
and that is a mass call to violence based on race,"
Community Relations Commission chairman
Stepan Kerkyasharian told Sky News.

Cronulla Beach, which is easily accessible by train
but is not a popular destination for foreign tourists, is
often visited by youngsters from poorer suburbs,
many of them of Arab descent. Residents accuse the
youths of traveling in gangs and sometimes
intimidating other beachgoers.

Aborigines rioted in the Sydney neighborhood of
Redfern in February 2004 after blaming police for the
death of a 17-year-old boy. Forty police were
wounded.

*****************************

You know, human nature amazes me. It's almost the
same as in Kosovo. If you replace "Two lifeguards
beaten, allegedly by Lebanese men" with "Two
Albanian boys drowned after being chased into a
river, allegedly by two Serb men and their dogs" -
and the reaction is almost identical? If you allow
some differences caused by the scale of past
experiences, and consequently the scale of this
reaction, then they are practically identical.

Human beings are so weird.

I just love how these supremacists are always the
ugliest, least educated, rubbish of their respective
nationalities.

I know that sounds bad, and fairly supremicist in
itself... but seriously? They're always the hicks.
People whose mothers put out their cigarettes only
long enough to refill the glass and take a few swipes
at her kids.

It is not Clashes between Arabs and Anglo Saxons broke out. It is: anti-Arab pogrom in Sydney.

I find it quite surprising that people keep saying racism is foreign to Australia. Western migrants have almost exterminated the indigenous peoples in Australia. IIRC, Aborigines could not keep their children until 1960s and immigration laws were based on race until 1970s!

Combine the racist tradition with a macho culture, what is there to be surprised at these pogrom?

Originally posted by MAJU It is not Clashes between Arabs and Anglo Saxons broke out. It is: anti-Arab pogrom in Sydney. Anyhow, as long as the government takes a tough stand in such racist attitudes, the situation shouldn't break out of control. It's worrying that there are ethnic clashes of this sort but it is good that the government and the police is standing tough on it.

Actually it is not a pogrom, two different ethnic blocs are attacking eachother whilst the government and law enforcement authorities, as you mentioned, are literally risking life and limb to put an end to it. There are 4 million people living in Sydney, while perhaps only 300 or 400 people at maximum are participating in violent activities. By and large the community condemns these actions.

Originally posted by sedamoun Well, this looks brutal... Hope it doesn't get out of order... i have to say i don't know very much about your society, maybe you could enlighten me a little... all i know is that your GVT is pretty often right winged. how are your integration policies working out? do you have a lot of racism in Australia? if yes, which are the main minorities are targeted? I had some friends that studied in syndney and one of them got beaten up by a bunch of malaysians (i think) or indonesians... Cheers.

The government here isn't all that right winged, it follows liberal economic policies but is still extremely strong about providing social welfare. From an immigration and social welfare perspective it is one of the least right-wing governments on the planet. The integration policies are generally working out well, this riot is unprecedented for Australia. In terms of racism in Australia, as I mentioned it typically takes the form of the occasional slur by less responsible members of society. Mainstream society lives and works together well.

Minorities targeted? Well this brings me to another very interesting point. Most racism in Australia does not take place because of the Anglo population, most of it is caused by existing rivalries between migrant groups who have historical hatreds. The Vietnamese and Chinese hate eachother, Turks and Greeks clash from time to time, as Mila mentioned the Serbs and Croats have been at eachother's throats at soccer riots simply because of existing hatred. Those soccer riots were almost purely carried on by the Serb-Croat minority. The number of inter-minority killings for 2005 would most likely exceed one hundred, yet the Sydney riot saw two serious injuries and no fatalities to date. In Melbourne the South European and East Mediterannean mafia, divided along ethnic lines, went to war, killing eachother off. Some 26 prominent crime figures have been killed over the past five years as the two sides wipe out eachothers' leaders (this figure excludes minor henchmen killed). Some Chinese men, after a few racist exchanges, chased three Vietnamese men into the Yarra river in the middle of the city of Melbourne earlier in the year and butchered them with knives.  Many more incidents like this have occured.This is the typical type of racial killing in Australia. Your average Anglo might get verbally nasty on occasion, but violence is typically inflicted by one minority onto another.

Originally posted by Beylerbeyi I find it quite surprising that people keep saying racism is foreign to Australia. Western migrants have almost exterminated the indigenous peoples in Australia. IIRC, Aborigines could not keep their children until 1960s and immigration laws were based on race until 1970s! Combine the racist tradition with a macho culture, what is there to be surprised at these pogrom?

So what exactly are you trying to do? Paint the Aussies as some sort of deputy Nazi, masochistic culture with a racist past. Yes, we do have a racist past. So does virtually every other country on the planet. Infact if you wanted to list the number of countries without a racist past, you could probably do so on the fingers of one hand. The fact is though that today is one of the most tolerant and multi-cultural nations in the world, I will freely say this inspite of the Sydney riots (which are an anomaly).

Firstly, don't say that Anglo invaders followed a policy of genocide against the indigenous population. The vast bulk of aboriginal deaths occured because their population, having been isolated for tens of thousands of years, did not have an immune system strong enough to resist diseases from the Old World. Certain incidents of killing did take place, but skirmishes between European farmers and aboriginal tribesmen hardly consistute a pre-conceived program of genocide. Check these facts before labelling Australians as genocidal.

Secondly, yes a program of removal of children did take place during the 1950s from aboriginal families. It was wrong, both our government and our people have expressed regret at these actions and today the Australian welfare system gives aboriginal peopleby far the best welfare deal and assistance available to anyone. At the time, many aboriginies lived in stone age conditions (I do mean to be derogatory, it is simply a fact) and high infant mortality and low standards of living with no access to education prompted the government of the day to take these children into government care.

Again, I don't see why you bring up these things which happened generations ago. It seems you are trying to make a character assassination of Australians as a whole. On the issue of stolen children, I can think of some other historical examples of governments taking ethnically different subjects from their parents to remind you of which makes 1950s Australia look quite pleasant by comparison. But I will not, as we are here to discuss important issues and not drag up occurances of generations ago in order to smear the good names of whole nations of people.

For those here who have jumped on the bandwagon and decided to call one of the most liberal democratic states in the world a cess-pool of racism I should remind them that Australia's intake of refugees per capita is the second highest in the world after Canada. Australia's government since Prime Minister Whitlam in the mid 1970s has been one of active multiculturalism, overall it has been a large success with urban centres such as Melbourne and Sydney presenting a smorgasboard of international culture. The riot in Sydney is an abnormality without precedent, the very reason the media is attaching such hype to it is that this is the first of its kind in Australia.

Incidentally the mayors of both Melbourne and Adelaide are both originally from China, yet somehow have made it into the highest echelons of society. The riots in Sydney are a result of delinquent gang culture, with those actually participating in unlawful activities being of small numbers. Their activities have been roundly condemned as un-Australian by community and political leaders, while police and emergency services have responded to the situation with a speed and effectiveness which is commendable.

The incident in question is one which is a result of long strained tensions in the area between two ethnic groups who have a tediously long history of minor altercations. Those responsible for the violence are gang members, of both ethnicities, and it is these people who will be brought before the law and made to pay for breaking it. Gang members on both sides are responsible for the incident, both will be punished in accordance with the law.

Supposidly they are 'petrolheads' and 'bogums'.
Not sure what that is.

Where does Azimuth live again?