Thugs ruled the streets, and the mob sang Waltzing Matilda

A BARE-CHESTED youth in Quiksilver boardshorts tore the headscarf off the girl's head as she slithered down the Cronulla dune seeking safety on the beach from a thousand-strong baying mob.

Up on the road, Marcus "Carcass" Butcher, 28, a builder from Penrith, wearing workboots, war-camouflage shorts and black singlet bearing the words "Mahommid was a camel f---ing faggot" raised both arms to the sky. "F--- off, Leb," he cried victoriously.

It was one last act of cowardly violence on a sad and shameful day that began as a beach party celebrating a kind of perverted nationalism that was gatecrashed by racism.

A crowd of at least 5000 - overwhelmingly under 25 - took over Cronulla's foreshore and beachside streets. Police were powerless as 200-odd ringleaders, many clutching bottles or cans of beer and smoking marijuana, led assaults on individuals and small groups of Lebanese Australians who risked an appearance during the six-hour protest.

The horde swirled after fleeing individuals, sometimes sweeping past police lines and horses, chasing a quarry who sought safety in restaurants, shops, toilet blocks and ambulances and police vehicles. Some were snatched by police, who stood against the swarm and repelled the most violent with capsicum spray.

After a local man, "Steely", had led a chant of "F--- off, Lebs", a young man demanded the megaphone and told the crowd it was "racist". A bottle arced in from the audience and shattered on his forehead. He fled "like a bleeding rabbit", someone yelled after him.

Sometimes when a victim was cornered, the mob started singing Waltzing Matilda. Advance Australia Fair was similarly employed against obstructing police, and the usually good-natured "Aussie Aussie Aussie" chant in the mouths of the Cronulla crew assumed a menacing tone.

Cronulla was possibly Australia's biggest racist protest since vigilante miners killed two Chinese at Lambing Flat in 1860.

Yesterday's violence had been brewing for months. It came to a head last weekend when some Lebanese Australian men attacked members of the North Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club after they asked the visitors to stop playing soccer because it was disturbing other beach users.

"Steely" - who did not want to identify himself "for fear the Lebs will come and shoot up my joint during the week" - said his children had been scared by Lebanese Australians coming in from the western suburbs.

"I've got a four-year-old girl and a boy who's 11, and they see these bastards come here and stand around the sea baths 'cos their women have got to swim in clothes and stuff, or they see them saying filthy things to our girls," he said. "That's not Australian. My granddad fought the Japs to see Australia safe from this sort of google, and that's what I'm doing today."

he word went out last week that the Shire boys would not take it lying down any more. Yesterday was shaping as a giant clash if Lebanese Australians came to run the gauntlet.

Cronulla has been an iconic surf suburb since the early 1960s, when the surfboard craze hit. It has a tribal surf culture shaped by violence and substance abuse.

Its first surfing hero, Bobby Brown, died after being sliced by a beer glass in a hotel in 1967.

Cronulla was the setting for Puberty Blues, the brutal book and film about girls growing up in the surf culture. Many of its surfing heroes have had difficult lives, not the least Mark Occhiluppo, who came back from virtual career oblivion to take the world surfing title in 1999.

Cronulla has long been the scene of battles with outsiders. The early 1960s saw pitched fights between "westies" and "surfies". Then, the media portrayed them as wars between teenage subcultures, but they always had an economic if not class element to them. It was a time when the White Australia policy still existed and nobody thought it was based on racism.

Things have changed. So yesterday "Da Boys" - the Cronulla locals - turned up early, and by 10am a party atmosphere was already evident.

Two-storey apartments were bedecked in bizarre bunting ranging from Australian and Eureka flags to "Merry Christmas" signs and Bundaberg Rum polar bear cut-outs.

On the streets, Australian flags fluttered on most cars, Cold Chisel and Men At Work boomed out of stereo systems and there were patriotic T-shirts with kangaroos, swear words and puns. Beer soaked everything.

Todd Russell, a concrete pourer from one of the apartments up the road from the riot site, was among the first to arrive and was giving away sausages cooked on a barbecue on the back of his ute, "to get everyone in the mood to be a real Aussie". He had put up a sign saying "No tabouli".

He was enthusiastically handing out brochures headed "Immigration out of control" and "Your teachers are lying to you" to passers-by."Don't know what this google is, mate. It's just stuff. I agree with it, whatever it is," Russell said. "Look, these Lebs are coming here and giving us google and we're not going to take it any more."

