THE Islamic riots in Sydney on Saturday represent a crisis for Australian multiculturalism. They are, as NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has said, the unacceptable face of Australian multiculturalism.
They are the central fear that Australians hold of certain immigrant communities - that they will import to Australia the viciousness of distant, homeland conflict. Except in this case it is worse. For the conflict that a certain segment of the Islamic community has is with the whole idea of Western society.
But first it's important to keep things in perspective. These are not the first violent demonstrations we have seen in Australia for a variety of causes, even in recent years. The tendency to violent fanaticism transcends race and religion. And second, we should remember that such events are rare.
The question is whether they are an aberration or whether, like so many European societies, they are a trend that will increase as our Muslim population grows. There can be no doubt that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Australia are law abiding, peaceful citizens. But the minority who are attracted to Islamist extremism in thought, word and deed is too sizeable for Australians to be comfortable with.
Most of the people at the demonstrations probably wanted to protest peacefully. But whichever way you look at it, there are several disturbing features of the demonstrations, beyond just their violence. The whole protest was over a revolting and offensive video made by a private citizen in the US. But here is a question for those mainstream Muslims protesting outside the US Consulate in Sydney.
How is the US government, or Western society more generally, morally responsible for this film? Is every Muslim responsible for the actions of Muslims who assassinated a Pakistani politician because he thought his country's anti-blasphemy laws too severe? Muslim leaders cannot have it both ways.
If the vast tranches of Islamist extremism around the world should carry no reputational damage for Muslims generally - as Muslim leaders constantly assure us - then what possible justification is there for protesting outside a US consulate because of one offensive film made by a private citizen in the US?
It is not enough for Muslim leaders to denounce Saturday's sickening violence. Surely they must oppose these demonstrations altogether. Apart from a couple of Sri Lankans, the overwhelming majority of those charged with terrorist offences in Australia in the past decade have expressed loyalty to extremist Islamist causes.
In the Middle East and north Africa, even in previously moderate societies such as Tunisia, violent and murderous reaction to the anti-Muslim film is demonstrating an astonishing propensity to violent and irrational sectarianism among a solid minority in Muslim communities. Many of these people would like to live in Australia.
The non-discriminatory principle in our immigration is sacred, and rightly so. But it is not unreasonable for Australians to ask whether they are importing a population disproportionately prone to extremism.
