Australia was on Monday night in the grip of its worst race clashes since independence, with youths battering cars and shattering shop windows as violence spread through Sydney’s suburbs for a second day.
The attacks came in retaliation for Sunday’s violence, in which 5 000 people rampaged across Cronulla beach chanting racist slogans, leaving more than 40 police officers injured. Members of the crowd had wrapped themselves in the Australian flag and chanted: ”No more Lebs [Lebanese]”, attacking men and women of Middle Eastern appearance. Several victims were evacuated in police vans.
On Monday night, police made several arrests after more than 50 carloads of Middle Eastern men armed with baseball bats sought revenge in the southern Sydney suburb of Cronulla.
More than 500 mainly Muslim men also gathered outside a mosque at Lakemba, in the city’s south-west, after rumours that surf gangs were planning to attack the building. They later dispersed, throwing rocks and flares at police protecting the building.
Television images of the fighting shocked Australians, whose pride in their country’s tolerance was shaken by the level of popular support for Pauline Hanson’s anti-immigration One Nation party in the late 1990s. More recently, the Prime Minister, John Howard, won the 2001 election on a hard-line anti-immigration platform.
Police said neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups used Sunday’s protest to incite hatred.
”A lot of these people involved in the violence were not locals; they came from far afield looking for a fight,” said a long-time resident, who only wanted to be identified as Maree.
But Howard denied there was any ”underlying racism” behind the events.
”This nation of ours has been able to absorb millions of people from different parts of the world over a period of now some 40 years and we have done so with remarkable success,” he said.
Surfers and residents say racial tensions at the beach have simmered for years. Shaun Donohoe, a 24-year-old chef, said: ”[Lebanese Australians] look down on our women. They don’t really assimilate to our way of life. I’ve been at war with them for 10 years.”
Roland Jabbour, the chairperson of the Australian Arabic Council, said the unrest has been stoked by politicians and media commentators.
”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,” he said.
The spark for Sunday’s violence was an alleged attack on a Cronulla surf lifesaver by four Middle Eastern youths the previous weekend. But many locals claim that attack as part of a wider pattern of young Lebanese Australians gathering at Cronulla to harass people.
”There’s only so many times you can be sworn at and called disgusting names just because you swim in a bikini,” said Nicolle Dunk (17).
Elie Nassif, the president of the Lebanese Community Council, dismissed those claims on Monday.
”I don’t think that is true … they [Lebanese youths] don’t do that,” he said.
Malcolm Kerr, the Liberal MP for Cronulla, said locals are tired of being intimidated by gangs but should also be ashamed of Sunday’s violence.
Cronulla beach, immortalised in the novel and film Puberty Blues, has been the venue for earlier bouts of tension. The early 1960s saw pitched fights between surfers and other youths. But many have linked Sunday’s violence to broader issues in Australia. Bruce Baird, Cronulla’s state MP for Howard’s Liberal party, said rioters were taking revenge on Lebanese Australians for the 2002 Bali bombings.
The Lebanese youth leader Fadi Rahman said many young people in his community are beginning to wonder if they will ever feel accepted in Australia.
”Let’s not forget these kids are born and raised in Australia; they were not born and raised overseas,” he said. ”We’re heading for disaster as far as I’m concerned.” — Guardian Unlimited Â