Behind him, John Moffitt of the Australia First Party was smiling to himself. He had been handing out political pamphlets to some of the flag and beer can-bedecked teenagers most of the morning and they were merrily distributing them to the committed, the curious and the repulsed. "This is a great day. Australia is now seeing what the policies of the last 30 years are reaping," Moffitt said.

Paul Wilson, a local accountant who wants to start a political movement he has called Sons of Anzacs, led the mob with a couple of megaphone chants but said he was disgusted at the abuse of Lebanese immigrants.

He said the protest was really just an extension of the sorts of things Pauline Hanson was warning about when she entered national life in 1996.

"Nobody listened to her really and look what's happened. Mind you, it's a shame that it came to this. I don't agree with the racist stuff. It frightens a lot of people off but it still a true reflection of what being a real and proud Australian is to many of us. You deny that, you're mad," he said.

The crowd's first likely target was sighted just after 11am. He copped a punch from a local before fleeing to the safety of the Northies hotel sports bar, where a police line stopped the hunters in their tracks and he was whisked from the building.

Over the next six hours there were sporadic outbreaks when the mob thought it spied a Lebanese Australian intruder.

Many in the melee took photographs on mobile phones as they contacted people to join the fray or just to check out the fun. "It's a pisser," said Michael Bedford, of Sylvania. "Shire forever."

As police tramped in quick-time from flashpoint to flashpoint, many in the crowd ridiculed their efforts. "Hup, hup, hup. Left, right, left, right. Sound off - that's right, dudes, go get 'em," a group yelled in unison, before showering police with beer.

At one point, thousands rushed up the hill to the Cronulla Mall and headed for the railway station, nearly a kilometre away, where two men were taken and beaten. Sated, the crowd returned to the beachfront.

While bedlam ruled, the North Cronulla SLSC did its best to ignore the unlovely spectacle, calmly continuing with the launching ceremony of a new surfboat, the Graham "Cashy" Cachia.

Meanwhile, down the beach, the Lebanese Australian girl's three male friends were being chased through apartments as her headscarf was being born off as some sort of souvenir. At the boat ceremony, a 13-year-old boy, a nipper with the club, turned from the boat to the noise swelling from the crowd north of the clubhouse.

"Get her!" he yelled. On his bare back were the words in black felt pen: "We crew here. You flew here."

Sydney Morning Herrald

This post has been edited by /dev/null: Dec 12 2005, 12:41 PM

thats some crazy a$$ stuff there. I saw it on the news very very disenchanting!!!!!

PM refuses to use racist tag


Two youths, who looked Middle Eastern, on a train at Cronulla are jeered by a mob outside.

Prime Minister John Howard has condemned the race-based attacks in Sydney, but says they don't mean Australia is a racist nation.

``I do not accept there is underlying racism in this country,'' Mr Howard said today following yesterday's race riots at Cronulla Beach.

``I have always taken a more optimistic view of the character of the Australian people.''

Up to 5,000 people descended on North Cronulla Beach, chanting racist slogans and attacking people of Middle Eastern appearance in what NSW Premier Morris Iemma today condemned as the ``ugly side of racism''.

The violence sparked apparent reprisal attacks late last night, with cars damaged at Maroubra Beach.

``Mob violence is always sickening,'' Mr Howard told reporters.

``Attacking people on the basis of their race, their appearance, their ethnicity, is totally unacceptable and should be repudiated by all Australians irrespective of their own background and their politics,'' he said.

``I believe yesterday's behaviour was completely unacceptable but I'm not going to put a general tag (of) racism on the Australian community.

``I think it's a term that is flung around sometimes carelessly and I'm simply not going to do so.''

Mr Howard also dismissed any suggestion his government's warnings about home-grown terrorists had fuelled the rampage.

``It is impossible to know how individuals react but everything this government's said about home-grown terrorism has been totally justified,'' Mr Howard said.

``It is a potential threat. To suggest that one should remain silent ... knowing what I know because that might antagonise someone else is a complete failure of leadership.''

Australian society remains tolerant and decent and most of the community does not want to allow a culture of tribalism to develop, he said.

``Put simply, most Australians want a nation where, irrespective of their background and always respecting the right of people to maintain affection for their own culture, ... we should encourage to the maximum extent possible everybody to become part of the integrated Australian community.

``Any emergence of so-called ethnic gangs is a manifestation of tribalism and something ... we should try to discourage.

``And one of the aims of policy should be to reduce it.''

Asked whether yesterday's violence was an example of tribalism, Mr Howard said: ``No''.

``I think yesterday was fuelled by the always explosive combination of a large number of people at the weekend and a large amount of alcohol.

``Plus there's an accumulated sense of grievance - the full extent of which I don't pretend to know.''

