I tend to agree with Tanveer about the Lebanese boys not being well disciplined by families. This is what happens when families are caught up in conflict and issues. All of their time is spent dealing with problems and the children tend to run amok.

These kids are growing up in hostile, angry environments and where they are exposed to anguish, despair, hate, aggression, violence, racism and war. These children are being created.

The law doesn't look at prevention nor does it provide an avenue to discipline children in any way that would produce a positive outcome so people get frustrated so they become biased against certain groups and that bias becomes overt towards these groups. They have to show their disapproval some way!

Then comes the Terrorists attacks and so what you end of getting is a lot of Lebanese kids and people being treated with disdain and being treated unfairly as punishment for what the Terrorists are doing. So we get this vicious cycle and everybody looses.

My children are Australians, of part Lebanese background, and they have been the victims of bias and victimization. You can read what has happened to my children here http://www.jolandachallita.typepad.com/ . I can’t say for sure whether it is just because they are of Lebanese background or whether it was because they are of Lebanese background, intellectually gifted and because I complained. No organisation will help my children or family because everybody says that they don’t get involved in “individual cases” or that it is outside their jurisdiction, or they don’t have enough funding.

We are seen as a group, treated as a group, disciplined as a group and punished as a group. That makes a lot of people angry because we are not a group, we are individuals and nobody likes to be blamed for what somebody else has done. That’s victimisation and from what I understand it’s against the law. We should be enforcing the law

What 'is' the "Lebanese Problem" ?

For Lebanese Maronite Christians it is THIS

http://www.geocities.com/damour1976/photo.html

If your heart does not go out to these people for what they had to flee from, then you have a heart of stone and are devoid of humanity.

Who were the PERPETRATORS of this genocide ? Why did they swarm down in their thousands crying "Allahu Akhbar" as they salivated at the thought of slaughtering Christians ?

Is it any wonder, that in the interests of their survival, attacks were made some years later, on the PLO military camps of Sabra and Shatila. Never..NEVER believe that they were 'refugee camps'.

I hope and pray, that NO-ONE will unfairly (i.e. without evidence) lump the Christian lebanese in with the particular group who appear (based on the evidence thus far) to be predominantly involved in the gang attacks in Sydney. Any nominally Christian Lebanese who IS with these gangs should get out NOW. ( I can't quite imagine that it is the Christian lebs who are burning the Churches and shooting up carols by candlelight)

Now I hear of busses and car loads of even ITALIANS going to Sydney.... but why ? what do the Italians have to do with burning of Churches ? Or perhaps they don't understand that it is not THEM who have been causing the problem in Sydney, and that any caught up in it are being mistaken for 'another' race ?

This problem is centered on just one group. They should be isolated and dealt with by the Law. The only reason the problem now exists is because they FAILED to do this in the past. Cowering and backing off from large numbers of extended families and associates when they should have called out the TROOPS! after declaring a state of Emergency.

I have not heard any 'community leaders' apology from the 'group' largely responsible for the gang attacks. But, i HAVE heard apologies from the 'Anglo' side for the outbreak of violence on ONE day, where it was clear that the crowd was HIJACKED by idiots

Tanveer,

Why is everybody analysing the problems in the Lebanese community? Has anyone thought about the fact that the gang problems in Sydney's South West is more of socio-economic issue and a pathetic failure of law and enforcement? It just happens to be that South West has a large Lebanese community.

Why didn't we have the same kind of cultural analysis about "White Australia" community when the Macquarie field riots broke out? Or analysis of the xenophobic attitudes in the 'White Australian" society displayed by Cronulla boofheads?

There are more decent Lebanese background citizens in this country than bad ones. Every city has its gang and crime problems. By marginalising communities on racial lines is adding fuel to the fire.

I am not shocked by the gang problems in Cronulla. This is a law and enforcement issue. I'm, however, gob smacked by:

1. pathetic Police response in Sydney
2. xenophobic people that reside as our neighbours
3. lack of grasp of what is racism by John Howard. If this is not racist, then what is?

I say all these in the utmost disappointment. And yes! I'm not from Lebanese background, nor a Muslim and I support the Liberals in general

Interesting quotes/points on SBS last night:

-(Member from Aus-Islamic forum): "We need to CREATE a new all-inclusive Australian identity."
-(Young Muslim man): "You need to take a step towards us… then, if we don’t take a step towards you, you can come to us with open arms."
-(Young Lebanese woman): Alienation and marginalisation furthered by “us vs. them” words in media, politicians saying criminals should "go back to their home country" when they were born in Australia, etc.
-It was argued "everybody's scared of us, think we’re all terrorists because of John Howard" [increased terror alerts, etc].
-White guy: “I’m sorry, but that wasn’t created by John Howard, but by Sep 11 and the Bali Bombings”.
-Superintendent: "In 36 years of cop work I've never seen anything like this... lets stop all this nonsense, my son-in-law is Lebanese, my wife Maltese, my grandfather was Jamaican for goodness sake. Lets all get along."

Sorry I can't remember who the white guy, young Muslim man or young Lebanese women represented (please forgive me for the un-PC way I represented them by refering solely to their sex and ethnicity/religion). What struck me though is that whereas the Caucasian people on the show were more than willing to decry the acts of Anglo Aussie zealots from last weekend, members of the Lebanese community instead said "you need to come to us, embrace us."

As an Australian with Italian heritage, who spent about half of her upbringing in the "multicultural" Melbourne and the other half in the somewhat more homogenous Newcastle, I have observed "Australian culture" from a lot of angles and have concluded that for the most part Australia is an open, diverse society which respects people of all colours [neo-nazi idiots excluded]. I believe if the Lebanese community would stop seeing itself as the Lebanese community, and start seeing itself as Australian (with Lebanese heritage), the other Aussies would welcome them with open arms. This doesn't mean Lebanese Muslim women need to suddenly start wearing bikinis to appease Australian cultural values or anything like that, it simply means that Anglos and Mediterraneans together need to stop judging people by their ethnicity, but instead primarily see all people who were born in/have chosen to move to Australia as Australian.

Also, I believe that celebrating early Australian works of art, music, culture, etc. and exploring Australian history, politics, cultural values, etc. at schools is important for ALL of our Aussie kids to foster an Australian identity from an early age.

One salient issue that has been mostly overlooked is that the perpetrators of violence on either side have been mostly men. Much as don't like saying it but let's look at the bleeding obvious. Muslim women weren't in the fray. Women on the other side, the few of them, were vastly outnumbered by their male counterparts. Indeed, some women have objected to their male would-be protectors who keep referring to "our women" all the time. It's this sense of male entitlement to women, public space and alcohol which is a major cause of violence. Add religious extremism (which favours males) into the mix and violence is inevitable.

Now I know not all men are rioters and there were men such as cops and ambos trying to do something about the violence. But have you seen whole suburbs live in fear of female violence? This issue can't be ignored because it will re-emerged so long as it is not addressed.