From Al-Jazeera
Police intervene in Melbourne to prevent clashes as rival, anti-racism protesters hold event at same location.
A series of anti-Islam rallies have been held across Australia, with police forced to intervene to separate protesters from rival, anti-racism demonstrators in the city of Melbourne.
The events by a group called Reclaim Australia drew hundreds of supporters but also triggered counter-rallies from other groups who criticised them as racist and called for greater tolerance.
Between 500-800 people gathered in the pouring rain in Martin Place in Sydney’s central business district on Saturday for one of the largest demonstrations, which were held in a number of state capitals and regional centres.
A speaker, who called himself “the great Aussie patriot”, addressed the Sydney crowd, saying: “Out of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims that live on this planet, only 15-20 percent of them are extremists, yet 15-20 percent is around 300 million extremist Muslims who are dedicated to the takeover and downfall of western civilisation.”
“Now Muslims have an average of five to eight children per family. So the number of extremists raising all their kids with this point of view…”
One protester, who identified himself as Greg, told Al Jazeera “we’re just fighting for our way of life”.
“[Muslims] come here to live in Australia and they want to change our values, our way of life, to suit them. They come here for a new life – and they want their old life. So why stay here if they don’t want it? They can leave -simple as that.”
