Australian state government prepares savage attack on democratic rights

SYDNEY, December13 , 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – An emergency session of New South Wales parliament will give Sydney police tough new powers to crack down on racial and mob violence as the country’s reputation for racial tolerance became under threat, a leading Australian newspaper reported Tuesday, December13 .

An emergency session of parliament Thursday, December15 , will give police powers not seen since the 2000 Sydney Olympics, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Under the laws, police will be able to lock down parts of Sydney and search and confiscate vehicles.

The new laws will further increase the penalty for riot by five years to 15 years in jail and double the penalty for affray to 10 years in jail.

"We're dealing with an unprecedented situation the likes we haven't seen in Australia before, with this type of racial tension and these types of series of smash and bash attacks across multiple fronts," NSW Assistant Police Commissioner Mark Goodwin said Tuesday.

A massive force of 450 highly-mobile police will also patrol Sydney streets tonight to try to prevent a third successive night of violence following Sunday's Cronulla race riot.

The rampage began when more than5 , 000people gathered at Sydney’s Cronulla beach Sunday, December11 , after e-mail and mobile phone messages called on local residents to beat-up "Lebs and wogs" -- racial slurs for people of Lebanese and Middle Eastern origin.

Western Australian police in Perth are further investigating an attack by a group of young men against a family of Middle Eastern background.

Striking Back

Sydney's youths of Middle East backgrounds struck back Monday, smashing cars, assaulting people and fighting police in several different suburbs, police said Tuesday.

On Monday night, hundreds of Muslims were involved in an angry standoff with police outside a Sydney mosque in the western suburbs.

Up to 25 cars with youths then drove to Cronulla and used baseball bats to damage cars and smash windows, according to Reuters.

Residents said around 30 to 40 cars full of young men armed with baseball bats and crowbars drove through the suburb, smashing shop windows and parked cars.

In the mainly Muslim suburb of Lakemba, about 500 young people blocked roads near the local mosque after evening prayers, believing an attack was imminent. They later dispersed, some hurling rocks at police.

Australian media reported that mobile telephone text messages from Australians of Anglo-Saxon and Middle East backgrounds were both calling for revenge attacks to continue.

Muslim activist Fadi Abdul Rahman said further trouble could be brewing as Muslim youths were angry, believing police were not treating them fairly.

"They feel they have been dealt with by the authorities differently to the way Anglos have been dealt with," he told Reuters.

"They feel injustice and they feel angry about it."

Observers laid the blame squarely at the Australian government for repeatedly voicing warnings of possible attacks by Muslims on Australian soil and the recent issuance of anti-terror laws believed to be targeting immigrants from the Arab and Muslim countries.

“Embedded Racism”

Meanwhile, a federal Labor MP has contradicted his party leader Kim Beazley and Prime Minister John Howard by blaming racism for the violence.

Federal Tasmanian MP Harry Quick says racism is “embedded” in Australian culture and federal politicians should not ignore it, Australia’s ABC news network reported.

Opposition leader Kim Beazley has said the Sydney clashes are "simply criminal behavior" and Howard says he does not accept there is underlying racism in Australia.

But Quick says political leaders should not gloss over the issue.

"I think leaders of all political parties who have put their opinions on the public record need to look seriously at the underlying issues," he said.

"Because in Sydney especially, I am in Melbourne today and I'd like to think that Melbourne has a totally different attitude but in Sydney there is overt racism.

"It really concerns me that Australians - if you scratch them you discover a racist and this is one of the sad things about Australia, despite us espousing multiculturalism, deep down we have this fear of people who are different from us," he said.

Opposition treasury spokesman Wayne Swan says he disagrees with Quick.

Swan says it is a law and order issue, and criminals are criminals regardless of their background.

"It doesn't matter what people like Harry Quick or anyone else thinks about where these people come from ... they must feel the full force of the law," Swan said.

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