Australian racists rally

Editorial

Australia and Canada have much in common. We are the children of a common Imperial power. We are both Commonwealth countries with a shared British parliamentary system. We both have histories as colonial settler regimes that have long, undignified and distinct records of racial atrocities.

But the rioting this week in Sydney seemed to come from like a bolt out of the blue. On Sunday, a racist mob was driven to the beach by a clarion of incitement via e-mail: throngs of mostly young, white Australians wearing and chanting nationalistic and racist slogans, reportedly turned their violent and abusive sights on anyone who appeared to be, as media reported it, "of Middle Eastern descent."

In practical terms, this means Arabs and Muslims, and the mob has not, as yet, turned against Jews. But in an environment as volatile and violent as this, Jews know we are not free to relax. Indeed, the rampaging drunks of Sydney bore a striking resemblance to historical reports of anti-Jewish pogroms across Eastern Europe.

This situation differs from the violence we recently witnessed in France in several key respects. For one thing, the Australian case seemed to involve little or no economic critique. By all appearances, this was not an uprising of economically dispossessed citizens. It appeared, from a scan of media coverage, to be a crowd of spoiled, middle-class white Australians who hate Arabs.

It also differs in its impact on Canada. Though Canada arguably has more emotional and economic links with France than we do with Australia, the political and social system in Canada bears far more resemblance to that of Australia than to our European forebears in France.

The conditions under which violence erupted in France are, for all intents, not present in Canada. The conditions under which this grotesque behavior took place in Sydney – save for the warm weather – may well exist here. Since 9/11, Arab and Muslim Canadians have warned of a growing sense of discrimination and suspicion in Canada.

Canadian Jews, out of a sense of shared experience and plain justice, should be at the forefront of ensuring that such hatred as was exhibited in Australia is not replicated here. It is also a matter of self-interest, because no matter how far civilization progresses, it is hard not to ask the ancient and familiar refrain: What will it mean for Jews?

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