story builds whom i can't stop thinking about the bullies my life when people need to behead a mass exodus hundreds of thousands of rolled in just have fled ethnic cleansing imeem are for bangladesh al jazeera has teams on the ground to bring you more award winning documentaries and live news and online. hello i'm daryn jordan in doha with a quick reminder at the top stories here at al-jazeera north korea's leader kim jong un says he's open to dialogue with south korea and hopes that ties would improve between both countries and his new year's address he also said north korea has weapons capable of reaching the entire u.s. mainland and that the launch button is on his desk florence levy has more from seoul. the speech was very closely watched by analysts and its neighbors because it

offers an opportunity to get some direction as to what the leadership of this very secretive state of north korea could be thinking because what the world is most concerned about is north korea's nuclear ambitions and on their skin john reiterated some claim that he's already made in november that north korea has completed its final cush to become a nuclear force and when he made this claim first in november it was when north korea had fired its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile and kim jong un also said in his speech on monday that north korea will call for the deployment and mass production of nuclear warheads and miss else. is from the u.s. mainland is within the range of our nuclear strike and the nuclear button is put on the desk in my office at all times they should clearly understand that this is never a trash would a reality but what weapons experts say is north korea may not yet have the technology to miniaturize a nuclear warhead attach it to

a weapon that can really enter the earth's atmosphere and the only way to know this for sure is if north korea were to conduct an atmospheric nuclear test now kim jong un did not make any specific mention of such tests but the key message here is that that north korea is a nuclear state even though the outside world may not have any way of knowing that at this stage the u.s. should think twice about starting a war with north korea but despite the very belligerent tone he struck with the u.s. he did offer an olive branch to south korea now analysts say this could be a tactic to buy itself more time while it thoughts its nuclear weapons technology and it's also perhaps a ploy to drive a wedge between the u.s. and south korea who are traditional allies. the iranian president hassan rouhani has made his first speech following days of protests against economic hardship and corruption he said the government must provide space for criticism but also one protest as that violence was unacceptable israel's governing the could party has

passed a resolution urging its leaders to establish israeli sovereignty and form of the comics parts of the occupied west bank the vote was nonbinding but could streamline procedures for the construction expansion of settlements. at least seven people are reported to have been killed by security forces at protests in the democratic republic of congo demonstrators in the capital kinshasa and calling for president joseph kabila to step down they're angry at his refusal to leave when his term ended a year ago he then promised elections by the end of twenty seventeen they've been delayed until december. time we've never had peace in this country nothing works we don't eat well president kabila is still young and he can leave his place to someone else and come back later if he wants he's worked it out already it's enough we don't want him he should go and rest. even the president the boo to a dictator you could much peacefully today we just don't understand anymore we are

really tired of could be there. at least thirty six people have been killed in a road accident in kenya a bus collided with a truck near the town of the car roof that's about one hundred fifty kilometers north of the capital nairobi brake failure is suspected more than one hundred people have died on the same stretch of road this month. twelve people have died in a plane crash in northwest costa rica the aircraft was carrying ten foreigners and two local crew it took off in the going to custer province and crashed into mountains the cause of the accident is unclear thank you and the world has been ringing in twenty eighteen with spectacular fireworks displays across the globe new york is the latest city to welcome in the new year people braved cold weather to join in the celebrations in times square. and in london big ben's famous chimes rang out to usher in the new year followed by a fireworks display over the river thames. those are the headlines the news

continues. after once upon a time on imponderables that you can sort of. crime to us right in front of in order to get away from the war that was happening at the top. and they came here to restart their lives. as a margaret when i first arrived at this rally i like it i i struggled. it was very difficult. i wanted to give us the data that. there was a plan for the beginning very sick for the last. few decades lebanese families come to a strain to build a better life and escape the destruction of. that many and demonized in

a new land. to. get rid of this multiculturalism because that is the bottom of the list. then after fifteen years of immigration from lebanon anglo and arab a strongly a is divided by the first gulf war they're being confronted with a choice between doing either our own restraint because up to now the multicultural story is both. you know arab first. i already answered this question i'm going to start to see those are not all the stores trailer and i shouldn't be asked about this. on modesty tweets if there's a study i can hear the debate on the blog about this so well. in one thousand nine hundred a tiny criminal minority become drug dealing gangsters define the blues game we believe what. in two thousand

