Maybe not, Pachelbel, but I'm going to try right now because my patience has worn paper-thin.

In every single major paper in Australia and the world today the eastern suburbs lock down has been reported. Cars searched. Businesses suffering. WHY aren't those 2000 police locking down the suburbs in the vicinty of Lakemba and Punchbowl? WHY isn't every car being searched going in and out of that area? WHY are there poxy protests all over the place with whiny squeals of 'No Rascism', while there is not a single protest calling for 'NO GANGS'. Or 'NO ORGANISED CRIME'?. While the beaches are locked down these gangs are simply marauding the rest of Sydney. Most people just seem to lap up all the bull crap that the media feeds them. TELL me which road is safer to walk down usually - Telopea Street or the main drag down at Cronulla?. And I address that question to people of all races.

Sydney is an awesome place for people from different races. On any given day of the week the city teems and babbles with the sound of hundreds of different languages, without any race-related incidents. The vastly overwhelming proportion of violence in the city of Sydney, indeed in all of Australia, is related to gangs and drugs. In Sydney the most lethal and dangerous gangs at this time are of Lebanese descent. FACT. The people focusing on racism at this time are absolutely taking the piss. I can say to anyone any day of the week 'Don't be a racist'. But that doesn't stop so-called 'Telopea Street Boys' and 5T from filling our city to brim with heroin and cocaine, and stabbing and bashing people every single weekend. Yes every weekend.

At the same time, I would say to anyone wanting to exact revenge on the gangs - DON'T - or you might find yourself lying in Bankstown Hospital getting stitched up by a Muslim doctor like Ahmed here. (And by that I mean there's a lot of Muslim people holding up our society).

What is the problem with the Lebanese?

Let me first introduce myself, my name is Muhammed and I born in Lebanon in 1965. I left Lebanon in 1984 and have lived in Europe for the last 20 years. My father is Palestinian and my mother is Lebanese.

Let us start with a historical background. Lebanon is created by the French colony in 1921. The name “Lebanon” is a name for a mountain and actually that area of land had always been under Syrian or Palestine. It is a collection of different groups, clans and sects. It contains all kinds of religions and nationalities, Moslems (Sunni, Shiite,.), Christians(Maronite, Catholic, ..), Druze, Arabs and non-Arabs( Armenian, Kurds, ..).

Lebanese like very much to immigrate in order to improve their standard of life and they rarely return back. There is no problem about that, but the problem is by the way and criteria that they measure their success. If a Lebanese returns back, he/she will be evaluated by the amount of money that he/she collected regardless for the source of the money. A man with one million $ from selling drugs is 10 times better than a hard worker one with hundred thousands $.

Lebanese always accuse others for their internal problems and conflicts. They hate Syrians, Palestinians, other Arabs and each other. They demand their rights in the countries they immigrate to. However, they deprive 300,000 Palestinian refugees from their basic civil rights. Palestinians in Lebanon have no right to work or even to buy an apartment and they treated with no respect. You can refer to the thousands of reports from human rights organization about the discrimination of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

I am confident that the root cause of the Lebanese problem in Australia, Canada or Switzerland has nothing to do with religion or race rather than a mentality problem. Lebanese have to respect and treat others well before they ask others to be treated well. Lebanese should have the courage to recognize their problems and try to solve them before it getting really bad.

muhummad

It's not about "dialogue between communities", our "communities" understand each other perfectly well. That's the problem.
http://romeomikes.blogspot.com/

Thanks muhammed,

For that insight into what is most probably one of the main roots of the problem. All immigrants, regardless of origin, need to consider the culture of the country to which they choose to immigrate.

I believe that the major difference too, between immigrants after WWII and more recent arrivals is that the prior had to 'pay their dues' and as such, felt some send of ownership. The latter have arrived and been hand fed all sorts of welfare and subsequently, never had to contribute anything, therefore feeling no sense of belonging or ownership to this great country.

Maybe we should bring back public works enterprises (such as the Snowy Mountain Scheme) for non-skilled immigrants whereby they can contribute and earn a wage and a sense of belonging, as opposed to simply handing them all a welfare cheque.

BOAZ_DAVID,

Its good you choose to widen your knowledge on the cultural background, the beaches of Lebanon have long been known to be filled with gorgeous bikini wearing babes!! It is definitely a Muslim thing to wear the Hijab because it is part of their religion and ultimately the choice of the girl that is wearing it.

I don’t know what was the nature of the lakemba gathering since I live in the city so I wont comment on that. I agree you will find groups of Lebanese Australian youths intimidating others and being obnoxious and rude, the problem? Leniency!! Need stricter laws!

To Viking, that’s because the triads and MAFIA are not 16 yr old mis-fits, they're fat old men smuggling heroin into Australia...I think I prefer the 16 yr olds and their "fully sick" sound systems.

Muhammed! Whatever you do, don’t compare the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon to any immigrants in any country especially Lebanese, Palestinians are the reason Lebanese had to emigrate! The 300,000 refugees you forgot to mention are more armed than our legitimate army, they regularly steal cars from the city and take them back to their camps which lack any laws! The war in Lebanon started because we were nice enough to let the Palestinians in, then having them pulls guns on us, setting up military checkpoints and slaughtering women and children.

I am sorry for having to say this, since it is not relevant to the underlying discussion. If u left Lebanon in 1984 what do you know about Lebanon?? Do u know what it took to rebuild our country while others were bludging off western countries?

To all Australians please don’t generalize about Lebanese, a lot of us just want a fair chance and nothing for free, in Lebanon people earn respect and I think it’s the same here. Lets all count to 20 before we react to those that are harmful.

Good article