Reclaim Australia rallies 'fuel racial tensions to Cronulla riot levels'

Racial tensions are so high after the weekend’s Reclaim Australia rallies that another Cronulla-style riot could be on the cards, the president of the New South Wales anti-discrimination board, Stepan Kerkyasharian, said on Monday.

Speaking on ABC radio, Kerkyasharian said that fear over international events such as the rise of Islamic State (Isis) was fuelling bigotry and mistrust.

“When you’ve got a community which is fearful they’ll be targeted because of their religion, and on the other hand you’ve got another section of the community which feels that someone amongst them might blow them up, you’ve got a formula which spells catastrophe,” he said. “It could manifest itself in a number of ways. I cannot predict it but something similar to the Cronulla riots is not necessarily off the plan.”

Sixteen people were arrested during the December 2005 riots, in which people suspected of being Lebanese or Muslim Australians were attacked at Cronulla, and subsequent retaliation.

Kerkyasharian, who has worked to promote harmony and multiculturalism for decades, said he had not “seen community cohesion threatened the way it is threatened now, and that is in the last 30 years”.

A number of anti-Islamic rallies took place around Australia at the weekend, including in the regional centre of Mackay, where the federal government MP George Christensen addressed the crowd.

“We will not sit idly by and watch the Australian culture and the Australian lifestyle that we love and that is envied around the world, we’re not going to see that surrendered and handed over to those who hate us for who we are and what we stand for,” the Liberal National party MP said.

About 10 arrests were made after Reclaim protesters clashed with counter-demonstrators in Sydney and Melbourne.

The racial discrimination commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane, told ABC radio that those protesting against Islamic Australians represented a fringe minority of society, but warned against giving them “too much oxygen or encouragement”.

“We need to be really vigilant at the moment about community cohesion,” Soutphommasane said. “It is a source of concern that we are seeing organised extremist elements operating in public and being visible in their presence. What we need to avoid [is] for such groups to be emboldened and to take matters to the next level. That’s something we don’t want to see.”

Multicultural groups raised concerns about the impacts of Reclaim rallies held earlier this year, saying they would be harmful to migrants and refugees.