|
Alienation, Anti-terror Laws Blamed for Aussie Riots
 |
|
Howard's
draconian anti-terror legislations have been seen as instrumental
in fueling racial violence in Australia. (Reuters)
|
SYDNEY,
December 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The
Australian government policies of alienation and ignorance of ethnic
minorities and Prime Minister John Howard's draconian anti-terror
legislations are to blame for the country's racial violence, social
experts have concluded.
"They
(immigrants) feel excluded when they are told they don't belong in a
country in which they were born in and grew up in," Scott
Poynting, associate humanities professor at the University of Western
Sydney, told Reuters Thursday, December15.
Though
Australia is a nation built on immigrants, there has been an
underlying ignorance among ethnic minorities, especially between white
and Arab groups.
"They
are just young men hanging around, taking up space, being noisy,
sometimes being perceived by people as threatening," added
Poynting.
Riots
began in Australia when more than 5,000 people gathered at Sydney’s
Cronulla beach on December 11, after e-mail and mobile phone messages
called on local residents to beat-up "Lebs and wogs" --
racial slurs for people of Lebanese and Middle Eastern origin.
"Race-based
populism by the government is now coming back to bite," stressed
Poynting.
The
Muslim minorities in Australia has been complaining of being the
target of abuses and alienation.
"We
are defending ourselves. We are not racist," said a young
Lebanese man who identified himself only as Youssef.
Disconnected
Iktimal
Hage-Ali, a youth representative on Prime Minister John Howard's
Muslim Community Reference Group, agreed.
He
said that Arab ethnic minorities, especially of a Lebanese origin,
often feel disconnected from mainstream society.
"They've
been told by senior politicians that if they don't want to obey the
laws of this country, to ship up and ship out - sorry, and this is to
young people that are born in this country," she told ABC radio.
"So
if they've been told repeatedly that there's an 'us and them'
sentiment within the community and they are not Australian, well, how
do you expect them to claim themselves?"
Sydney's
cocktail of fear, alienation and youthful anger mirrors that which
sparked three weeks of rioting in France in November by immigrants of
Arab and African origin.
"We
are just getting a sample of what happened in France a few months
ago," said national Labor opposition politician Harry Quick.
Rioters
in France complained of high unemployment and exclusion from
mainstream society.
Draconian
Laws
 |
|
The
anti-Arab riots may escalate if its roots are not swiftly
confronted. (Reuters)
|
Howard's
draconian anti-terror legislations have also been blamed for the
country's racial violence.
Ahmed
Shboul, associate professor in Arabic and Islamic studies of Sydney
University, said the new counter-terrorism laws could have been a
trigger of the latest wave of racial violence, according to AFP.
"It
looks to me that these new laws about terrorism and so on might make
it easier to target people of Middle Eastern appearance," he
said.
"Certainly
September 11, and afterwards has made people look at men and women of
the background which is sometimes called Middle Eastern appearance...
with suspicion. There's no doubt about that," he added.
In
a Live Dialogue with IOL Thursday, Zunaid Moosa, Voluntary
Administrator at the Global Islamic Youth Center in Australia, also
said the Australian anti-terror laws have created an atmosphere of
fear toward the Muslim minority.
He
cited recent police raids on houses inhabited by Muslim immigrants in
Sydney and Melbourne and the anti-Muslim media hysteria as playing a
major impact on the stance of Australian society toward the Muslim
minority.
Catholic
priest Roy O'Neill, agreed.
"His
(Howard) racial profiling disguised as 'anti-terrorism' fed the
emergence of this ugly aspect of extreme right-wing politics," he
wrote in a letter in the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday.
Following
the July 7 London attacks in London, Australia unveiled a series of
new anti-terrorism laws under which suspects could be fitted with
tracking devices.
The
measures also included holding people for up to 14 days without charge
and jail terms for inciting violence.
Howard
has earlier defended his government's right to send spies into mosques
and Islamic schools under the pretext of fighting terrorism.
Australian
Muslims maintain that such security measures create a climate of fear
and apprehension among the Muslim minority in the country.
Muslims,
estimated at 300,000, make up just 1.5 percent of Australia's
population of 20 million.
|
