From: "Rich Gauszka" 

"Gary Britt"  wrote in message
news:43a1b5b0$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> When one side starts burning churches it makes it more than racial I
> think.
> Prior to learning of the church burnings I said I thought it was racial
> only
> on both sides.
>
> Gary
>
>

It does seem ethnic. That's not to say that other extreme groups won't try
to use it to their advantage. Even 'the war on terror' is getting some
blame.

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-12-1
5T070224Z_01_SCH525293_RTRUKOC_0_US-AUSTRALIA-BEACH-VIOLENCE.xml
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.

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.



"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.

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