Ms. Malaise. Excuse me. I believe strongly that you have missed or are ignoring many of the facts surrounding the Australians of Lebanese descent who are involved in organised criminal gangs. The information offered by former police detective Tim Priest should be essential reading for you if are in local government in Sydney's south west. Here is an article by him on the matter. PLEASE read it if you haven't already.

http://www.quadrant.org.au/php/article_view.php?article_id=581

I know there has always been violence of various kinds in metropolitan and regional australia. there still is plenty. but this is DIFFERENT. LISTEN please. The type and level of this violence and other criminal activities has NEVER been experienced in Australia before. I don't agree with everything the person posting as Boaz says, but you totally ignored his comments comparing say bikie violence that has been seen in the past and what we are seeing now. Even though bikie gangs have every weapon under the sun stashed away, in huge amounts, they never fired automatic weapons into a police station, or took one hostage!

All you said was that you had violence in your suburb in Brisbane too. Tell me, were those pissed yobbos in the street on a Friday night smuggling vast quantities of heroin into the country the rest of the time? Did they form convoys of vehicles, and travel to the other side of Brisbane deliberately to harrass and threaten other people with weapons EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND year after year after year? Did those drunken louts have a highly organised network involved in fraud, large scale car theft, large scale extortion, large scale factory break-ins, heroin importation and high-calibre arms smuggling (and using those weapons against police)? When they send out all those text messages it's using stolen sim cards.

You are ignoring it because no one in local goverment would possibly want to admit a problem like this in their area. It's NOT Muslims. It's NOT Arabs. It's NOT Lebanese. It's specifically, SPECIFICALLY the organised criminal gangs of men of Lebanese descent. It IS that simple. Just not simple to fix.

Fellow_Human,

I know now that you really mean well –I really pity you my Fellow Human – what you say is complete rubbish.

God doesn’t need confirmation of His Word. He Is GOD.

Sorry it will be a complete waste of time if you continue to come back with stupid answers like that. God created you with a brain – I am giving you permission to use it to THINK – not just to recite stories and anecdotes.

WAKE UP. What if you died tomorrow? What will be your excuse? Your religion will not mean anything up there? Sorry wrong passport. You blew it.

You are saying that God sent mohammed to “CORRECT and RECONFIRM …”

Does it mean in your “version of the truth” that God made a mistake? Common!

Really my Fellow Human unless you start using your mind and stop following lies just because someone fed them to you all this time – you are doomed.

You are without excuse. It is between you and God – The God that you have been looking for – the One and Only God. The God that loves you.

I will not make any observation on the comments of brownshirts that regularly gather on these forums. Beyond saying that I think the Cronulla beach crowds are far less fearsome than some people here, who don't need pints of beer and bags of grass to sprout forth racial hatred.

Irf....

yesterday, my neighbour related how (as an Anglo white guy) he has BECOME very racist over the past few yrs, due to experiences in Sydney, and his daughter, where the number of gang and criminal acts toward people in the couple of hotels she owns, were NOTICABLY and VASTLY perpetrated by those of 'Middle Eastern Appearance'.

At the gym, a fellow member related how at Cronulla beach in 97 mobs of "Middle Eastern Males" would corden off part of the beach for the exclusive use of "their" women.

Now.. you can continue taking cheap shots at us, calling us 'brown shirts' and any name you like.. "blessings on you".... its ok. But the sooner you recognize the obvious that there is a SERIOUS problem within the Lebanese community, backed up evidence, and retreat from your own racist insults toward us, and apologise for ascribing 'race hate' to us, the sooner you will actually have some credibility.

If the Lebanese/Middle Eastern crime situation was on a par with all other segments of the community, if gangs of Lebanese youths did not frequent malls and beaches in large numbers, shoot up police stations, invovle themselves in plots to assassinate the prime minister and his family, and to murder innocent children, then they would not be in the news so much.

Please stop your racist insults, your obvious religious bias, and your lack of Australian-ness by suggesting we are not seeing things as they are, but are just 'hating' people because of their race.

I'm sorry, that was ok in the 80s but this is 2005. So, it seems to me you are guilty of the sin you accuse us of..'race hate'? otherwise, why would you call us 'brownshirts'.

RACISM is a characteristic of Lebanese Muslim youths ! On what grounds ? Simple. An Islamic counsellor from Lakemba on national TV TOLD US !

1/ They think they are SUPERIOR to non Muslim non Lebanese.
2/ They HATE the west.

You better contact him and accuse him of 'Muslim bashing'

The hate is......where ?

Irfan, my only consolation to the relentless maligning by the 'Usual Culprits' on these pages is that they are a shrill, insecure minority, who can only feel powerful by attempting to impose their belief system on others.

I fully understand when you become irritated by these sorry souls. It is an extreme double standard when (and we all make mistakes) a 'non-anglo' is wrong or a bit reactionary (given the provocation entirely legitimate) - the forum errupts in full scale condemnation. Yet when the U.C's relentlessly pursue, insult, malign, coerce and attempt to intimidate, barely a ripple is raised.

Australia has had a mixed culture since colonial times - and of course our world is a mixture of cultures, people and beliefs. There is no escaping from it.

However, for some, attempting to overcome differences and reach out to each other is too much like hard work. Hatred comes easily to these people.

I can only act on a personal level - I am making more effort than ever before to greet, smile, help and tolerate others. Even if they cut me off in traffic! A smile can lift your entire day. It may sound a little pollyanna-ish, but I am so fed up with the bigoted, narrow things I hear said and printed on this forum that the only way I can dispell the miasma is to be friendly.

"The ideas that have lighted my way have been kindness, beauty and truth."
Author:Albert Einstein

I hope every contributor to this forum has a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

Dianne

Well Irfan, racism can be a two way street. When mobs of Lebanese
youths finally stop calling Australian women sluts, stop assaulting
people, stop their Leb rules saga etc and show some respect for others, perhaps other people will show some respect back.

Perhaps you should explain what it is about Muslim Lebanese culture
to cause some of them to behave that way and address the problem
at its source and stop blaming Australia. After all, many many
migrant groups don't have that problem in Australia, so its clearly
not Australia that is the issue here.