This is way off topic, but being from Australia I'm just curious as to what it's like in the US compared to here with how relations with the middle easterners are in YOUR own local area, particularly since 9-11 and all that.
I dunno how widely this has been covered overseas, but this topic has really come up to the surface in Australia since the weekend when some massive & violent race-riots started in the southern suburbs of Sydney. I have a feeling overseas these would be automatically linked alot more to being a reaction to the terrorist threat, and possibly also that it was a bunch of racist Australian hooligans bashing up arabs? I mean half the newspapers here have focused on that angle....
In Australia there's always been tensions but not to do with terrorism and politics. I live in Melbourne and even here there is tension, because the middle eastern community (particularly the Lebanese community) really segregate themself from everyone else, all seem to stay in the same few suburbs, and often have a very anti-social attitude and there is very much a gang element in those suburbs, I guess similar to how there is in some black suburbs of American cities. Sydney is apparently even far far worse than Melbourne with a much bigger population in those suburbs and ALOT of gang violence resulting from it. I don't think 9-11 and the anti-terror stuff of the last few years has really affected it all that much but probably has separated the 2 communities even more...
Anyway, what happened this weekend was something that had been brewing for years. The way Sydney is set out, is that it's on the east coast of Australia, so the eastern suburbs are all on the beach and very typical white Australian middle class suburbs, and the western suburbs are very poor, industrial, multicultural suburbs and certain of these are really dangerous gang areas where even locals are scared to walk the streets because of middle eastern & Lebanese gangs driving around causing trouble. These gangs had often been going to the eastern suburbs to use the beaches and were generally causing trouble, abusing people & picking fights. Last weekend they gang-bashed 3 lifeguards on Cronulla Beach (and one said something about taking over the beach) and that must have been the last straw because this Sunday, 5000 Cronulla locals gathered at the beach to "reclaim it" waving Australian flags, crankin AC/DC from utes, getting drunk, sizzling sausages and yelling Aussie chants which soon became racist chants (like "Fuck off Lebs, Fuck off Lebs" and "Save Cronulla, Fuck Allah"), then it got out of hand and they started hunting down, chasing and belting up middle eastern & Lebanese people who came anywhere near the beach. Stupid, stupid reaction, and the locals there just lowered themselves to the same level of the gangs, and now things are much worse.
Then on Sunday night, when word got out in the Western suburbs about the racist riot on the beach, a convoy of about 60 carloads full of middle eastern thugs with baseball bats, crowbars & guns headed to the beach suburbs, smashed up all the cars in sight, fired gunshots, smashed store windows, randomly belted people up (including people just putting their garbage out to be collected and stuff), stabbed a few people, assaulted women.... Then on Monday night, another convoy of cars from the west arrived at the beaches again and the exact same thing happened!!
Seems like the suburbs of Sydney have become a warzone now. It must be horrible having to be scared to walk to the train station in your own suburb, in case 5 carloads of thugs with baseball bats pull up to belt the shit out of you just for being a white Australian in the eastern suburbs, because of a stupid racist riot on a beach by a bunch of drunken yobbos. All these innocent people being attacked the last 2 nights had nothing to do with that riot. I'm glad I live in Melbourne, but as I said we also have similar suburbs and gangs and communities here in some areas, so I hope it doesn't spread to here as well.
So with all this stuff fresh in my mind and being talked about here at the moment, got me thinking whether stuff like this is happening in the US? Obviously your country has 10 times the population and ALOT more cities than Australia does (and only really Sydney & Melbourne are extremely multicultural and have a big middle eastern population). Is there tension & suspicion towards people of that background over there since 9-11 now? Any kind of violence & anger resulting from it? Was there hatred & tension before the terrorist threats happened as well like there was here? I'm not talking on a national level, because obviously I know the country as a whole is suspicious of muslims (moreso than Australia) and America easily seems to have the most hardcore anti-terrorist propaganda being spread making everyone paranoid too, but on a more local & personal level, is there tension & violence between Americans & middle eastern immigrants in your city or area?
Just for the record, I personally think what happened in Sydney has very very little to do with anything terrorist or 9-11 related, the anti-"Lebs" riot at the beach was a retaliation against the gang violence & abuse by "westie" gangs over the years and they'd had enough of being bullied and feeling threated in their own suburb.