Mr Howard said he fully supported the actions of police at Cronulla and anybody who broke the law yesterday or on the previous weekend, when two lifeguards and a camera crew were assaulted, should be apprehended and prosecuted.

He warned anyone considering further violent behaviour would face the full force of the law.

``Nobody in this country has a right to take the law into their own hands.''

Asked for a response to remarks by Mr Howard, who said he would not label Australians as racists, NSW Premier Morris Iemma said: "Look, it was un-Australian what happened at the weekend."

"Equally, the incident of the previous week where the lifesaver was also assaulted was also a cowardly act.

"It does not matter what brought you there to the beach, which side you're on as far as the issue of the incident or the debate, you don't take the law into your own hands, you don't seek retribution.

"This behaviour has no place in our society.

"The message is a very simple one, the beaches and the streets are there for everyone and they're to be shared equally by all."

Mr Iemma was later again asked about Mr Howard's remarks, and whether he believed the prime minister was "in denial".

"It was quite clear, quite clear from the vision and the sound, both of what was on television and those that were there, those sorts of remarks, that 'sloganeering' that was taking place, was something that was utterly racism," Mr Iemma said.

"And the incidents that occurred the week before were just as ugly, thuggish and cowardly.

"Now, let's remember how this started, that was, a cowardly attack on an Australian icon.

" ... But for those that seek retribution, there will be an unrelenting fight to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

" ... There are not going to be no-go areas for anyone in this city. This country is there for everyone to share peacefully."

Asked again about the government's preparedness for the weekend riots, Mr Iemma said apart from the police arrangements, authorities had last week been in contact with community leaders in the Cronulla area.

"The combination of incitement and alcohol, as well as people wanting to take matters into their own hands, produced that situation and the police response was appropriate," he said.

"They're to be praised for their professionalism and the measures that they took and they have our support and our backing."

AAP

Umm.. I don't really get whats going on. Lebanese Australians are being attacked, yes? By.. those who believe they don't belong here because they dont fit the category of what it means to be Australian?

And.. the Lebanese Australians didn't do anything to trigger it off did they?

'What is Australian anyway?'

By Edmund Tadros
December 12, 2005 - 4:16PM

There was a sense of dismay and frustration as people in the predominantly Muslim community of Lakemba came to terms today with scenes of drunken youths in Cronulla demanding they leave the country.

"The boys in the fight yesterday, they 25 years old. I've been here longer," said 50-year-old Abdul Darwich.

"I got my citizenship before they were born."

Mr Darwich, who has been in Australia for 30 years after leaving Lebanon, said he was frustrated when he watched the youths on the television last night talking about having Australia for Australians.

"What is Australian anyway?"

He said the fighting wasn't between Australian and Lebanese gangs. It was between kids.

A Lakemba cafe owner, Mohumad - who did not want to give his surname - said: "The main concern among my customers is that this is going to get bigger and bigger. A lot are also disappointed that it has come to this."

A 21-year-old bearded South American called Raymond, who also did not want to give his surname and who has been travelling from Wollongong one or two times a week to surf at Cronulla, said the riots had persuaded him not to return for six months.

"There are not going to turn around and say 'what's your nationality?' and say 'Oh you're South American, that's OK'," he said. "I don't want to get involved in the violence in any way."

Long-time Hurstville resident Ellie Kennedy, who is originally from Egypt, said she only felt safe going to a suburb like Lakemba to eat lunch with her friends, Fatma Ashmur and Arlene Cranmer.

She said after watching the scenes of rioting on television it was the first time she had felt fear about going to certain areas of Sydney.

"I would not go [to Cronulla] now and would not allow my children to go there," she said.

Ms Ashmur, 18, who is on a six-month study exchange from Egypt, said her parents had called concerned about her safety after seeing the trouble on the news in Egypt.

She said she was not scared but she was very glad to be going home.

In Cronulla, locals said today they were in shock and many refused to be named, too scared of retribution for their comments.

One resident who identified himself only as Rob, 42, said he had grown up in the area and knew there were problems with certain gangs congregating at the beach and causing trouble.

"It was like Australia Day gone crazy," he said.

"Most of those people weren't even from here. They just were all looking for a party."

Rob, who saw some of the anti-social behaviour at the beach while taking his children to a nippers' carnival, said he had often felt intimidated by youths of an ethnic background at the beach.

"There should be more police so they can respond to the problems quicker," he said.

Today, there was a small police presence at the beach with a few patrol vehicles and some officers watching over the area from the surf lifesaving club, which was turned into a police command post during the unrest.

A store owner, who did not wish to be named, said she felt "ashamed to be Australian" after yesterday's violence.