and one terrorism raises fears that arab australians are an enemy within the party that terrorism political rivals in all but five years later and our attention explodes into one of the most infamous race riots in a strange industry don't go to the middle east who bought into the weekend is now that we have been in a pressure cooker effect for say tea leaves for people converged on chronology they choose to know. what happened on that sunday in court all of it is a black or for a country. and i live in a.z. one stone is what i'm on it none i am a strong and i am lebanese i am muslim i'm up a majority hama child i'm told anyone this is a story of what it's like to be live in

a nice and cool astray. we are striving and this is our homeland and says where we belong in this is what we have. it was built is the dyker know the residents were tight back the beaches. but it shouldn't turn told by. the sunday that the riot occurred all i remember seeing is so many people pushing and shoving so many and faces. i felt very hurt and i thought you know what we don't like. what is it about us that you hate so much in two thousand and five. in high school but like the rest of the lebanese

a straining community feels under attack. by afghans the more turned on any one of the least of the period. by members up stairs in my parents' bedroom watching t.v. and all i remember is the night going from just a normal i pace watching to be to just panic and chaos and i remember feeling terrified and i felt very very scared as it were my dad to go anyway. as the horror of the day's events unfold. me mat's father community leader jamal rifi is frantically on the phone. i spoke with many community leaders at the time that we needed cooler heads to prevail brothers in the tickets. and we needed to act and act quickly because if we didn't then we would lose control. it was a very very touchy touchy tone there was

a lot of angry people the things that were said about their religion and the things it was a community i want to be. disrespected the more disrespect him hard. sam al qaeda grows up in punchbowl he's been going to cronulla since he was a child. and is married to an anglo astray in. my in-laws were living at can all or some or called up bought my wife and said the bed chore or you and your sisters and your father isn't as close as i want to know when that happens. because no one no one wants to say stuff like that in this country we don't need people to come here and inspire hatred or very frustration in packs or or groups there's no need for i am. i.

as night falls on this day of shame hundreds of angry lebanese as train men a gathering in punchbowl park i looked outside the window on my own health i saw one car to come three or four cars unto us or the whole field of boys just ready to retaliate revenge was the only thing when there much. on the night of the riots kemal sol a is a high school student living with his parents across the road from the park. i was angry i guess they were angry too you're talking about a hundred times the boys guarantee they'll saw in my house in front of poncho park something i've never seen before. little brother harry is just ten years old at the time of the riots that in chewers of lee understands the crisis that police are about to face. for like say ten fifteen minutes two was very calm very good no no

swearing no music no nothing it was very calm but you could say the boys were angry they came up to go. you had one place car that was coming up the street from the back of punch road. but once the place of the came that's when everyone jumped back may cause and started to leave one by one. and pulls over in a few minutes they all go on to. always in the car with. a young boy who had a very serious weapon on him and to actually be in the car with somebody who was ready to use. you know a powerful weapon was scary. at the time of the riots muhammad is in he's a conditioning apprenticeship and he's quickly swept up in the call for revenge. and there were guys there who were. there ready to kill. and once we left we went

from from suburb to suburb around the corner area looking for trouble. even the most the most articulate and the most intellectual people in our community with filled with outrage because how much can someone take before they crack. seen up to eight pm dozens of cars a straining towards cronulla seeking revenge. and it's probably the revenge attacks that were most shocking. to people because almost like the wider public could understand young your drunken australian right. what i couldn't in visit which was this forwarded cavalcade of dozens of cars bicycling much on the east nothing like that ever happened in australian history.

