World News Racial violence shocks Australia

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SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - In one of Australia's worst outbursts of racial violence, thousands of drunk white youths attacked police and people they believed were of Arab descent in Sydney on Dec. 11.

The violence was prompted by reports that Lebanese youths had assaulted two lifeguards.

Young men of Arab descent retaliated in several suburbs, fighting with police and smashing 40 cars with sticks and bats.

Thirty-one people were injured and 16 were arrested.

Prime Minister John Howard condemned the violence, but said he did not believe racism was widespread in Australia.

Australia has long prided itself on accepting wave after wave of immigrants - from Italians and Greeks after World War II to families fleeing political strife in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

In a 2001 census, nearly a quarter of Australia's 20 million people said they were born overseas.

But tensions between people of Arabic descent and white Australians have been rising.

This is largely because of anti-Muslim sentiment fueled by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States and deadly bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali that killed 88 Australians in 2002.

About 300,000 Muslims live in Australia.

豪州でアラブ系住民に暴力

シドニーで11日、酔った白人の若者数千人が、警察やアラブ系と思われる人たちを襲撃した。

Shukan ST: Dec. 23, 2005

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