I have read Ms Pringles articel again; and again I found no reference to rascisim; merely a description of a social construct 'deeply rooted in Australia". It was a fairly simple historical picture placing Frasers hysteria and that of others in sharp relief

So it beats me how some of the more rabid posters can turn a reasoned comment into a platform for throwing wacky allegations about the sexual proclivities of muslims around - unless of course you subscribe to the theory that there are many out there who live their sexual lives vicariously through the expolits, violent or otherwise of others - now there you have an outrageous claim.

I have also failed to find any sneering in her piece at any assumption Australia was crime free; some have asserted it was though. But thats a bit tough to swallow; go to the Melbourne Jail cell after cell is full of biographies of Anglos convicted of the most hienious of crimes; we were founded on criminal stock - we had a currency based on booze for gods sake. But I am relaxed about all of that. I am also relaxed about crime but thats another discussion.

The telling pointin this thread is that a simple descriptive piece holding up before our eyes the simple truth of the truly hetero- ethnicity of or nation scares the bejesus out of some here - and that gives me cause to chuckle. And I might even chortle and in my more daring moments I might give rise to a guffaw.

A cursory examination of the posts suggests the most violent responses to articles are in response to those about sex, race, religion and crime - is there some thing weird about that?

Crime. Sure I can understand that. A lot of us are a bit nervy on that fornt ( not me though ) - but sex race and religion? I suggest those really concerned about what others do or are on those fronts get a hobby; base jumping or swimming with crocodiles comes to mind

Redneck said "Easy, Kenny.

This might be a bit deep for you, but when a black man and black woman procreate, it almost always results in a black baby. If you are white and if your wife or girlfriend has recently had a black baby, then if I were you, I would check to see if the milkman was black. "

You must not have read my post and seem to have little understanding of genetics. The white skin typical of northern Europeans is caused by a small genetic mutation. This happens to be a dominate gene however there still is a recessive gene within the northern European population that does cause skin pigmentation. However this is quite light for the same reasons the other high latitude populations are. The point of the post was to indicate that while genetic studies of populations has shown this major trait of northern Europeans came about and is now well understood. It has not found any behavior traits as you contend are related to “race”. Can you provide any actual evidence to the contrary ?

Populations that remain in isolation for long enough will adapt physically to their environment, so I see no reason why they could not also adapt psychologically or in other ways at the same time.

I don't see that possibility as anything to be scared about, nor do I see myself as racist for refusing to rule it out, but I have also seen no convincing evidence of it actually happening. Cultural differences seem far more significant than physical ones to me.

This one is for Redneck:

" The media and political attention paid to ethnicity in Skaf's crime obscures the reality that gang rape is common across cultures. For example, manager of the NSW Rape Crisis Centre, Karen Willis explains that women 'are being gang raped most weekends in Australia' (Baird 2004)and that it is not a problem confined to indivdual cultures (in Duff 2002) (Gleeson, Kate. 'From the Centenary to the Olympics, Gang Rape in Sydney in Vol 16 No 2 Current Issues in Criminal Justice)

Interesting enough also taken from the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics are the NSW recorded crime stats from Jan 04 to Dec 04, and in this case looking at the number of reported sexual assaults in LGA's. They are ranked 1-50, and noticeably it appears to be areas where most 'Arab Australians' and 'Muslim Australians do not live'.

http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/bocsar/ll_bocsar.nsf/pages/bocsar_lgaranks_sexualassault04

So where Redneck is your evidence of 'Muslim hate rape gangs in Sydney then?

Helen,
Great article. I've just returned from Cooktown and everything you say here is well accepted history amougst those who know this early history through both written and oral accounts.

Benedict Anderson's book 'Imagined communities'is worth quoting here.
Anderson contends that " "In an anthropological spirit, then, I propose the following definition of the nation: it is an imagined political community - - and imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign"
http://www.nationalismproject.org/what/anderson.htm

Imaginations past and present of its origins being white, egalitarian and homogenous are threatened by the real pictures of history.

scooper9, The accepted convention here on the forum is that redneck is exempt from providing evidence or proof of any allegation he makes about those who are ethnically different from his pure geneological being. If he imagines it to be, then so it is. Just ask him.

Helen, thank you for the article:

There are a few tangible pointers that show that Australia doesn't have as rich a multicultural background as some would want us to have. I would even dispute that we have a multicultural society.

Firstly, our law, both common law and statute law, is based firmly on the English model. Prosecutions are conducted in the name of the Crown or of the Queen. We use juries, which are mainly a British common law development. We do not have multicultural laws, Shariah law holds no sway, neither does canon law of the Christian churches.

The business of government is conducted in English, even in areas with high migrant populations parking signs are posted in English. Monogamous marriages are the only form of marriage that can be enterred into by law in Australia.

Our treatment of animals is also firmly based on British precedent.

Multiculturalism is more than clothes, food, dance and film. It is acceptance of the major differences. Australia has been a multi-'racial' (in as much as 'race' can be defined) place, but multi-racial and multicultural are two different things.

And by the way, regarding the 'rape gangs'of a couple of years ago. The group which included Skaf in its membership was largely Lebanese. But the other notorious group, or in fact a family operation, at the time was Pushtun (Pakistani), of Islamic background, but also had a Nepalese member.