Sydney violence fueled by race, ignorance and youth

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Racial tensions in Sydney that erupted
into violence this week have been fueled by fear due to the war
on terrorism, alienation, ignorance, territorialism and
youthful arrogance, social commentators say.

Australia is a nation built of migrants, where more than
200 languages are spoken. But there is an underlying ignorance
among ethnic groups, especially between white and Arab groups.

Tensions have been simmering for years between the two
groups, exacerbated by the campaign against terrorism, say
academics who study Sydney’s ethnic groups.

Muslims, who make up less than 2 percent of the population,
say they are the target of abuse and feel alienated, while many
in the dominant Anglo-Australian population feel threatened.

“We are defending ourselves. We are not racist,” said a
young Lebanese Muslim man who identified himself only as
Youssef.

Sydney’s cocktail of fear, alienation and youthful anger
mirrors that which sparked three weeks of rioting in France in
November by youths of Arab and African origin.

“We are just getting a sample of what happened in France a
few months ago,” says national Labor opposition politician
Harry Quick.

Rioters in France complained of high unemployment and
exclusion from mainstream society.

The Australian government is a staunch U.S. ally, sending
troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, and has used security as a
major issue in its last two election victories.

Many Australians believe Prime Minister John Howard’s focus
on security and his tough stance against illegal migrants has
fueled xenophobia, just like former right-wing politician
Pauline Hanson and the One Nation party did in the mid-1990s.

“His racial profiling disguised as ‘anti-terrorism’ fed the
emergence of this ugly aspect of extreme right-wing politics,”
Catholic priest Roy O’Neill wrote in a letter in the Sydney
Morning Herald on Wednesday.

Police say white supremacists urged on violence at Sydney’s
Cronulla Beach last Sunday when mobs of white youths attacked
people of Middle East appearance, asserting they were defending
the beach from Lebanese gangs. The ultra-nationalist Australia
First said it had more than 100 people in the crowd at
Cronulla.

“Race-based populism by the government is now coming back
to bite,” said Scott Poynting, associate humanities professor
at the University of Western Sydney, who has studied Lebanese
youths.

Howard has dismissed suggestions his government’s warnings
about home-grown terrorists fanned the racial violence,
labeling it a law and order problem, not racism.

Social and political commentators say there has been a
shift in Australia’s political culture since the Sept 11. 2001
attacks on the United States, and exacerbated by bombings in
Bali where Australians died, and the London bombings in July.

“A series of international events have shaped a negative
perspective of Muslims in the West,” said Michael Humphrey,
professor of sociology at the University of New South Wales.

Humphrey said the war on terrorism has resulted in an
“enemy within mentality” which has led to tough new
anti-terrorism laws in Australia, which many Muslims fear are
aimed at them.

“Suddenly the enemy is there, the symbol of the headscarf,
that signifies the enemy,” Humphrey told Reuters.

YOUTH REBELLION AND TERRITORY

A series of high profile criminal cases involving Muslims,
especially the gang rape of young Sydney girls in 2000 by
Muslim men and recent terrorist trials of Muslims, has deepened
the divide.

Sydney’s talkback radio announcers call for tougher
policing to curb what they see as anti-social, or even
criminal, behavior by Arab-Muslim youths. Some announcers
broadcast calls for the defense of the “Aussie way of life” at
Cronulla.

Unemployment is high among Lebanese Australians and a
culture of loose-knit street gangs has emerged. These gangs
have adopted the gansta rap culture of inner-city America and
are not religious based, as they include Muslim and Christian
Lebanese.

Some gangs commit crimes but mostly they reflect the
testosterone-fuelled behavior of young men who feel alienated,
say commentators.

“They are just young men hanging around, taking up space,
being noisy, sometimes being perceived by people as
threatening,” said Poynting. “They feel excluded when they are
told they don’t belong in a country in which they were born in
and grew up in.”

The traditional territorial divide between Sydney’s western
suburbs, where many migrants have settled, and its affluent
beachside communities, has also provided a landscape for a
“them” and “us” mentality and a clash of youth gangs.

In recent years, Arab-Muslim youths have angered surfers by
driving their hotted up cars to the beach to show off and
sometimes illegally race. Local beach girls complain of verbal
abuse when they reject approaches from Arab-Muslim youths.

All that was needed to turn all these tensions into
violence was a spark and that was the bashing of two young
Cronulla lifeguards two weeks ago by a group believed to be
Lebanese.

But by week’s end surfers and Arab-Muslim youths held
“peace talks,” calling for calm and declaring the beach for all
Australians. Yet racist mobile telephone text messages
continued to circulate in the city calling for violence next
weekend.