Big Trouble Down Under

Reports of a second day of rioting in two oceanfront suburbs of Sydney, Australia’s largest city, are deeply troubling coming as they do on the heels of riots throughout France.

As best as I can figure, there are two groups at work here – Lebanese Muslim gangs attacking whites and their businesses, and in response whites randomly attacking people who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent.

My own view is that an outbreak of violence like this was all but inevitable. (This is informed primarily by my understanding of and love for a country that I have never visited, as well as my love for a woman who was born there and exemplifies the very best in these incredible people, who are so dynamic and laid back at the same time.)

Australians have worked hard to shed the image of their nation as a racist backwater with restrictive immigration policies. Today it is one of the most multicultural societies on earth, although it still struggles to find a modus vivendi with its Aboriginal people and it would be naive to think there weren't some tensions between whites and newcomer Chinese and Vietnamese and Muslims from South Asia and the Middle East.

This openness is a big reason why Oz continues to grow at such a healthy rate and its economy, seemingly immune to the pertubative aspects of the U.S. and European economies, performs so spectacularly year in and year out.

But these achievement have tended to hide festering tensions between native born Aussies and a growing and growingly vocal Muslim population that have never been far from the surface through a series of wrenching recent events. These include the the 2002 terrorist bombing in Bali, which killed nearly 200 Aussies and has come to be known as "Australia's 9/11," and more recently national debates on Australia's role in the global war on terror and U.S.-led war in Iraq, as well as whether to crack down on hate-spewing resident Islamic extremists.

Kiko’s House turns to an informed Aussie with the unlikely handle of Wretchard at his Belmont Club blog to try to make sense of things:

My two cents worth . . . is this. There's a perception, justified or not, among some Anglo Australians that authorities are not cracking down hard enough on Middle Eastern gangs, who are in Western Sydney. Some days ago, a Lebanese gang supposedly attacked lifeguards, who are an iconic part of Australian beach culture. That's a little bit like spitting on the Flag and writing grafitti on the Liberty Bell. So guys revved up by beer decided it wasn't just Miller Time, but payback time.

I have no doubt that some of the Middle Eastern guys beat up were innocent. But that's what happens when perceived political correctness undermines public confidence. We rely on the state to dispense justice, when that is thought to fail then mob rule steps in and punishes innocent and guilty alike.

I've been warning about this for some time now . . . Like most people in Oz, I have Muslim or Middle Eastern friends and the way I got it figured is if we don't start cracking down on the Osamas and the Zawahiris and the al-Arians because they are draped in this bogus human rights shield, then the Joe Samadis and the Bill Mansours of the world are gonna start catching it. What's the use of being innocent if the guilty go scot free? One day if a nuke goes off in Sydney or Manhattan all the bets are off.

I get a little emotional sometimes watching these peacenik types defend blatant murderers because by frustrating justice they are building up tectonic pressures that will go snap one day, and it won't be their necks at the end of a rope. What the world needs isn't the fake sympathy of the Euro-human rights crowd but justice. They should remember that in the absence of justice there is only revenge.

Two predictions here:

First, the French authorities dithered for nearly two weeks before cracking down on the predominately Algerian Muslim rioters. Australians are genetically hardwired with piss and vinegar. They will not stand for such official dilly-dallying. And they won't let anyone, let alone a bunch of adolescent Lebanese Muslim gangsters, out macho them.

Second, the riots will have the "Australia First" spittle-on-their-chins crowd in full howl. These are the closet white supremacists for whom "multiculturalism" is a four-letter word and were never happier than when Australia was still that racist backwater. Beware: They're just as dangerous as the street gangs.