Muslim protesters clash with police in Sydney

[USSWisconsin]

If these were "peaceful" protests, they would be in very bad taste on 9/11. But they are violent protests, with death threats, murderous assaults and arson. The right to free speech doesn't protect criminal conspiracy and murder threats. In Libya they murdered our American ambassador. That's an act of war, and copy cat acts around the world are amplifying that act. I don't buy the "poor young men without jobs" - the US owes them jobs crap. Do they intend to go to a job interview shouting death to the company - we are mass murderers - give us a job? I'd say given them something small, fast and pointy - right between the eyes.

The fundamentalist Muslims have really gotten our attention now. This is an unconventional war, it can't be fought like WWII. There is no straight forward strategic campaign - in the sense there was in WWII or Vietnam. The US will be forced to act in different ways - perhaps nuking or carpet bombing isn't viable to address this - using million dollar missiles to blast empty tents doesn't make good sense. But perhaps a flock drones with sniper rifles mounted coming for frequent visits could... Friendly countries need to expel these enemy combatants and cease to give them aid and comfort.

[Chunder]

Date: 18:30 AEST Mon Sep 17 2012

For the Video, follow the link.

From: Video emerges of Sydney girl promoting jihad

Article Credits : Ali Best

Publisher: Ninemsn

Video footage has emerged of a young girl speaking of her love for jihad at a Muslim conference in western Sydney as the city continues to deal with the fallout from the weekend’s violent riots.

Eight-year-old Ruqaya yesterday addressed a crowd at the Australian chapter of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Bankstown as part of their "Muslims Rise" conference, Nine News reports.

Ruqaya spoke of her love for jihad, which means a spiritual struggle or holy war, the global Islam community, known as Ummah, and the violent uprisings in Syria.

"These uprisings have demonstrated that this Ummah is alive and well, that her sentiments are for Islam, her love is for Jihad, she has unshackled herself from the fear which she held," she said.

"Children as young as myself can be seen on the streets joining the uprisings, risking their lives to bring food, water and medicine to their wounded family members, some of them never returning to their mothers ... Nobody is too young. "

The alarming video comes as NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell ordered Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward to investigate the background of a young child who was pictured at the riots holding a posters ordering the beheading of anyone against the prophet.

"We cannot incite our children to violence for any reason, and we cannot use our children to promote messages that incite people to violence," Ms Goward said.

Seventeen people were injured and six were arrested and charged on Saturday, including champion boxer Ahmed Elomar.

The immediate priority for NSW detectives on Monday was to trace the as-yet-unidentified figures who used text messages and social networking sites to organise the protests, which quickly escalated into a riot.

Messages urged recipients to "defend the honour of the Prophet" and led dozens of people, mostly Muslim men, to gather in central Sydney and voice anger at the Innocence of Muslims movie.

Muslim leaders say they remain mystified about the identity of the protest organisers.

Sydney Lebanese community spokesman Keysar Trad said he received a text message on Friday urging recipients to "defend the honour of the Prophet" in Sydney's CBD.

But he did not know who sent the message and he condemned the resulting violence.

"This was the dumbest thing that young people could do - all they've done is publicised a film that doesn't deserve to be publicised," Mr Trad told AAP.

The president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, Samier Dandan, told the ABC he also did not know the source of the messages, despite many inquiries.

Authorities are bracing for more clashes, although NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione says he hopes the voice of reason will prevail.

"If anyone is stupid enough to try this sort of thing again, I can tell you now, we're more than ready," Mr Scipione told Macquarie Radio.

Sources: Nine News, AAP, The Australian
Author: Ali Best. Approving editor: Matthew Henry.

[dave lukins]

Yep, at least one police officer bloodied, at least one cop car smashed up.

We don't do the whole violent religious political rallies here (except, it seems when it comes to unions).

We are a lucky country. Europe isn't a lucky place.

Here's a link with more pics and a video Arrests made after police officers injured at anti-Islamic film protest in Sydney CBD | adelaidenow

"Six policemen were among a dozen people injured, with two officers requiring hospital treatment as the inner-city streets and Hyde Park turned into bloody battlegrounds".

[Monash]

The primary participants in the violence have been identified, most are "known" to authorities and in many cases they have been videoed in the act. Cases will be prioritized and then various offenders "scooped up" and charged as they are located. After that it's up to the courts - and out of our hands. In this instance if we are lucky some will be on residents visas and there is enough political heat at the moment to give cause for hope that any convicted of assault offenses will win a free tip back to the old country, one way.

