Neo-Nazis blamed for Sydney riots

[emad]

Neo-Nazis blamed for Sydney riots

Staff and agencies
Monday December 12, 2005


The Australian prime minister today condemned yesterday's race riots in Sydney as "totally unacceptable" and called for ethnic and religious tolerance.

John Howard also denied the country had a problem with racism in the wake of the worst race riots ever witnessed in Australia.

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

"I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country. This nation of ours has been able to absorb millions of people from different parts of the world over a period of some 40 years and we have done so with remarkable success."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,12070,1665366,00.html

[purji]

1. weren't the neo-nazis the cause of the riots in Ohio too?n/t

[LostinVA]

2. According to my Aussie colleague, there is still LOTS of racism

in Australia... especailly in more rural areas.

[Warpy]

3. According to my friend in Sydney

the cops sat on the original incident for ages before the news got out, the incident where Lebanese fundies attacked a couple of lifeguards and then claimed their ownership of the beach.

It would sound really trivial were it not for the organized gang of Lebanese fundies arrested sometime last year for gang raping Aussie women (no veil, they were whores anyway).

There is a huge problem in Sydney right now, and it's not all the fault of the Aussies. There's plenty of wrong on both sides. The cops could have prevented all this had they done their fucking jobs and arrested the thugs who attacked the lifeguards.

Add alcohol and Neo Nazi propaganda, and it's a recipe for disaster.

[Solo_in_MD]

5. That is pretty much what the media has been saying

And it matches with many of the anecdotal reports like the one from your friend. From what time I spent "down under" the lifeguards/rescue people are given the highest respect. The soccer game attack on them really pissed people off. The rape incidents, including the cultural defense are not helping either.

I read that there were complaints from the local muslim religious leaders that the local media had whipped up anti Muslim feelings, but then again, that is exactly what is done in the mosques. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and step back, but somehow I think this is not over yet.

[Violet_Crumble]

13. Yeah, Alan Jones has been saying that...

You take notice of what racist twats like him have to say??

Sorry, but yr post comes across as attempting to justify attacks on Muslims in Australia, and as such it's pretty offensive...

Violet...

[Violet_Crumble]

12. They're not fundies!

They're one of the many ethnic gangs that have ZERO to do with religion....

And what happened has ZERO to do with the gang-rape that happened either. It's always amazing that people are so quick to blame Lebanese or Arabs for rapes, yet conveniently forget that some of the most horrendous crimes against women (the rape and murder of Anita Cobby and another woman soon after) were carried out by gangs of white Australians...

If yr friend in Sydney is feeding that crap to you, you need to get yr information from a more reliable source...

Violet...

[tlsmith1963]

9. The Aboriginal People Aren't Treated Well

From what I have heard.

Tammy

[Sven77]

4. aussies have no guns

the government took all their guns away.

[Eureka]

7. Completely untrue

Guns are not banned, just regulated.

You can legally own just about anything that is not semi-auto (for long arms) and you can get handguns.

This is a myth, normally trotted out to show as an example of "the Democrats want to ban guns".

Propaganda, myth, nonsense - don't believe it.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

8. So you take away peoples guns & they become white supremacists?

[Javaman]

6. "Race roit, don't buy it, we don't want that crap!" -D.O.A.

[eridani]

10. An email from a friend in Australia

Shared with permission.

It is a nightmare here at the moment. I am only thankful that none of this is happening near where I live and work. Tensions have been rising for years in the Sutherland Shire area. This area is predominantly white and is actually quite a racist area, non-whites are not accepted at all. Young Lebanese males take advantage of this tension and head out to the Shire and hassle young white women who are at the beach or having a night out. Things went from simmering below the surface to mass eruption when two Middle Eastern men, most probably Lebanese, attacked two local lifeguards on the beach two weekends ago. All during that week, there were mass emails and text messages encouraging white Australians to come to a demonstration to "Take Back our Beach". This demonstration had the backing of several extreme right-wing parties, parties that could safely be called Neo-Nazis. This weekend, mobs of young white males turned up to the "demonstration" tanked up with alcohol and looking for a fight. There was no real demonstration, it was more like murderous mob, all running around wearing Australian flags (which truly sickened me) and racists t-shirts. They didn't keep their anger directed towards young Lebanese males, but instead attacked anyone, both male and female, who even remotely looked Arab. There are reports of a mob of men running after a 13 year old Muslim girl and tearing off her head scarf, then parading around the streets holding it up as a trophy. Literally thousands of young men chased after a solitary 14 year old Arab boy who was simply going to the beach for a swim. There are reports of beatings at train stations and stabbings.

On Sunday night, the Lebanese community retaliated with young Lebs going around stabbing the first white man they saw and smashing up cars. Last night, the violence continued once more with more attacks
and vandalising cars. It will probably cycle like this unlike the police put the areas on a night-time curfew. To makes matters worse, it is summer here and school is out. We have thousands of young men that literally have nothing to do except plan and carry out revenge attacks.

It has got nothing to do with poverty or economics, in my opinion. These aren't exclusively poor or less well-off people. It has to do with race. White Australians who hate anyone who is different and Lebanese boys who have a cultural disrespect for women and who are caught between conflicting cultures. They don't really belong anywhere.

It doesn't help that our PM has won two elections based on white Australia's deeply ingrained dislike of immigrants and fear of terrorism. Of course, he is taking no responsibility whatsoever. His speeches on racism are so wishy-washy that they can be taken to support both sides of the argument. At least our state premier has come out strongly condemning the violence on both sides of the equation saying that it doesn't matter where you came from, you can't indulge in that kind of behaviour. What I found the most sickening was the politicians from the Neo-Nazi parties actively out there stirring up hatred - one of them even had a BBQ going with free food for whites only.

[rman]

11. "Attacking people on the basis of race and ethnicity is not racism"

"Attacking people on the basis of race and ethnicity" is exactly what's going on there.

But according to Howard it is not racism.
Welcome to wonderland.