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Wow, another large-scale race-riot in Sydney? And you guys had gone all of what - 8 days since the last one? 
Seriously though, this is pretty damn pathetic. Some people will try to tell you that what happened yesterday isn't representative of the wider Australian ethos and that Australia is not inherently racist, but after ten years of conservative government, I'm not so sure anymore. The political reaction has been fairly predictable: condemnation of the riots, with the disclaimer that the events of yesterday were committed only by a small, non-representative segment of the community and that such sentiments are not refeclted in the views of "ordinary Australians". What we saw yesterday, however, was merely the physical manifestation of a sentiment that's been widely propogated by members of the media, the government and the public for months now. This was not in isolated incident, just the culmination of a series of smaller, less conspicuous incidents.
It all began after the London bombings, when John Howard came out and demanded that Muslim leaders unequivocally and very publicly comdemn them, under the threat of deportation (which is strange, because I don't ever remember him making similar demands of the priesthood in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks committed during his term by Catholics in Colombia, Spain and Britian). From here, the paranoia very quickly snowballed into the indiscriminate targetting of everything Islamic: from the banning of Islamic literature in bookshops, to discussions about banning hijabs in schools, to Liberal MPs mooting the irredeemable failure of multiculturalism in Australia in op-eds around the country, to a certain Liberal MP suggesting that we return to a policy of vetting potential immigrants on the basis of nationality and religion, to baseless hyperbole about the "clash of civilisations" in this country, to suggestions that "these people" should be forced to integrate with Australian norms and customs (whatever they might be), to widespread (yet completely misinformed) criticism of Islamic theology and practices on talkback radio everywhere.
The government's solution to ease this simmering tension was to introduce a series of laws - not so implicitly targetting Muslims - that would allow them to deport anyone, even Australian citizens, who offered vocal support for the "enemies" of this nation (i.e. "Osama bin Laden is a good man" or "the Iraqi insurgency has a legitimate gripe against Australian soldiers in that nation"), to deport or imprison anyone suspected of "sedition" (i.e. strongly speaking out against the activities and values of the government - I guess I'm fucked then!), to imprison - without having to lay a specific charge - anyone who may have "associated" with a "terrorist group" (the definition of "terrorist group" includes many Muslim charities and virtually any Wahibist / fundamentalist Islamic organisation) and to grant police greater "stop, search and seizure" powers (wonder which religious group is going to bear the brunt of that?). Most Muslim groups expressed concerns about Muslims being targetted specifically by these laws (which is, of course, true) but still, understandably, assented to them (could you imagine the backlash if they had refused to endorse "anti-terror" laws in the current environment?). The laws were also passed with the consent of the ALP, the opposition party, who really haven't offered much genuine opposition to the government's trampling of civil liberties and democratic freedoms under their past two leaders over the past few years.
In short, we have had our politicians (on both sides of the political divide) standing up in front of the Australian flag for months now, unfairly demonising Muslims and Islamic culture, passing Islamophobic laws under the pretence of "protecting our culture". These same politicians then express abject suprise when shirtless, drunken bogans drape themselves in the Australian flag and go trawling along local beaches for Muslim people to kick the ever-loving shit out of? My political friends, you may not have been quite so literal in your own actions, but you've still been doing exactly the same thing for months now. When you set the example of trampling all over an entire ethnic group under the pretense of nationalism, do not act so suprised when your supporters take it to the next, explicitly manifest level. When you create divisions in the community and persecute members of a religion who have done nothing wrong, then you have no right to take the moral highground and condemn what happened yesterday. Like tathi said, Mr Howard: welcome to your Australia.
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http://eschatonnow.blogspot.com/
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Anti-Purple Alliance.