[Bigfella]

"OK, so you don't like my form of expression..."

Fair to say I found it overtly mild.

"...I described the tendency of some people to judge large groups by the actions fo small numbers in their midst..."

Some people? Not many then, eh? Then you make much ado about nothing.

"Some would say the same about condeming people for saying nothing & then condeming them when they speak up because somehow it isn't enough or they don't use the precise form out words you want."

Their words are trite, disposable, and devoid of any meaningful determination to confront the virulence manifested by too-many of their adherents. I've watched that ritualized dance since 1978 with the same empty platitudes. Dismissive pap.

"...Sorry, lost me there...I really don't have a clue what you are on about here..."

Let me be plain-there's little need for you fearing over-reaction by your co-workers, myself or any others here. Muslims wishing to affirm their allegiance with Osama and reinforce such with threats of beheadings deserve 1.) prison sentences and, 2.) expulsion from western nations in which they reside. Once safely returned to the lands of their origins they deserve attack along with their cohorts who've committed these grievous acts of violence against our diplomats.

I'm sure you'll have no problem finding accord with that.

OK, after taking the senic route you finally got to your destination. At least you didn't yet again misrepresent what I said to get there this time. I'm going to leave it there. This thread is focussed on events in Sydney & their implications for Australia. I'm going to stick with that rather than arguing with you over the strength of my language or the meaning of this or that turn of phrase. I suspect you've already decided what I think anyway.

[Bigfella]

First a pleasing admission that I misjudged the local media. Even those outlets who usually only give face time to muslims who are angry or offensive have widely reported the denunciations by muslim leaders of this protest.

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that Sydney is the riot capitol of Australia. White, Muslim, Aboriginal, pretty much everyone seems to get in on the act. Melbourne, which has a large muslim community & is the home of Australia's senior cleric, has been quiet....as per usual. That is all the more interesting given that there are some hurt feelings (unjustified I suspect) at police raids last week. Fair to say local leaders here have been horrified at events. One guy I saw on TV pointed out the extent to which this was focussed on muslims from the Lebanese community in Lakemba....as per usual. As a young lebanese guy I worked with once pointed out 'Sydney Lebs are crazy mate'.

Gary Bouma is a former lecturer of mine & an ordained Anglican priest.

IMAMS at all 36 Melbourne mosques have been advised to warn Muslims at morning and evening prayers against violent protests such as the one in Sydney on Saturday about a film ridiculing Islam.

There have been violent protests around the Muslim world in which several people have died. Western embassies have been attacked and the US ambassador to Libya was killed. In the Sydney clash, several police and protesters were injured and six protesters arrested.

Muslim leaders and organisations condemned the violence, and the fact that young children held up placards with such messages as ''behead all those who insult the prophet''.

An emergency meeting of the Victorian Board of Imams in Melbourne yesterday afternoon decided to email and telephone every imam, asking them to make the Friday lunchtime sermon about how to respond to the film, and to talk about it at morning and evening prayers - usually the best attended of the five daily prayers - until then.

Sheikh Mohamadu Saleem, spokesman for the Victorian board and the Australian National Council of Imams, said as far as the imams knew no protest was planned in Melbourne. ''The main thing we discussed was if any copycat demonstration happened here, how to deal with it. We all agreed that Australia is a democratic country and people have the right to demonstrate and voice their frustration and unhappiness, but it has to be peaceful.''

Sheikh Mohamadu said Muslims were uncertain about whether protesters or police began the Sydney violence, but Muslims must make sure any protest is peaceful.

Monash University interfaith expert Gary Bouma said Sydney-style protests would be unthinkable in Melbourne, because the religious temperature was lower. ''Sydney gets Cronulla and this violence. We get to have the world's best community relations,'' Professor Bouma said.

He said Victoria Police had poured enormous effort into building relationships. ''Sydney would say they do, but that means they have a desk in the CBD with a cop on it who thinks community relations thoughts.''

Victoria Police believe Melbourne will not witness Sydney-style protests, but have formed a contingency in any case.

Deputy Commissioner Tim Cartwright said yesterday police intelligence suggested there was little reason for authorities to believe trouble could happen within Victoria's Muslim population.

"Make no mistake, if people do intend on taking on this sort of action we'll be acting quickly and firmly,'' he said. He also added that Victoria had a long history of community involvement with policing and was a world leader on multicultural issues.

