The Rumble Down Under

Sydney

Australian Prime Minister John Howard appears to have his head in the sand of Cronulla beach here where several thousand booze-fueled mates rampaged against "Lebs" and others of Middle Eastern descent in December. "I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country," said the PM, many of whose young Muslim constituents begged to differ by retaliating for the beach attack, marauding through the city's upscale, predominantly white suburbs beating random individuals and smashing windows in homes and cars.

Howard argues that Australia has had an enviable record of welcoming several million new citizens from all over the globe since World War II, which is true enough. But he is also the man who, during a decade in office, has repeatedly refused to apologize to the nation's Aborigines for two centuries of brutality at the hands of Australia's British settlers and their descendants. Like the Aborigines, hundreds of thousands of dark-skinned newcomers have remained second-class citizens--unwelcome at certain beaches, restaurants, night spots and in many jobs and neighborhoods in a nation of 20 million that, for all its open doors, remains 92 percent white. For Australia's estimated 300,000 Muslims, discrimination has escalated since 9/11 and the Bali bombing of October 2002, in which eighty-eight of the 202 people killed were Australians.

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