The author clearly mentioned that she and others in the community know that there are young troublemakers, and that her (Lebanese) community also has done a lot to try and kerb such attitudes among people.

I feel sorry that you were treat with contempt in Liverpool. As someone who lives in Auburn, and is white, I see that there are no problems generally with anyone. People walk around wearing whatever they like, drinking alcohol (which is actually a criminal offence to do in the street anyway) and there are many ethnicities here - they don't always get along - but I have never experienced anything as you say. The same for Lakemba or elsewhere that I have been. Auburn has a huge Christmas tree right at the entrance to the shopping centre, for example.

Cabramatta is also very busy most days with Arab/non-Arab Muslim's especially around the centre where all the shops are.

Why do you make it out to be solely a Lebanese issue and vindicate the 5000+ people who gathered to stomp on a few "middle-eastern looking" residents/non-residents in Cronulla on the weekend?

Youth/gang violence is exactly that - and needs to be dealt with. Organized crime is performed by most ethnic groups in Australia, just not reported upon in mainstream press. I hope the police and government can deal effectively with the wider issues and make it safe for all of us.

The easiest person to blame on this matter is Whites or Colored people for revolting. When it comes down to the hard line it is the Prime Ministers Fault who continues to deny his involvement with the riots.

The prime ministers "Multicultualism" has more privilages than its own people. Do you know they advertise our University places in China on posters/billboards?

Multicultualism is a great thing, but Jhon howard has crossed the line. Ever looked in Melbourne or maybe sydney these days or crossed the street. I bet you a thousand dollars you will see a family/group of asian/Middle eastern or Medditeranian decent living rich somtimes not knowing a word of english spending their converted Yen for exsample in a resturant entirely with Chinese language on the menu. Dont belive me, go to clayton and see for yourself.

There needs to be balance between all cultures. It seems Jhon howard is more interested in pocketing a few extra dollars and becomming a slave to an Asian Summit with radical left or right wing beliefs telling Our prime minister what to do with our country that benifits the rest of the world and not our own country.

Change is needed, The riots are a flashpoint in our history that immigration is in need of change for balance, or our very own boxer rebellion or Bloody sunday massacre will occur and perhaps in years to come a generation of revolutionaries.

An ugly incident in which Australians of Lebanese background allegedly assault two lifeguards. More ugly incidents where white Australians, many undoubtedly pissed out of their tiny brains, attack and hurt people of ‘Middle Eastern appearance’ who might or might not have been involved in the former incident.

Because of these two disgusting episodes, which will hopefully be dealt with in accordance with the law, Salam Zreika has “lost any perception of what it means to be an Australian”.

Hands up all those who have also lost their perceptions of ‘Australian –ness’ because of what has happened at Cronulla. There won’t be many, I suggest. It certainly hasn’t affected me or what it means to me to be Australian. I think Salam has something else on her mind.

Looking at her photograph and the way she is dressed, I doubt that Salam is serious about learning what it is to be Australian if she insists on covering herself and parading as a Muslim. It is not Australian to dress that way. It is not Australian, apart from clergymen and a few elderly nuns who still wear the old-fashioned habit; to wear clothing to advertise religions people don’t want to know about. It is not Australian to say, as she does, “I am Lebanese” and to have a go at young “Lebanese” boys and their behaviour. You are one or you are the other. Lebanese people live in Lebanon. English people live in England. Italians live in Italy and so on. Australians live in Australia, irrespective of ethnic origins.

Salam asks how she can get her message across when nobody will give here the time of the day. As long as she insists on wearing traditional Muslim attire – which nobody could possibly say is Australian – she will be as credible as someone wearing a chicken suit in a city mall.

Yeah, she has the right to wear what she wants. But part of being Australian is fitting in, getting on with life and keeping your cultural differences at home and your religion, if you have one, between yourself and God.

Salam

Ninety - nine percent of what you've said I agree with.

I understand the enormous control it has taken you to condemn the minority within your community who perpretrate violence.

I feel exactly the same way about the thugs and their cowardly display on Cronulla Beach on Sunday. That is not our way.

It is difficult in the face of all sorts of injustice, not to mention much of the bigoted and uninformed comment, to express those feelings. One does feel like just jumping in and adding to the furore.

Your calm is admirable.

Where we do disagree is on John Howard. No we are not underlying racist. Our acceptance of and at times the embracing of other peoples and culures is ample testament to that. As is our obvious concern shown to the indigenous peoples of this country.

We are tolerant and open-minded even to the extent of allowing a racist element to express it's voice within our communities.
Most of us reject that and teach our children the better values.

Your courageous comments, well that is truely Australian.

Part II

I grew up with all sorts of migrants and the lower class whites and aboriginese in a housing commission suburb near Fairfield/Cabramatta, and at the end of the day it is really just the Anglos' huge amount of tolerance that is the glue holding this multicultural society together. How many mixed marriages do you see that aren't involving atleast one white? Asians and Middle-Easterners are simply too racist and different in general, not all but most, to bve able to mix or even want to be our equals, they want to be our boss or nothing.
This mentality rears its ugliest head in the thugs on the streets in the poorer suburbs in southwestern Sydney, has done for nearly 20 years now with machete wielding, gun toting cowards that can only exist in packs like the dogs that they are.
Take a little look around the world :

Middle East = ethnic war, religious war, millions of low paid slave-type servants in the "royal-oil-gulf-states". Cristians have all but been extinct in every muslim nation, there is a gender apartheid that exists(And South Africa copt it all those years).

Asia = hundreds of millions of slaves that are right now building the Chinese empire, the whole place(asia) is rife with disgusting corruption.

The West = we demographically change by more than half our own population to multiple other ethnicities, we do this with open arms and loads of tolerance, we get kicked in the teeth by two ethnicities, namely the Middle eastern muslims and the Vietnamese, who establish our main crime, violent crime and heroin capitals even though they are clear minorities, jeez they must be awful people.

Ask yourself Zreika, if you even have the self-critical ability most westerners have and bother to read negative posts, how are Australans possibly racist? Are there police reports of generation after generation, gang after gang, of anglo-men who regulary shoot, stab, rape, murder, bash, and steal from the middle-eastern community or doeas this happen the other way around?

"To even dare hint that Australia may be racist after Sunday is disgustingly stupid, as even though a few people were bashed, this was in retaliation for a sustained campaign of violence on Anglo-Saxons for decades now, not just in Cronulla, but also Fairfield, Liverpool, Bankstown etc where muslim thuggery is the norm, as well as Vietnamese violence and selling drugs to all our youth. "

what a load of crap. how could a mob attacking people based on the colour of their skin be anything but racist.

there seems to be a huge amount of selective vision and hypocracy inherent in a number of these posts. in fact i find it very hard to distignuish between the primative tribal mentality, slogans and actions(in particular the targeting of people based on physical appearence) of BOTH groups in these events.
racism knows no racial boundaries, and i suggest that these groups actually have more in common with eachother than they do with the majority of australians of any background or religion.