I dunno how widely this has been covered overseas, but this topic has really come up to the surface in Australia since the weekend when some massive & violent race-riots started in the southern suburbs of Sydney. I have a feeling overseas these would be automatically linked alot more to being a reaction to the terrorist threat, and possibly also that it was a bunch of racist Australian hooligans bashing up arabs? I mean half the newspapers here have focused on that angle....
In Australia there's always been tensions but not to do with terrorism and politics. I live in Melbourne and even here there is tension, because the middle eastern community (particularly the Lebanese community) really segregate themself from everyone else, all seem to stay in the same few suburbs, and often have a very anti-social attitude and there is very much a gang element in those suburbs, I guess similar to how there is in some black suburbs of American cities. Sydney is apparently even far far worse than Melbourne with a much bigger population in those suburbs and ALOT of gang violence resulting from it. I don't think 9-11 and the anti-terror stuff of the last few years has really affected it all that much but probably has separated the 2 communities even more...
Anyway, what happened this weekend was something that had been brewing for years. The way Sydney is set out, is that it's on the east coast of Australia, so the eastern suburbs are all on the beach and very typical white Australian middle class suburbs, and the western suburbs are very poor, industrial, multicultural suburbs and certain of these are really dangerous gang areas where even locals are scared to walk the streets because of middle eastern & Lebanese gangs driving around causing trouble. These gangs had often been going to the eastern suburbs to use the beaches and were generally causing trouble, abusing people & picking fights. Last weekend they gang-bashed 3 lifeguards on Cronulla Beach (and one said something about taking over the beach) and that must have been the last straw because this Sunday, 5000 Cronulla locals gathered at the beach to "reclaim it" waving Australian flags, crankin AC/DC from utes, getting drunk, sizzling sausages and yelling Aussie chants which soon became racist chants (like "Fuck off Lebs, Fuck off Lebs" and "Save Cronulla, Fuck Allah"), then it got out of hand and they started hunting down, chasing and belting up middle eastern & Lebanese people who came anywhere near the beach. Stupid, stupid reaction, and the locals there just lowered themselves to the same level of the gangs, and now things are much worse.
Then on Sunday night, when word got out in the Western suburbs about the racist riot on the beach, a convoy of about 60 carloads full of middle eastern thugs with baseball bats, crowbars & guns headed to the beach suburbs, smashed up all the cars in sight, fired gunshots, smashed store windows, randomly belted people up (including people just putting their garbage out to be collected and stuff), stabbed a few people, assaulted women.... Then on Monday night, another convoy of cars from the west arrived at the beaches again and the exact same thing happened!!
Seems like the suburbs of Sydney have become a warzone now. It must be horrible having to be scared to walk to the train station in your own suburb, in case 5 carloads of thugs with baseball bats pull up to belt the shit out of you just for being a white Australian in the eastern suburbs, because of a stupid racist riot on a beach by a bunch of drunken yobbos. All these innocent people being attacked the last 2 nights had nothing to do with that riot. I'm glad I live in Melbourne, but as I said we also have similar suburbs and gangs and communities here in some areas, so I hope it doesn't spread to here as well.
So with all this stuff fresh in my mind and being talked about here at the moment, got me thinking whether stuff like this is happening in the US? Obviously your country has 10 times the population and ALOT more cities than Australia does (and only really Sydney & Melbourne are extremely multicultural and have a big middle eastern population). Is there tension & suspicion towards people of that background over there since 9-11 now? Any kind of violence & anger resulting from it? Was there hatred & tension before the terrorist threats happened as well like there was here? I'm not talking on a national level, because obviously I know the country as a whole is suspicious of muslims (moreso than Australia) and America easily seems to have the most hardcore anti-terrorist propaganda being spread making everyone paranoid too, but on a more local & personal level, is there tension & violence between Americans & middle eastern immigrants in your city or area?
Just for the record, I personally think what happened in Sydney has very very little to do with anything terrorist or 9-11 related, the anti-"Lebs" riot at the beach was a retaliation against the gang violence & abuse by "westie" gangs over the years and they'd had enough of being bullied and feeling threated in their own suburb.
