Angela Harlem
Jesus Online
indra said:
It's my guess that incident wasn't the cause, but rather the trigger. If that was the only thing that ever happend it would not have sparked riots (unless Aussies are the touchiest people in the world and I have seen no indication of that). There has to have been loads of simmering going on before to cause that much tension to build.
Definitely a trigger, or red flag. Some parts of the media have been working on fuelling tension between white Australians and immigrants from places like Lebanon and so on by harping on and on about the race element even moreso than the crime. Sometimes it might be justified. How often, who can tell. There was a story a while back of a gang rape by some Pakistani boys, 2 of which are brothers. The boys' father came forward. A doctor. And upon watching the tape (these lovely young guys filmed it) commented that one of his sons would make a good gynaecologist. See, now this is an horrendous gang rape. A vicious attack. But unfortunately the boys and the outspoken father have very strong views on the promiscuity and deservedness of Australian girls to be attacked like this. The media ran with this making it headlines. Reading that, you recoil and say 'why?'. So of course people got angry in retaliation and defended our rather loose white Australian culture. But what about the rapes? Suddenly the focus is on the racial element. This was sadly not an isolated incident. Just like this riot. The Macquarie Fields riots a while back were horrific too, but in an area of Sydney where violence and racial tension is expected and becomes the focus as well.