{"id":332629,"date":"2025-10-26T00:04:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T00:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/332629\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T00:04:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T00:04:25","slug":"its-been-20-years-since-the-cronulla-riots-so-what-have-we-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/332629\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s been 20 years since the Cronulla Riots. So what have we learned?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bangladeshi student Muheeb Bin Shafi was at home when his friend called wanting to check out a massive crowd forming on the beach in Cronulla.<\/p>\n

It was December 2005, and Mr Shafi thought it could be some kind of festival.<\/p>\n

“I was an international student. I’d never been to Cronulla, but it sounded pretty good. I was like, alright I’m doing nothing, so better than just sitting at home,” Mr Shafi told ABC’s I Was Actually There.<\/p>\n

Warning: This story contains details some readers may find confronting.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Driving towards Cronulla Beach, on Dharawal Country, in a gold car with flames on the side, the pair became targets of the large crowd.<\/p>\n

“We saw one person running towards us with an Australian flag and he yelled out, ‘Are you Aussie?’ And then there’s more people,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Shafi said.<\/p>\n

“My friend, I think he realised something at that point, so he stopped and he started reversing.<\/p>\n

“The guy with the Australian flag, he smashed the front windshield. Someone jumped on it. In a matter of seconds, there were so many people, punching in the window throwing the beer bottles.”<\/p>\n

Mr Shafi said there was a police officer in the middle of a roundabout, so he wound down the window.<\/p>\n

“He said, ‘What are you two idiots doing here? Don’t you know what’s happening here?’ He said ‘Just go, drive.'”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Muheeb Bin Shafi, who was attacked in the riot,\u00a0didn’t tell his parents about the attack until the following day.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 (ABC\/Docker Media)<\/p>\n

It’s been 20 years since violence erupted on the streets of Cronulla after thousands gathered in a public display to “reclaim their beach” from specific migrant communities.<\/p>\n

And while race discrimination commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman said there has been positive progress since 2005, other aspects of race relations have remained unchanged.<\/p>\n

On August 31, 2025, thousands of protesters gathered across Australian capital cities, marching against migration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Police estimated that up to 15,000 people marched in the March for Australia rally in August 2025. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“We still have a significant problem with racism. It’s still spilling out onto our streets and making people unsafe,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Sivaraman said.<\/p>\n

“The targets might change from time to time, but it’s a significant problem, and we need to confront it.”<\/p>\n

The landscape in 2005<\/p>\n

Sally was a teen growing up in Cronulla in 2005.<\/p>\n

“It wasn’t very multicultural at the time, on the weekends you would get people from all over the city [visiting] because we were the only beach with a train line,” Sally said.<\/p>\n

“And generally, that’s great, it’s everybody’s beach, but at the same time, there were just certain people causing a lot of problems.”<\/p>\n

Ethnic tensions were on the rise in the Sutherland Shire, and over the Labour Day long weekend, there were three confrontations between Middle Eastern and Caucasian men.<\/p>\n

\"Aussie<\/p>\n

Some Cronulla residents wanted to reclaim the beach. (AAP: Paul Miller)<\/p>\n

Local barber Hassan Awada said he had personally experienced racism towards Lebanese people.<\/p>\n

“The tension was with Lebanese boys coming to the beach, ‘disturbing the local culture’, so to speak,” he said.<\/p>\n

On December 4, 2005, an incident occurred between a group of Middle Eastern men and two lifeguards.<\/p>\n

According to the Strike Force Neil Cronulla Riots Review<\/a> of the Police Response, some locals believed the lifeguards were confronted by a group of young Middle Eastern men at the end of their shift.<\/p>\n

\"IWAT<\/a><\/p>\n

But the review found there was evidence of provocation from both sides.<\/p>\n

The Strike Force Neil Cronulla Riots Review found that an argument took place and insulting remarks were made, which resulted in a fight.<\/p>\n

This event wasn’t of “any greater significance” than other events around this time, the review found, but this was the catalyst for what was to come.<\/p>\n

Talkback radio ran with inflammatory discussions of racial tension and “ethnic gangs” every day for a week.<\/p>\n

Tribunal rules Alan Jones incited hatred<\/a><\/p>\n

Alan Jones lost his bid to overturn a tribunal decision which found he incited hatred of Lebanese Muslims in the lead-up to the Cronulla riots.<\/p>\n

Broadcaster Alan Jones and his employer, Harbour Radio, were later found to have “incited hatred, serious contempt and severe ridicule of Lebanese Muslims” at the time by the New South Wales Administrative Decisions Tribunal.<\/p>\n

He had read out a letter in response to a story on A Current Affair from an audience member which described Lebanese Muslims as “vermin” who “rape and pillage a nation that’s taken them in”.<\/p>\n

It was in that week of unrelenting media coverage that Sally received a text message.<\/p>\n

“It just sort of popped up on your phone. It was from a random number to go down to Cronulla on the Sunday,” she said.<\/p>\n

That text was one of an estimated 270,000 circulated, urging ‘Aussies’ to take revenge.<\/p>\n

“I remember one of them said, ‘Come down for a Leb and Wog bashing day,’ which was ridiculous.”<\/p>\n

The events of December 11<\/p>\n

On Sunday December 11, 2005, scattered groups gathered at the beach in Cronulla, cooking sausage sizzles and playing Aussie pub rock.<\/p>\n

