December 15, 2005

ANALYSIS - Sydney violence fuelled by race, ignorance and youth

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Racial tensions in Sydney that erupted into violence this week have been fuelled 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.

Police stop and check drivers' identities during an evening patrol in Cronulla in Sydney December 13, 2005. (REUTERS/Will Burgess)

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 fuelled 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, labelling 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, behaviour by Arab-Muslim youths. Some announcers broadcast calls for the defence 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 behaviour 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.

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