double plus good wrote on Jul 24
th, 2015 at 2:05pm:
I've had some incidents and many people I know have had. I live in the suburbs of Sydney. My mate from Granville Sydney has just moved down to Victoria because of how crappy and dangerous his suburb has become. Having a large population of Lebanese Muslims living in your area is never good.
That’s strange, Homo. You said your own experience of Muslims you’ve worked with has been all good. Why would you ignore your own experience?
I’m not sure why your mate left Granville. I moved there myself and I’ve experienced nothing but a sense of community. I dropped my wallet once, and it was handed into the police with all the money in there. My bike stalled, and people raced over to help. The neighbourhood action lady is friendly, the people in the Muslim prayer hall smile as you go past, people serving you in shops always start up a chat, people say hi in the street. It’s become bad form to say nothing.
I don’t know what Granville was like before Asian immigration, but my guess is that the sense of community is the
result of multiculturalism. Most of the people I’ve described come from Arabic, Chinese and Indian backgrounds.
The Anglos are nice too. Because we’re now a minority, there’s a greater expectation to say hi in the street. As an Anglo Australian, new migrants tend to give you respect. Shops are keen to have your custom. Neighbours are happy to talk. I have to say, I haven’t lived in a more tightly-knit community than this, and I have no reason to make this up. I’ve lived in very alienated communities in the past, including public housing areas with big migrant and Aboriginal populations. I found these communities very split.
That’s my experience. Maybe your mate had a bad one. I’ve now lived and worked in this area for almost ten years, so I don’t think I’m a blow-in. I have never had one problem with violent yobs, Leb or otherwise. And I can tell you, I’ve certainly had issues in other areas.
What’s your experience of your own multicultural ghetto?
I’m curious.