F.H. have to disagree with you there.. victory of hamas (besides bringing us one step closer to ARMAGEDDON) was caused fundamentally by the existence of Israel. All other symptoms can be traced back to that. Israel withdrew from Gaza.. they are still attacking Israel.

The most volatile hatred and violence against Israel seems to come from the Refugee camps, i.e. those who have lost land to the existence of Israel. It won't matter what Israel does, like withdrawing from Gaza etc, they will never be happy until Israel is 'not', which of course is not gonna happen, so..full circle.

Lets see.. "Netanyahu next PM" ? Shift to 'right' in ISrael ? Iran attacked ? HAMAS try to 'militarize' Palestinians..Ka-BOOM

The 'oppression' and attacks against Palestinians are all related to the violence against Israel, which is related to the loss of land.
Add to this the Temple mount issue and we have a humanly unsolveable problem.

INEB, I have to support your view here about the 'racist' nature of the attacks on the random people of Middle Eastern appearance, Thor is correct the emotion was fueled by the previous incidents, but I think Thor needs to recognize that drunks attacking 'anyone' of ME appearance is actually 'racist' in one sense.
Yes, of course the revenge attacks were absolutely 'racist' also.

THOR... I sympathetically identify with your feelings, and I think you and INEB are not that far apart, but placing emphasis on different aspects of the issue.. I would like to think we can work through this without becoming polarized ourselves ok :)

Lets not waste our energies on bickering with each other, rather look for practical solutions for the future.

I've suggested a number of measures which would be of value I think, including an alert system, setting up of regional defense teams etc. Training in Self Defence and the legal aspects and limits of SD. Some exercises to test the viability. The Cronulla businessman who wanted electronically activated SPIKES in the 3 access roads was well intentioned but not very practical. There are other ways to trap rats :)

To the one-culture posters. So an author expresses her view on what multiculturalism means to her on Australia Day and she is attacked by the those that disagree. Of course their “criticism” is executed with their usual kind of scary , creepy and fanatical enthusiasm. And thus confirm the multiculturalness of our country.
Interesting conundrum here. The mono-culturalists can’t see that their own culture is even different from the “Australian” culture that they think they want . Usually when someone, like Salam, says something positive and affirming, we get the usual crew sounding off with their negative naysaying. Now tell me which part of Australian culture is this picking on the positive, denying others their rights to their culture without silly attacks and trying to demonise sensible posters and words? The bullying thug part?

That bully-boy (and girl) mentality is there bubbling away beneath the surface and it has nothing to do with love of this country and its ways – it is up and up nastiness, egoism and mean-spiritness. You can eat your meat pies, salute your flags and sing your anthems until you are blue in the face as far as I am concerned. Your “Australian” culture is not impacted on in anyway by allowing others to enjoy their cultural heritage.

And as far as the one- culture crowd’s political correctness position goes - what a bunch of hypocrites. Someone offers an opinion other than their peculiar, petty prejudices which they apparently hold against against other cultures and groups and it sooo offends their political- correctness position. The political-correct right mustn’t give any credence to the “soft left’. Tag ‘em, bag ‘em mentality. Don’t let other voices be heard without tainting their words with accusation and divisive comments. Keep ‘um down. Put the fear of being misquoted, tagged as a this and a that and the other. And that attitude, seen too often on OLO, is indicative of a deeper willingness to coerce with violence.

Continued :You one-culture lot riled something fierce when accused of racism every time (the frequency of which is disturbing) you argued on an issue relating to race. You embraced political correctness even, or because, of its inherent ease of misuse to stigmatise and attack your opponents. And here you are doing your damnest to demonise and discredit good, kind, helpful and sensible words. Who would have thought it? I think those attacking the author have violent souls and are trying to create a “legitimate” situation to express that violence (through, and to other people mostly).

Now here is a nice heart-warming yarn. A storm hits a small country town and a koala falls out a tree. He is big-old fella but would rip your arms off if you got too close. What to do.? Lean a ladder against a tree – and low and behold old-fella Koala climbs up the ladder. Problem solved.

Multiculturalism is just a ladder leaning on a tree – it is up to you whether or not you take advantage of the kind gesture. The one-culture lot are so carried away with self-righteousness indignation that they think that the wind wouldn’t touch them.

Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas. (Gum trees)

to rancitas

I believe what people are saying is that with rights comes responsibilities. Responsibilities to call to account those who break the law, even if they are in one's own community.

Not to simply criticise others without criticising oneself (just get drunk on australia day, etc). If you take a look through more forums you will see that all the bashers in this forum are quite bashing of the australian culture and institutions in other forums, as it should be. Unfortunately any muslim who undertook a serious look at his/her community in australia would probably be offed or forced to leave that community.

It was very obvious that yesterday's celebration of 'Australia Day' has become more and more popular. The harder Multiculture is pushed into our faces, the more patriotically Australian we become.
The more our flag is abused and critized , the more of us wave it proudly.
If the proponents of multiculture hadn't forced it on us, it may gradually have been accepted but we do not like being told, like infants, that others know what is best for us.
Maybe Salem didn't notice that there were thousands of Mums and Dads with their Australian families or does she only have one eye open for the worst type of ocker.I rather think so.
This is silly,naive writing of the inanest type.

Rancitas wrote:

"Your “Australian” culture is not impacted on in anyway by allowing others to enjoy their cultural heritage."

When another's cultral heritage, as expressed through claiming a space on a beach to play soccer or volleyball causes me to have to cram closer to my neighbour than I would want to: my culture is being impacted.

When a group of young men try to claim, as has been done, that in their culture girls act better than they do in Australia, and because of that Australian girls are 'fair game': my culture is being impacted.

When someone uses patronage rather than ability for advancement, as is common in many cultures: my culture is being impacted.

When someone from a non-queueing culture (Australia used to be a queueing culture - where people took their turn) jumps a queue because in their culture queues are not important, whether it is for a car spot or a place on a bus: my culture is being impacted.

When an ethnic group stacks a local political party branch in order to get their own way: my culture is being impacted.

When a shoreline is stripped of all its native fauna in order to satisfy the culinary tastes of certain ethnic groups, leaving the shoreline covered in slimy weed and devoid of other life: my culture is being impacted.

When a lamb is slaughtered and butchered in a traditional ethnic way, at Bronte Beach on a Sunday evening, as happened about six years ago: my culture is being impacted.

When people receive government subsidies in order to maintain their own cultural ways, or receive taxpayer funding for multicultural resource centres, instead of funding from within their own groups: my culture is being impacted.

When a group of young men born and educated in Australia try to avoid giving evidence in a murder trial because they claim that they cannot speak or understand English, and that claim is accepted in the name of multicuturalism because it is not politically correct to question it: my culture is being impacted.

Yes Racitas, other people's culture impact mine.