NSW Police officer Senior Constable Gary Smith was on shift and down at the beach.<\/p>\n

“It had a festive feel about it and I said, ‘Oh look, this will all blow over. Nothing will happen here. This will be all good’,” Senior Constable Smith said.<\/p>\n

“The only time I really got concerned was when slabs of beer were flowing around the place.”<\/p>\n

Sally said things got “progressively messier” with the drinking, and a group of men soon began distributing megaphones, and racist signs began popping up.<\/p>\n

“You could tell that they’re not from the Shire, handing out racist flyers and trying to egg people on and get people upset,” she said.<\/p>\n

As the crowd swelled, they spilled onto the road, which concerned Senior Constable Smith.<\/p>\n

“You start going, ‘this might get ugly’, and eventually that’s exactly what it was,” he said.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

At one stage, a large crowd took off on foot when they spotted a man of Middle Eastern appearance and chased him to the North Cronulla Hotel, where he sought refuge inside.<\/p>\n

“People were trying to get in there because they were so revved up. We were just in shock. It would’ve been so scary for those people being chased,” Sally said.<\/p>\n

It was after this that Muheeb Bin Shafi and his friend were set upon in their car. When they had made their escape, rumours circulated that a group of Lebanese boys were heading towards Cronulla on the train, so the crowd proceeded to the station.<\/p>\n

Two boys of Middle Eastern appearance were attacked on the train, but the violence didn’t end there.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

The group ran from the waterfront to the train line to confront the train passengers. (Supplied: Ch.9)<\/p>\n

Senior Constable Smith said, in a separate incident, he saw two men of Middle Eastern appearance racing towards him, with the whole crowd chasing them.<\/p>\n

“One [of the men] was pressed over a ute. The adrenaline goes in. I was able to push my way through and I had to capsicum spray one gentleman that was holding him down.”<\/p>\n

Senior Constable Smith said he and one of the men were struck by objects being thrown at them.<\/p>\n

“You don’t even feel things hit you. The gentleman I was trying to protect, he was hanging on to me for grim life,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Senior Constable Smith shielded the man’s face as he used capsicum spray. (AAP: Paul Miller)<\/p>\n

“I wasn’t fearful for myself. He was the one \u2026 I felt that his life was in peril. Once I got to the police car, we started to get pelted by rocks and I put the siren on. The siren’s pretty loud so you can’t stand in front of it for too long.”<\/p>\n

He then notified the police radio that they’d both suffered injuries and were heading to Sutherland Hospital.<\/p>\n

“There should have been much earlier intervention down at Cronulla Beach, better police presence. It should never have happened,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Senior Constable Smith said.<\/p>\n

As day turned to night, Lebanese community leader Dr Jamal Rifi said the community was up in arms about what had transpired.<\/p>\n

When he started receiving phone calls, he took matters into his own hands.<\/p>\n

“I was fearful that some members of our community were going to retaliate. I called the New South Wales police commissioner then, to alert him not to underestimate the retaliation that’s going to take place,” Dr Rifi said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Fearing retaliatory attacks, Jamal Rifi says he called to warn the NSW Police. (ABC\/Docker Media)<\/p>\n

At Brighton-Le-Sands, a growing crowd of Middle Eastern people gathered, and an Australian flag was desecrated.<\/p>\n

Dr Rifi said the anger was palpable.<\/p>\n

“You could see it in their face and there is a lot of talk among them. We’re going to do this. We’re going to do that. We don’t need the police to protect us. We can protect [ourselves]. All that sort of talk.”<\/p>\n

According to the review, the public disorder continued in the Maroubra Beach area with “some 100 Middle Eastern men involved”.<\/p>\n

“They were armed with baseball bats and other weapons and caused damage to over 50 motor vehicles parked in the area,” the police review said.<\/p>\n

In the end, 51 people were charged over the riot, and 53 over the reprisal attacks.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

About 5,000 people were at the Cronulla Riots on December 11, 2005. (AAP: Paul Miller)<\/p>\n

Twenty years on<\/p>\n

Twenty years have passed since the Cronulla Riots but Hassan Awada said there was still a “terrible culture” in Australia.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s just simply inherited and a lot of people don’t realise they’ve got it in them,” he said.<\/p>\n

Race discrimination commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman said the tabling of treaty legislation for First Nations Australians in Victoria and movements towards treaties in other states show a step in the right direction in the fight against racism.<\/p>\n

“There can be no racial justice in this country without racial justice for First Peoples, and that starts with truth-telling and treaty,” Mr Sivaraman said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Race discrimination commissioner Giridharan Sivaraman says there is little fact-checking on social media. (Supplied: Australian Human Rights Commission)<\/p>\n

But social media has proliferated online hate.<\/p>\n

“Back in 2005, with the Cronulla Riots, people got a text message, one by one.<\/p>\n

“Now you can just put a message online to thousands of people in an instant, and there’s very little capacity for anyone to check whether that’s true or not. That’s a significant new issue.”<\/p>\n

The Australian Human Rights Commission created a national anti-racism framework in 2024 to combat systemic failings, but Mr Sivaraman said it needed more support.<\/p>\n

“Politicians need to confront racism and be prepared to call it out and recognise that it’s a systemic issue,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Sivaraman said.If you or anyone you know needs help:<\/p>\n