Irfan, well said. How was the holiday?

Waleed, I hope you are correct in your assessment of the situation in Melbourne. I've not heard of "middle eastern gangs" in the South East Queensland area, so hopefully that is currently a non issue here.

Surfies do get possessive sometimes but from what I have heard it is more about not wanting to share waves. Most of our reported street violence seems to be in the early hours impacting on people after a night of night clubbing. Again a law and order issue rather than any problem of one or more groups with specific issues.

BD - shame on you. Whilst you try to moderate the expression of your views your almost consistant siding against muslims, your use of conspiracy theories and general promotion of a "get them" approach speaks poorly of someone who it appears probably knows better. Some of your collegues show no signs of knowing any better, occasionally you give a hint that you understand the wrongness of what you do but then you get back into it. Very sad. You are so much more willing to attack Waleed and other muslims than you are to tackle the worst of the muslim bashing extremists. So gentle with those who want a white australia, lefties dead and moderates deported etc and so harsh with the moderate muslims. I recall reading once about people who use dishonest scales and those that bear false witness against their neighbour. I think you know the wrong that you do.

R0bert

Of course, we could all post examples of assaults we've experienced. If you want examples of hate crimes by white Australians against Arabs and Muslims in Melbourne, you can take your pick. There have been heaps. Many were reported to the police. There clearly are racist crimes in Melbourne, and in fact, that was something acknowledged in the article.

But surely there's a difference between that, and what has been happening in Sydney for the last 10 years. The Lebanese gangs in Sydney are just out of control. So are the waxhead gangs. And I genuinely think Sydney is a more racist city than Melbourne. Rioting requires a lot more than the kind of incidents being discussed on this thread - and that's all the article is saying.

A few anecdotes of hate crime do not a riot make.

And BOAZ, you're a bit of a dolt. There are plenty of Lebanese Christians in the Lebanese gangs in Sydney.

Glenwriter says:
No!, because there are not enough whites in Melbourne.

Can I ask what planet you are living on, or even what city you are living in. Melbourne has an ethnic minority and a white majority!

Anyhow, the social engineers have been a bit clever in Melbourne. In the quest to fasttrack a growing population (immigration = shortcut), they make sure there are no large numbers of one ethnic group, but rather a number of ethnic groups. This keeps the ethnic groups divided, powerless and reduced to mere consumers. Whites are alienated from one another and are also reduced to mere consumers. Therefore a RIOT is unlikely to break out here.

The funny outcome from the Sydney RIOT is the clampdown on 'white supremacists'. I mean 'white supremists' are so marginalised they are unlikely to cause a mosquito bite of a social problem. My bet is there would be so many leftist moles in those organisations they would be paralysed to do anything anyway. So that crosses out the problem of white supremacy. Ethnic gangs however are allowed to fester because of this preoccupation with the fanciful white supremacist.

The blame by the general community was being put on youths from the Lebanese Muslim community in Southern Sydney who have committed criminal atrocities against all manner of people. I haven't seen the finger pointed at the Lebanese or Muslim communities for the violence.

What both Irfan and Waleed are doing is trying to generalise the riots in Sydney into something they weren't. They were not race riots. They were people protesting the criminality of the groups of Muslim Lebanese youths and their lack of policing.

Both are simply inflammatory. They should take stock of their own prejudices.

There was only one riot. There have not been riots. Why do you need this type of erroneous deception? Most of us are looking past our own prejudices in an endeavour to understand the cause of all the violence in Sydney and are endeavouring to find solutions so the violence not only ends but is eradicated in future generations.

When you concentrate on the 'animalistic' violence on Sunday, yet blame the media, ignore or attempt to minimise (For there have been many more than the two incidents you cite) the 'animalistic' violence of the Lebanese Muslim youths over the past 10 or so years then you appear racially or culturally or religiously biased...or motivated by the prejudice of all three. If that is the case you are ... behaving racist.
The media haven't just been reporting crimes committed by Lebanese Muslim youth gangs in Sydney. They report all serious crime. Or is it that you only read the reports about Lebanese Muslim youth or those using the euphemism about Middle Eastern people?
Gangs are not foreign to Lebanese communities. History, both recent and ancient, clearly shows the nature of and the origins of the tribal behaviour of the Lebanese Arabs everywhere, not just in Sydney.
Mosques have not been burned down. Why’d you ignore the torching of Christian churches? Was that not reported widely enough?

'The worst we could do is let the riots inflame our own society.'

The exaggerations, minimisations, generalisations and prejudices conveyed in you commentary are doing just that.

I agree with Waleed that there's less likely to be a problem in Melbourne with gang warfare than in Sydney. But I reckon it's got to do with the fact that Melbourne is a more introspective place and this has a dampening effect on violence. In contrast, the more extroverted environment in Sydney has a magnifying effect when aggression is high.

I remember in the 1970s, the Lebanese gangs in Thomastown used to roam the streets and pick fights with the local "Broadie Boys" in Broadmeadows. So, there have always been gangs in Melbourne. It's just that they mostly kept it amongst themselves

Waleed,
A fine article – hopeful yet cautious. I thank [insert your version of God here] for people like you. We need more eloquent, thoughtful moderates – again like you - to bring this world to some sense.

On this note, if you happen to read this, I have been ruminating on a plan to promote the unity of all through the media. I am very interested in talking with people like you to devise a media campaign or ‘conference’ style event that the media may pick up – to help engender a little more tolerance, respect and understanding.

If you are interested, drop me a note:

unitedaustralia@hotmail.com

R0bert,
I concur completely. You and some others are all that keep me interested in this site. If it weren’t for your – and some others – balance, it would be too far on the intolerable to bother reading. Keep up the good work.