And another woman, Nola, 50, who does not live in the area but has used the beach for 20 years, said she did not realise tensions had escalated so dramatically.

"I'm sorry it has happened. It just makes everything worse," she said.

- with AAP

supposadly the 3 lifesavers bashed were bashed by ethnics, thats what triggred it, from chanel 9 news.

not supposedly, they did. it was only one lifesaver and he was bashed by gang members who were middle-eastern, most likely lebanese. gangs/groups of thugs from middle-eastern background have been down in cronulla harrassing beach goers for a while now. i actually know some people who live in cronulla who have been spat on, robbed, one of their friend's sisters was raped, etc. by these gangs. ii believe this was the last straw. of course, this does in no way justify the racism that occured in retaliation but something has to be done about these gangs as well as the racist thugs that turned out in force. both sides need to be accountable for such bad behaviour.

Subhan Allah, so much antagonism..

Thanks for the summary

Sickening. A truly sad day in our history.

scary and very disturbing stuff.

So much double standard! SubhanAllah

I don't see the australians having to appologise for what a handfull of individuals did on their behalf, carrying Australian flags, while the whole Global Muslim community Must always appologise for what criminals do hiding behind islam. Even worse they refuse to acknowledge the truth. A slogan on a shirt saying "Ethnic Clensing Unit" is obvious racism and that's ignored. They did not target Muslims nor they were targetting only middle easterners but all those who were 'ethnics' incuding Greeks and Italians etc. all this eventhough there are Australian and some older then them. SubhanAllah I feel the multiculturalism this country should and does proudly stand for is being comprimised. I do agree the hot head, violent youth that reacted by violance should be punished accordigly but avoiding the root of the issue would be a crime.

Yeah, I guess we are becoming a world of double standards. Both sides make me sick, and the lot of them should be locked up. It didn't start out as a "muslim" thing.. and let's pray it does not become such.

I've been reading a lot about it here: http://forums.muslimvillage.net/index.php?showtopic=17573 and have learnt quite a bit about what has been going on in Sydney for quite some time it seems.

I think there is a lot of denial though. Politicians calling these acts "un Australian" does not solve anything, and certainly does not address the situation. The reality is there is racism, there is mob mentality, there is thuggery and hooliganism.. and it is time for everyone to step up and do something about it.

Agh, this makes me so sad.. subhanAllah.

as was said in the article WHITE AUSTRALIA POLICY, man its scary to think that this stupid mentality is still in force, i cant understand these gangs though, what is their reasoning and point they are trying to make or proove? are they trying to assert their "alpha male/female" agenda to the district, the country the world? subhanallah, i agree the problem is in the community as a whole, howerver having said that the has the muslim community tried to quell these gangs, that contain muslim youth? have they tried to spread da'wah? i think the answer is not as well as WE should have as a collective, and well it really shows how fat and lazy we have become in this environment that we live in, before all this antyi muslim thinking was present did we try to do anything? i know i didnt because i wasnt muslim and i hated muslims, because i didnt know any better, i didnt know about islam no one had talked to me about it. as far as double standard i think maybe there is to a point, but we only have oursleves to blame for turning our backs to the problem, that being ill educated youth, and "the too hard basket" mentallity you know "sweep it under the rug no one will know" mentality. wallahu allam, i am just maing a few statements and questions that i think need to be addressed and answered, a thorough thought process need to be undertaken so that future generations never have to see this garbage again, subhanallah look at the world we live in.............

this is a good example of the point i have tried to make in certain other posts with regards to nationalism, all that comes from nationalism is hatred and ploitical unrest, be muslim, forget the rest, a muslim born here or there, we are all born on earth, lets not forget that we are a BROTHERHOOD AND SISTERHOOD of man

sorry if i have offended that was not my intention, forgive me if i have done so and forgive me if anything i had said is incorrect

salams PEACE to all

This post has been edited by Mikhael: Dec 13 2005, 09:25 AM

I'm an Australian ... born & raised ... & I can sing Waltzing Matilda ...
My parents "flew here" from Lebanon ... so I'm Lebanese-Australian ...
I believe in the Religion of God (Islam) ... so I'm Muslim ...
You may say I'm not flavour of the month ...