Religious leaders of the previous generation in Melbourne had worked hard to build understanding, unlike Sydney leaders, Professor Bouma said.

''Today there's a 10-point gradient between Melbourne and Sydney when it comes to suspicion of Muslims. It's a tale of two cities,'' he said.

The Coptic Orthodox Church in Australia distanced itself from the film, after a Copt in the US was linked with its production.

Mr Cartwright admitted last week's raids upon a dozen properties, including a Springvale Islamic Centre could heighten sensitivity and unease in Melbourne's Muslim communities, but denied claims from members of the al-Furqan group of police mistreatment.

''There's been no complaints made directly to us about that, but everything I've seen indicates our people acted reasonably,'' he said.

Read more: Local Muslim leaders condemn violence

[Bigfella]

Waleed Aly chimes in:

WHERE do I start? Perhaps with the viral image that will come to define this episode: a child who'd be three or four hoisting a sign above his head blaring, ''Behead all those who insult the Prophet''.

Alternatively, I could begin with the observation that the trailer for the anti-Islamic film that ostensibly started this all, Innocence of Muslims, is now a blockbuster, with YouTube hits in the millions thanks largely to the protesters around the world who think nobody should see it.

No. Let's start with the fact so few of the protesters who descended on Sydney's CBD this weekend seem to have seen the film that so offends them. When asked by journalists, they admit this, one even adding she refuses to watch something so offensive. It's almost impressive how cyclical this stupidity is. But it's also instructive. In fact, this is the key to making sense of something so gobsmackingly senseless.

The protesters - at least the ones quoted in news reports - know nothing except how offended they are.

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That, you see, is all that matters. This isn't about a film. It's about an excuse. We know because so much of the weekend's ranting was nakedly gratuitous: ''Our dead are in paradise, your dead are in hell''? Pardon? Which dead? Weren't we talking about a movie?

This is the behaviour of a drunkenly humiliated people: swinging wildly with the hope of landing a blow, any blow.

There's nothing strategic or calculated about this. It doesn't matter that they are the film's most effective publicists.

It doesn't matter that they protest using offensive slogans and signs, while protesting against people's right to offend.

It doesn't matter that they object to insulting people on the basis of their religion, while declaring Christians have no morals. This is only baffling until you realise these protesters are not truly protesting to make a point. The protest is the point.

It feels good. More to the point, it feels powerful. This is why people yell pointlessly or punch walls when frustrated. Outrage and aggression is an intoxicating prospect for the powerless. Accordingly, it is not an option to leave an insult unanswered because that is a sign of weakness.

The irony is that it grants power to those offending. It puts them at the centre of your world.

That's why, when Gallup polled 35 Muslim-majority countries, it found that of all the gripes against the West, among the most pervasive is the West's ''disrespect for Islam''. And it is this disrespect that is the overarching grievance that subsumes others.

Everything can be thrown into this vortex: Swiss minaret bans, French niqab bans, military invasions, drone strikes, racist stereotyping, and yes, even films so ridiculously bad that, left to their own devices, they would simply lampoon themselves.

This is what gives Innocence of Muslims meaning: not its content, but its context.

It's a symbol of contempt. So, ''Obama, Obama, we love Osama'' they scream. Osama, too, is a symbol; the most repugnant one in their arsenal. How better to prove you exist than to say something outrageous?

That the Obama administration immediately condemned the film in the strongest terms doesn't register. Nor that the White House took the extraordinary step of asking Google to pull the video. This is invisible to an audience of humiliated souls waiting to be offended and to conflate every grievance. They need the offence. It gives them the chance to assert themselves. It's a short-cut to self worth.

The trouble is that in our digital world, there is always something to oblige. Anyone can Google their prejudices, and there is always enraging news to share with others. Indeed entire online communities gather around the sharing of offensive material and subsequent communal venting. Soon you have a subculture: a sub-community whose very cohesion is based almost exclusively on shared grievance. Then you have an identity that holds an entirely impoverished position: that to be defiantly angry is to be.

Frankly, Muslims should find that prospect catastrophic. It renders Islamic identity hollow. All pride, all opposition, no substance. ''Like the Incredible Hulk'', observes British Islamic scholar Abdal Hakim Murad: ''ineffectual until provoked''.

Sometimes you need a scandal to demonstrate an underlying disease. And that's the good news here. The vast bulk of Saturday's protesters were peaceful, and Muslim community organisations are lining up to condemn the outbreak of violence.

