The Rise Of White Australia

Authorities moved to crack down on rioters after two days of racial unrest in Sydney‘s beachside suburbs, while people of Middle Eastern descent were allegedly assaulted by whites in two other cities amid concerns the violence could spread, police said.The rioting began Sunday on Cronulla Beach when about 5,000 white youths — rallied by cell phone text messages — attacked people of Arab or Middle Eastern descent after Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards earlier this month. Police fought back with batons and pepper spray. Racial tensions in Australia have been rising in recent years, largely because of anti-Muslim sentiment fueled by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States and deadly bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, in October 2002. "The rapes have had a significant impact in terms of race relations in Sydney," said professor Chris Culleen, director of the Institute of Criminology at Sydney University. Iemma said he would urge lawmakers to pass legislation increasing prison sentences for riot offenses. He also said police would be given special "lockdown" powers to stop convoys from forming and driving into communities to carry out acts of retribution. Police said they discovered weapons including firebombs and rocks on the roofs of some houses in the beachside suburb of Maroubra. Some of those arrested were armed with machetes and baseball bats. Perth police Superintendent Shayne Maines said authorities could not rule out a link between the attack and the racial violence in Sydney. "There was some suggestion they did make ethnically related comments to the occupant of the house," Maines said. And on the Gold Coast in Queensland state, text messages targeting ethnic groups have called for people to attend a demonstration on Sunday and to start "cracking skulls," Australian Associated Press reported. In the 2001 census, nearly a quarter of Australia‘s 20 million people said they were born overseas. The country has about 300,000 Muslims, most in lower income suburbs of large cities. Sydney also has a large community of Lebanese who mostly live in a cluster of lower-income neighborhoods close to the city‘s Olympic sports complex. New South Wales state‘s Gov. Marie Bashir — who holds a largely ceremonial role as local representative of Britain‘s monarch — comes from a Lebanese family.