Muslims!! The state of Victoria has vowed to end the gang crisis gripping Melbourne's northern suburbs after another wild street shootout. Armed "Lebo" thugs defied police and traded gunfire from speeding cars. It was the sixth shooting incident since February suspected of being linked to friction between warring Middle Eastern families. How did we import such trouble? What is the origin of this particular them-against-us-culture? I agree that Culture counts, but again and again we seem reluctant to confront the truth that....multiculturalism sucks. Just ask the leaders of European countries that are sick of the non-assimilation and tribalism of these people..
This reality is confirmed by our Department of Education with figures that confirms few Arabic-language students are making their way into high-performance schools. "There is a significant problem of underachievement," says Dr Rosemary Suliman, senior lecturer at the University of Western Sydney. She argues that perceptions count for much. "Arabic-speaking people do not enjoy a very high status in our society and that has a very negative effect on students. It makes them have a very strong ethic identity, a refusal to be part of the whole and an opposition to other groups and that contributes to their lack of achievement."
The blame is implicitly cast not on Arabic culture but the Australian one, the great punching bag of the Leftist idealogue. We intolerant Australians do not give "a very high status" to Arabic-speaking people, so they retreat into a defensive them-against-us ethnic identity. Yet isn't the reverse more likely, that a them-against-us culture and "refusal to be part of the whole", along with low achievement, is what shapes public perceptions? Isn't that the more likely cause-and-effect, particularly when Chinese immigrants, every bit as "foreign" and likely to be denied "high status" in an allegedly xenophobic society, actually manage to achieve so very well? Dr Suliman pushes far too much blame on our "Anglo" culture.
It doesn't seem to strike this academic elitist with sufficient force that there is in fact some good reason for suspicion in the first place, particularly given incidents she herself lists:
This has since been followed by several local and global incidents which have added to the intensity of the situation, eg. September 11, the Invasion of Iraq, Taliban atrocities in the name of Allah, Gang rapes, shootings and Terrorist attacks and not one Muslim cleric calling for an end to jihad and terrorist attacks, etc.
The Way I See It....this attitude is perfectly reasonable, given the terrorism, gang rapes, shootings and hate-preachings of far too many Muslim spokesman that non-Muslims would be worried...and question their right to be in our country? And aren't those incidents expressive of a them-against-us culture that may be the origin of the tension, not a consequence of it? Note, after all, that this is a problem in most every society in which Muslims are the minority, from Nigeria to Holland, Stockholm to Detroit.
And, indeed, what is deplored as a stereotype is in fact accepted as a sad truth by many Lebanese immigrants themselves. A report by Noble, Poynting & Tabar (1999) stated that Lebanese youth have negative images of themselves and perceive that they are troublemakers, stating that although about 45% are good, the rest are mainly on the dole and serial ratbags. Our immigration Department has a lot to answer for.
This reality is confirmed by our Department of Education with figures that confirms few Arabic-language students are making their way into high-performance schools. "There is a significant problem of underachievement," says Dr Rosemary Suliman, senior lecturer at the University of Western Sydney. She argues that perceptions count for much. "Arabic-speaking people do not enjoy a very high status in our society and that has a very negative effect on students. It makes them have a very strong ethic identity, a refusal to be part of the whole and an opposition to other groups and that contributes to their lack of achievement."
The blame is implicitly cast not on Arabic culture but the Australian one, the great punching bag of the Leftist idealogue. We intolerant Australians do not give "a very high status" to Arabic-speaking people, so they retreat into a defensive them-against-us ethnic identity. Yet isn't the reverse more likely, that a them-against-us culture and "refusal to be part of the whole", along with low achievement, is what shapes public perceptions? Isn't that the more likely cause-and-effect, particularly when Chinese immigrants, every bit as "foreign" and likely to be denied "high status" in an allegedly xenophobic society, actually manage to achieve so very well? Dr Suliman pushes far too much blame on our "Anglo" culture.
It doesn't seem to strike this academic elitist with sufficient force that there is in fact some good reason for suspicion in the first place, particularly given incidents she herself lists:
This has since been followed by several local and global incidents which have added to the intensity of the situation, eg. September 11, the Invasion of Iraq, Taliban atrocities in the name of Allah, Gang rapes, shootings and Terrorist attacks and not one Muslim cleric calling for an end to jihad and terrorist attacks, etc.
The Way I See It....this attitude is perfectly reasonable, given the terrorism, gang rapes, shootings and hate-preachings of far too many Muslim spokesman that non-Muslims would be worried...and question their right to be in our country? And aren't those incidents expressive of a them-against-us culture that may be the origin of the tension, not a consequence of it? Note, after all, that this is a problem in most every society in which Muslims are the minority, from Nigeria to Holland, Stockholm to Detroit.
And, indeed, what is deplored as a stereotype is in fact accepted as a sad truth by many Lebanese immigrants themselves. A report by Noble, Poynting & Tabar (1999) stated that Lebanese youth have negative images of themselves and perceive that they are troublemakers, stating that although about 45% are good, the rest are mainly on the dole and serial ratbags. Our immigration Department has a lot to answer for.
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