AUSTRALIA: Australia was last night in the grip of its worst race clashes since independence, with youths battering cars and shattering shop windows as violence spread through Sydney's suburbs for a second day.
The attacks came in retaliation for Sunday's violence, in which 5,000 people rampaged across Cronulla beach chanting racist slogans, leaving more than 40 police officers injured. Members of the crowd had wrapped themselves in the Australian flag and chanted: "No more Lebs [ Lebanese]," attacking men and women of Middle Eastern appearance. Several victims were evacuated in police vans.
Last night police made several arrests after more than 50 carloads of Middle Eastern men armed with baseball bats sought revenge in the southern Sydney suburb of Cronulla.
More than 500 mainly Muslim men also gathered outside a mosque at Lakemba, in the city's south-west, after rumours that surf gangs were planning to attack the building. They later dispersed, throwing rocks and flares at police protecting the building.
Television images of the fighting has shocked Australians, whose pride in their country's tolerance was shaken by the level of popular support for Pauline Hanson's anti-immigration One Nation party in the late 1990s.
More recently, the prime minister, John Howard, won the 2001 election on a hardline anti-immigration platform.
Police said neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups had used Sunday's protest to incite hatred. "A lot of these people involved in the violence were not locals. They came from far afield looking for a fight," said a resident, who only wanted to be identified as Maree.
But Mr Howard denied there was any "underlying racism" behind the events. "This nation of ours has been able to absorb millions of people from different parts of the world over a period of now some 40 years and we have done so with remarkable success," he said.
Surfers and residents say racial tensions at the beach have simmered for years. Shaun Donohoe, a 24-year-old chef, said: "[ Lebanese Australians] look down on our women. They don't really assimilate to our way of life. I've been at war with them for 10 years."
Roland Jabbour, chairman of the Australian Arabic Council, said the unrest had been stoked by politicians and media commentators. "Arab Australians have had to cope with vilification, racism, abuse and fear of a racial backlash for a number of years, but these riots will take that fear to a new level," he said.
The spark for Sunday's violence was an alleged attack on a Cronulla surf lifesaver by four Middle Eastern youths the previous weekend. But many locals claim that attack was part of a wider pattern of young Lebanese Australians gathering at Cronulla to harass locals. "There's only so many times you can be sworn at and called disgusting names just because you swim in a bikini," said Nicolle Dunk (17).
Elie Nassif, the president of the Lebanese Community Council, dismissed those claims yesterday. "I don't think that is true . . . they [ Lebanese youths] don't do that," he said.
Malcolm Kerr, the Liberal MP for Cronulla, said locals were tired of being intimidated by gangs but should also be ashamed of Sunday's violence.
Many have linked Sunday's violence to broader issues in Australia. Bruce Baird, Cronulla's state MP for Mr Howard's Liberal party, said rioters were taking revenge on Lebanese Australians for the 2002 Bali bombings.