Tuesday, December 05, 2006

CRONULLA RIOTS ANNIVERSARY WILL SEE SYDNEY BEACH IN VIRTUAL POLICE "LOCKDOWN"

BIKINI PROTEST TO BE HELD OUTSIDE AUSTRALIA'S LARGEST MOSQUE




Hundreds of beat police, riot squad officers, dog squad handlers, Middle East gang cops and undercover detectives will swamp Cronulla beach this weekend, one year on from the riots that shocked Australia, and caused immeasurably damage to Australia's international reputation after video was looped on news channels across the globe.

There is already talk of the entire area being '"locked down" at the first signs of trouble.

It remains to be seen how big the 'Bikini Protest' to be held outside Lakemba Mosque will turn out to be, if it goes forward at all. But since the below story ran in the Sydney Morning Herald, a number of blogs and websites promoting the protests have been blocked or taken down.

A spokesman for the Lebanese Muslim Association described the idea of a bikini march as "funny and hilarious..."

From the smh.com.au :

Police have been asked to protect Australia's largest mosque next weekend because of concerns that a bikini march staged to coincide with the anniversary of the Cronulla riots may get out of control.

The caretaker of Lakemba Mosque, the Lebanese Muslim Association, says it is taking no risks, requesting at least 32 police officers to protect the place of worship on Saturday and Sunday.

The organiser, Melbourne grandmother Christine Hawkins, has asked women nationally to dress in bikinis and colourful beachwear and rally outside large mosques to show their disgust at comments by leading Muslim cleric, Sheik Taj el-Din al Hilaly, who likened women to "uncovered meat".

The Australian media, so far, are keeping pretty quiet about this weekend's first anniversary of the Cronulla Riots, when thousands of mostly white Australian youth chanted "Lebs out!" and beat innocent people senseless on a train, physically abused young women on the beacch, before attacking police and ambulance crews trying to protect and treat the victims of the ghastly violence.

The violent rioting that broke out around Cronulla Beach on December 11, 2005, followed a week of astounding front page tabloid headlines and talkback radio comment and incitement, detailed in a five volume police investigation into the riots, which showed that at least three talkback radio show hosts not only actively encouraged the violence that was to come, they endorsed it, and at least one host, Alan Jones, a personal friend of the Australian prime minister, came up with the idea of holding a mass protest in the first place.
The “shock-jocks” provided the immediate catalyst. By creating the initial media storm, they consciously set larger events into motion.

As Alan Jones himself exclaimed on radio 2GB on December 8, 2005: “I’m the person that’s led this charge here. Nobody wanted to know about North Cronulla; now it’s gathered to this.”

From ABC's Four Corners, a comprehensive documentary on the events leading up to the riots, the violence on the day and the waves of fallout :

One Sunday last December, 5000 Australians gathered at Cronulla, singing and waving the national flag as they "reclaimed" the beach. Fuelled by drink, the crowd became a mob, hunting down and beating anyone who looked Middle Eastern.

That night and the next, carloads of hundreds of young men of Middle Eastern descent headed for the beach suburbs to launch similarly random and savage acts of revenge.


The Sydney Bikini March appears to be a spin-off of to a similar march planned for December 9 in Melbourne.

NeoNazis StormFront think the Bikini March is a great idea

The Cronulla Riots have also been turned into a pretty pathetic boardgame

NSW Police Minister Tried To Cover Up Findings Of Cronulla Riot Report

December 11, 2005 : Violence Engulfs Cronulla Beach As White Mobs Attack Anyone With Brown Skin