“The attack on a surf patrol on Cronulla beach a week ago was the notional trigger for Sunday’s events, but the tangled roots of anger lie deep within the failed multicultural policies foisted on an unsuspecting nation decades back. Though sold with the help of such anodyne ditties as ‘I Am, You Are, We Are Australian’, it has long been apparent many people from certain migrant groups – notably Lebanese Muslims – neither think of themselves as Aussies nor wish to embrace the extraordinary tolerance identified as a remarkable Australian trait….

“Though branch-stacking politicians and academics might like to think multiculturalism is all about exotic clothing and tasty kebabs, those residents who have remained in suburbs subjected to the multicultural experiment feel neglected. They believe they have had to cope with carjackings, gang rapes, drive-by shootings, the occasional explosion at the football, amplified calls to prayer, and gangs of violent young men who boast that they are proud not to be Australian. They have watched newer residents adopt a culture of entitlement and victimhood such that unemployment rates among Muslims are now five and six times those of non-Muslims….

“Those who claim to be outsiders in Australian society must ask whether their isolation is self-imposed, whether they live in self-made ghettos and have made any attempt to accept the culture of the land they have chosen to live in. They have no one to blame but themselves, their parents and community leaders if they accept second-class citizenship and an apartheid of their own making.”

Piers Akerman in the Daily Telegraph, 13 December 2005