In December 2005, some of Sydney’s surfing beaches were sites of what politicians and the press called “race riots.” After a gang of Lebanese Muslim youths had assaulted a volunteer lifeguard at Cronulla Beach, a gang of Anglo-Australian youths tried to assault a number of young Lebanese men, but police arrived in time to minimize the violence. The following night, a convoy of one hundred cars driven by Lebanese Muslim youths drove across the city to Maroubra Beach where they spent a considerable time vandalizing property and parked vehicles. Police arrested many of the Anglo-Australians but very few of the Lebanese rioters. Indeed, the police hierarchy told its officers not to interfere with the Lebanese motor convoy lest their actions inflame the situation. Nonetheless, the immediate police response at Cronulla did mean that the violence was contained to three days and never extended beyond the beachfronts of two suburbs. Compared to the riots by Muslim youths that swept across France last October and November, it was a minor and comparatively bloodless affair. From the point of view of most Sydney residents, its most disturbing feature was the obviously political decision by the police to adopt a hands-off policy towards Muslims who were clearly breaking the law.

You would get a different impression if you paid attention to the left-wing intelligentsia. In the op-ed commentaries in the press and the journal articles that followed, Australian academics largely echoed one another in condemning the Anglo-Australian youths involved and in arguing