Just pray with me that IF the Lebanese thugs that bashed the lifesavers & were the constant trouble-makers at Cronulla, were also at the 400-man strong group guarding Lakemba Mosque (hopefully repenting for their mistakes) ...

all in all, i have to say that as a sydney-sider the media as well as the government, mainly Morris Iemma, have been very fair to both sides, and i dont think there is a large amount of double standards held by the wider australian community about this particular issue.
from what i know, there has been trouble in cronulla for a while, but was mainly between two gangs, one leb and the other anglo. the riot on sunday was caused by a white-supremacy group who handed out alot of grog and had a barbie to get people to join. in the interviews i saw, most had no idea what the issue was, they were just chanting with everyone else and most in the crowd were not even locals, according to the mayor of cronulla. it was just a mixture of a few bad apples and a lot of beer. the battle is still between the two gangs, but now its about territory.
what really makes me feel sick is that most of the leb crowd that are driving over sydney are actually kids between the age of 12 and 17 who have come to watch the fun and are not a part of the gangs.
but mashallah, both communities have stepped up to the challenge and are talking and implementing ways of stoping and preventing this from happening again. in a way, i think it has brought the wider community together in sydney.

Aa

Gangs or not I think it has brought to light some serious issues of racism, whether it be the racist australians or the racist lebs. I'm not siding with either group, but many ethnic groups have a real contempt towards australians, australian culture and law, and inparticular australian women.

Just as some aussies unfairly target muslim women, so too do many ethnic males target aussie women.

Though I'm not sure about the gangthing anyway Shamus, I was reading that a big gang in Cronulla, the Bra Boys, made a statement condemning racism and condemnation of those people behind the riots and assaults against lebanese australians, and calling it unAustralian. Was another gang in cronulla behind these displays of racist patriotism?

John Howard mentioned that there are no race issue in Australia, but I think that shows just how out of touch he is with the community.

wasalam

My prayers and thoughts to all the brothers and sisters in Australia, muslims primarily and others generally. It is a time of great tribulation and it takes a lot of courage to be patient and rational. Do not let the act of terror and mayhem of a few ignorant, emotinal and perverse group of people drive a wedge between the majority of Australian.

As you all know, this thing has nothing to do with Islam and do let some people succeed in using it as a tool to attack Islam. It is an opportunity for deeper dialogues and understanding for all Australian... so seize the opportunity.

May Allah give you strength and wisdom in thim time of need and your family and friends be under His protection.

brothers and sisters all that is happpening is sad but sooner or later it'll affect adelaide and it has on friday (the last day of school) when i was coming home from the islamic collage 4 men age in there 20's raised both hands swearing f!#@ off, it made no sense one of them stop and thoought for a moment untill another made him go on then our bus stoped at a red light these so called men ran at our bus full of kids youngest 5 oldest 16 then with fear we all closed our windows there was no1 in sight ho could of helped but thank allah they had no reason to hurt us and all the did was curse it made no sense they got nothing out of it the little children jst stared at those guys stupidity even they could see it wasnt solving anything soo to every1 that is planning something dont because u will not get anything out of it you'll probably get caught and put in jail soo there is no point..

what im saying is violance isnt the way to go most people in australia and where i live (murray bridge) havent much knowledge about things like this so if they see it on the news they use it as an excuse like if the media made muslims look bad thats the only impression they have my father told me that when he went to school in a cooking class say they made pork my father would say i cant eat that and the teacher wouldnt try to change the ingrediants all they would do is say go and sit in a corner now that people have knowledge about other cultures they under stand a bit more soo it is our job to teach others about our way of life and to tell them we are people also

nicely said...
i guess the only thing we can do is set a good example of what muslims are...and that dosen't mean goin round bashin aussies.
If u got a problem wid aussies, go back to ur own country!

Salamz,
i agree with you Shamus, the media didnt exaggerate on this topic, apprently this isnt the Lebs first time causing trouble at that beach. its so sad how all the Musilims get a bad name for a few fools mistakes.
OMG!!!, on Friday, i swear, that was the worst thing iv experienced, there were little kids witnessing the disgrace that the elderly pride make.
It was so foul how little 5,6,7 year olds had to see that, it was just hallerious and stupid though, the way they just were running after the bus to tell us to f#$% off, i mean what kind of satisfaction did they get out of that? did they solve anything? did they feel any better?
One of the guys in particuler scared me, was playing with his pocket,we thought he was gonna take out a gun, we were defenceless, we couldnt have done anything to defend ourslefs, its just become outrages, how they could think whatever is happening in sydney has got anything to do with us.
its just so sad, to think that little children will have to grow to know to hate the Muslims, in their case, or the Australians in our case. Its just gonna get worse, like there will never be world peace.
Bro Mikheal we cant really do anything to help other then pray that some people have senses and brains to put a great line between worng and right, and to sort out their/our differences, inshAllah it will be sooner then later....inshAllah

Salamz
p.s: Brothers & Sisters please make dua that this world becomes PEACE