But now a more serious conversation is needed - one that's more about whether we can speak about anything else.

Waleed Aly hosts the Drive Program on Radio National and is a lecturer in politics at Monash University.

Read more: Anti-US violence isn't about a film, it's about an excuse

[Parihaka]

Your Sudney is our Auckland. I remember a free lunchtime concert being shut down in Aotea square, all the attendees went on a rampage up and down Queen Street, smashing cars, shop windows etc. The rest of the country was like 'WTF?' I'll make a generalisation here from personal experience and say Arabic communities have a bit more of their fair share of 'angry young youths' and really any excuse for a rumble and to promote outrage will do.

[Ray]

I am amazed why protests are so wild.

In India, when the Bodos, a tribal minority, objected to illegal Bangladeshis (Muslims) coming in and taking over their lands, there were serious clashes between the Bodos and the Muslims.

I might add that one cannot settle or buy tribal land in India.

These illegal Bangladeshi are basically the Razaakar (non Bengalis and instead Biharis). They supported Pakistan in the Liberation of Bangladesh and were in the forefront of the genocide and rape and hence are hated in Bangladesh. They have been illegally entering India, getting the papers to show that they are Indians through their kith and kin and corrupt officials and also have political patronage as they are a vote bank. They are changing the demography. Hence, there is a serious problem in these areas.

The other Indian Muslims in hinterland India (Mumbai and South) threatened all people of the North East India (NE is tribal and predominantly Christian except Assam) and forced them to leave other parts of India and return to the NE. The Indian Govt stood moribund since Muslims form a large electorate and in these electoral troubled times, every vote counts.

Then there was a mass protest of the Muslims in Mumbai wherein arson and mayhem ruled the day and Memorials for the Unknown Soldier was desecrated amongst other ravages.

And the reason why?

Illegal Muslims of Bangladesh were attacked in Bodoland and, best of all, India did not condemn and assist Rohingyas of Burma when they were trashed and evicted from Burma.

Interestingly, Bangladesh, which is the neighbour and are ethnically same as the Rohingyas of Burma, turned out the Rohingya back to Burma with no sympathy.

Therefore, I am perplexed at the Muslim logic.

If a Muslim turfs out illegals, even if co religonists, then it is fine.

But if non Muslim country doesn't do so, or show sympathy for Muslim 'sufferings' anywhere in the world, then the non Muslims are to blame!

Some logic!

[Ray]

Anti-US violence isn't about a film, it's about an excuse

I totally agree.

[kato]

If these were "peaceful" protests, they would be in very bad taste on 9/11.

Sorry to break it to you, but outside the USA 9/11 nowadays (hell, since ten years ago) is pretty much a day like any other. Sort of like no one cares about 11/9.

[USSWisconsin]

Sorry to break it to you, but outside the USA 9/11 nowadays (hell, since ten years ago) is pretty much a day like any other. Sort of like no one cares about 11/9.

The people who killed our ambassador cared enough about 9/11 to be sure they did it on that day. If they had been peaceful protests, nobody would have cared very much. What's the point of your post? To show me that you don't care?

[Chunder]

BF - I don't find it surprising that religious leaders would 'speak out' against violence. They are hardly Cartel overlords & have the most to loose through a life time of teachings of the faith.

The teachings of the faith have existed many hundreds of years longer than the issues Muslims in general see as important priorities to them in world current affairs. The manifestation of a personality for the times and breeding of ugly offshoots or indeed, tensions still rife from homelands is simply beyond religious leaders or the faith, no more than Anglican Priests would have control over the Actions of Whites, even though they probably ticked the Christian, non practising box the last census form they filled out.

[Ray]

Local Muslim leaders condemn violence

Local Muslim leaders condemn violence

The Muslim clergy (Imams) are possibly the most powerful influence on the mind and people of their Faith than any other clergy of any other Faith.

One has repeatedly seen how the Muslim clergy can raise a hornets nest over what, at times, is mere trifles.

These 'condemning' is thus mere sops to prevent backlash when they are in the minority.

If indeed they were serious, the Imams should have called a stop to violence forthwith rather than making loud protestations of condemnation.

Though I will also concede that the Film in question was in poor taste.

[tbm3fan]

I liked this video but couldn't tell if done by a Brit or Aussie. I'm guessing Brit because I could understand him...:whome:

LiveLeak.com - A word to rioting Muslims