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| Down Under |
| Police ranks boosted in war on riots |
| 2005-12-13 |
| SYDNEY has declared war on all rioters after more than 48 hours of lawlessness and admissions from both the police and Muslim leaders that they have been unable to control the angry mobs of young men. NSW Premier Morris Iemma announced a series of new police powers, including increasing the penalty for rioting from five years to 15, as the number of officers on the streets was trebled. At dusk last night, an extra 450 highly mobile police and 20 dog-squad units were patrolling the hot spots in suburbs across Sydney as communities braced for a third night of violence. The additional police powers will go before a special sitting of parliament tomorrow. They include allowing police to establish "lockdown zones" where officers can search people and vehicles at will; and powers to confiscate vehicles driven by those who are seen to be involved in rioting. Mr Iemma, who was elevated to the top job five months ago, has vowed to "take back the streets". "These criminals have declared war on our society and we are not going to let them win. I won't allow Sydney's reputation as a tolerant, vibrant international city to be tarnished by these ratbags and criminals who want to engage in the sort of behaviour we've seen in the last 48 hours." Islamic leaders have warned that the race-related violence is symptomatic of a deep-seated racism in Australian society and could lead to the radicalisation of young Muslim men. On Monday night, several thousand men met at Lakemba Mosque, where leaders urged them to keep the peace. Their calls were ignored, however, and 11 men were arrested after a second night of violence in Cronulla that left seven people injured, one of them a police officer. Bats and iron bars were seized and police found a cache of Molotov cocktails. Police are also now investigating bullet holes found in the cars of several staff members at St Joseph the Worker Primary School in South Auburn after a Christmas carols service on Monday evening. Parents and children were abused by a group of young men of Middle Eastern appearance and gunshots were heard during the service. In the southwestern Sydney suburb of Raby, some residents woke yesterday to find their vehicles damaged and sprayed with graffiti. One car was spray-painted with the words "See ya Sunday ya wog c...", and at least one other car was set alight, police said. Waleed Aly of the Victorian Islamic Association warned that events of the past few days could radicalise young Muslim men and encourage them to adopt more extreme forms of Islam. "It's really hard to predict, because young guys involved in gang-type situations are often not the same guys involved in mosques and religious communities," he told The Australian. "But extremist discourse feeds on persecution complex, so any kind of event which feeds into that narrative makes things worse in terms of the security issues." Rahman Fadi, an Islamic youth leader, agreed that the situation was feeding extremist agendas. "This is giving the cutting edge for people of such ideologies to say 'we told you so, they don't want us here'," he said. One 20-year-old Lebanese man, who was arrested on Sunday night after the Cronulla beach riot, told The Australian the violence was "not a religious thing but pretty much came down to the fact that you are a wog". Asked if the race-related riots would encourage more men to take up radical forms of Islam, he said: "It could happen to a minority. "If you keep getting bashed and bashed and bashed, of course you will get more and more violent, of course that will be the case." Their comments followed further denials from John Howard that the attacks that have taken place since a riot at Cronulla beach on Sunday reflect a racist element to Australian society. "Violence, thuggery, loutish behaviour, smashing people's property, intimidating people - all of those things are breaches of the law and I don't think the actions should be given some kind of special ... status because they occur against the background of this or that," the Prime Minister said. Sheik Shady, a cleric at Lakemba Mosque in Sydney's west, said Mr Howard was denying the truth about what was behind the violence. "If you want to deny this, you are denying yourselves and that's total ignorance of the situation. That's not a solution to it." He said he had urged young men at Lakemba Mosque on Monday night to let authorities deal with the volatile situation. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #4 "It's really hard to predict, because young guys involved in gang-type situations are often not the same guys involved in mosques and religious communities..." Riiight, they just happened to gather outside Lakemba mosque with their Glocks at the ready by chance... |
| Posted by: Bolo 2005-12-13 23:06 |
| #3 Islamic leaders have warned that the race-related violence is symptomatic of a deep-seated racism in Australian society and could lead to the radicalisation of young Muslim men. Sounds like a threat to me. The Ozzies had better go dhimmi, or else. Oz should tell them if they don't like it there they should go home. Plenty of other non-whites seem to be able to get along OK. Sounds like an ideology problem, not a race problem. |
| Posted by: Ebbolutle Glomoter8655 2005-12-13 17:21 |
| #2 On Monday night, several thousand men met at Lakemba Mosque, where leaders urged them to keep the peace. Their calls were ignored, however... Bullshit. They made no such calls. That meeting was pure incitement. You cannot tell me that people CALMLY gathered for a special service, listened to messages of peace, calm, and tolerance, THEN WENT OUT AND STARTED RIOTING. The same thing happened here in Cincinnati. The thugs gathered at a rabble rouser's church, listened to what was touted as a call for calm and cool-heads, then marched to City Hall and started a riot. No one dared note that one of the post-riot demands was to restart a government program the "Reverend" and his followers had been extorting. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-12-13 17:14 |
| #1 "Sheik Shady" Now there's a descriptive name... |
| Posted by: PBMcL 2005-12-13 16:54 |