A Day in the Life of The Australian

February 18, 2011

Australia, do we have a problem for you, or Daddy, I want to be a drug baron or a night club owner when I grow up:

"Only 1.71% of Australians identify as Muslims, but we cannot simply ignore reports of behavioural problems among young, unemployed and disaffected Muslim men in the outer suburbs of Sydney, for example - problems that are increasingly acknowledged by community leaders... These are not racial problems but problems born of cultural difference. There is a troubling alienation from mainstream Australian values... Something has to give, and it is up to the communities... to try to change the expectations that are holding back so many young Australians. How wonderful it would be if the next generation of Lebanese-Australian kids held as their models the successful chief executives and footballers from their communities, rather than drug barons and night club owners." (We must acknowledge it's about culture, not race: Our Muslim community leaders face a deep challenge, editorial)

Ah, yes, mainstream Australian values - such as those displayed by Shadow Immigration Minister and MP for (Captain) Cook, Scott (Bad Timing) Morrison, and colorful (if monochromatically tattooed) constituent, "professional tree-lopper and Cronulla local Andrew Wilson":

"I'd rather see a nice girl in a swimsuit down on the beach than some sheila in a full burka... these people - they can't drink, they have to pray 5 times a day... You'd be better off having the Irish and the English who speak our language." (Multiculturalism has a long way to go, Higgins & Cleary)

No, sir, no sheilas in full metal burkas for Andrew, no way! But your Irish or your pommie sheila's OK. Lo, and it came to pass:

"A British tourist at Cronulla, former army officer Marguerite Wilson, said... 'Once you allow them to congregate in pockets, you have huge tensions between the indigenous whites and the people who have come to regard that as their own territory'..." (ibid)

Andrew Wilson, meet Marguerite Wilson. (Blimey, what is it about Wilsons and Cronulla?) Howz about you introduce her to some mainstream Australian values, know what I mean?

OK, OK, a little context:

"The Muslim community has plenty on its plate already: intergenerational poverty, under-education and unemployment, a pressing need for more social, welfare and aged-care services, a siege mentality fostered by a suspicious public and often hostile news media..." (Our high-profile Musim minority, Sally Neighbour)

She said... whaaat? An often hostile news media. Who'd have thought...

Now here's someone who should know about our little PROBLEM - Colin Rubenstein of the Australia-Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC): "The key concept for Australian multiculturalism has always been integration into the core values and institutions of Australian life, avoiding the pitfalls of the other two discredited models of separatism and assimilationism." (Integration the key to multicultural success)

I know what your thinking! I'm ahead of you. What about Israeli separatism, your Jewish state etc. Listen up, anti-Semitic swine, Israel's different, right? Now STFU...

... and have a nice Islamophobic day!