gangs of them in the middle eastern origin. bank for ripping. it was all for the first song i saw a figure about a man walking down district and people of lebanese backgrounds they come in and attack him i cried. i just could not believe my eyes. could have been me in a coronata or someone else working down the street in punchbowl. by nine pm the police have set up roadblocks all around. and the convoys of cars

still pouring in change routes. by decides tactically to simply avoid going on columbus on the place to get into whereas the eastern bunches much more open and much more available to a sort of widespread scatter gun attack and people peel off they're angry and they feel empowered to what the hell my life once they have been attacked in such a scarlets. remorseless why they feel that bits are off i can do what i want. by ten pm the beachside suburbs of brighton the sands and the rubra are under attack of. the shocking vial. continues into the early hours of monday morning. full of lebanese they all just jumped out my husband's truck a large. crash every single car in the street from the shovel of his truck through

the straits rampaging window it was absolutely love it's no big surprise you know what i really thinking that's really stupid what you know what good does that to how it. how does the car being damaged solve anything. we've got some river and got pulled over by the place. they were. propagating a bus stop and searched and then. they started searching the car and the cops just said. in a noise way and i get the f. out of here in the car to luck you know. it's a relief from the homage and phonemic his future wife i was really shocked that i was one of the guys that went down only because it's really out of character for him like he's really much more logical than that but at the same time i can really understand i can put myself in that position i can understand being an eighteen

year old guy whose whole world is falling apart because people will not stop picking at every bit of you. when i go home i thought about how stupid i was and how stupid we were. something serious could have happened to myself or to somebody else. and it could have been. incredibly bad thing for me growing up it could've destroyed me the. sunrise the next morning a nation awakes in shock. therapy easier to write or draw in a drunken rant they have that believing that i have the terrorism to play investigators are seeking several miles of middle eastern appearance from my race but my time it's like a although they really don't think. the

next day would threaten that it's like any other day kids went to school i went to work but we knew deep down that the emotions is board like. then we started to get a lot of hate mail. so early monday morning straight after the come over or it's some time i should start coming to the police that there was going to be some retaliation. and some violence towards look in the mosque. denny mccarty is a lebanese a strain senior constable in the new south wales police and is still reeling from the night's events. i was quite disappointed to being devastated at the retaliation because i was hoping would be better than that i was hoping that. members of our

community wouldn't get sucked in to. putting the shoe on the other foot. it reside with me that we need to keep it close eye on the tensions so i attended the very early. the mosque staff knew me very well i've been working the fees and initially there was absolutely no problems but as the i was went on the crowds began to swell and very quickly there were thousands of people down there. and what was interesting was that the people that were starting to come down there definitely one of an islamic background a myriad of cultures of those greeks italians different types of europeans as darkness falls the atmosphere is increasingly volatile. i was at the corner of punchbowl road and i was talking with the police officers and you could feel the tension. you could taste the anger.

and you could anticipate support. i remember that evening sitting at my parents' place and i you know they live on the whites are like a mosque. and sort of like it's a people zooming past young people running out of and all that sort of think these are young people you know not only middle east and but also so muslim. law muslim. non arabic. whatever you whatever you want to say it was probably actually the most multicultural like a mad thing. and i asked somebody said what's going on he said i haven't heard you know the gangs are coming down here they apparently want to come and burn the most you know i want to live there. then high school teacher jihad did learns that two of his brothers are in the crowd outside the mosque i thought my brothers. my brothers are there and before anything else my family's the most important thing to

me. and i'm going to go for my brothers i'm going to get from the rear bring them out as i would i need to shit. god damn it. and they would have been thousands and thousands of people at the. if i were a public about moscow and we have to buy them on a belgium label i'd get it that is obviously it stopped the police. at the corner of my on notice freelance photographer and within an instant you could see. members of the credit spotting. and like a mob i just steal towards and. just sprinted ahead of the crowd and gone straight to him. just asking him telling him get in the car and get out of here so he's got in the car and driven off and i'm feeling pretty good about myself i've got rid of that situation but i've looked over my shoulder enough noticed thousands of very angry people now who had someone else to base the frustrations at and i've just run towards me. so i've said to myself ok this will be the last day for me on earth.

so i quit praying just brace for impact. and as i'm watching these thousands of people run towards me. all of a sudden look like a black why did i just this stopped. members of the mosque had formed a human china all the way around me and they shoot at me from the bulk of this writing force of a crowd. within about a few seconds i started to hear the most beautiful sound in the world which was placed orange coming in from everywhere and i remember turning to a colleague and i said. that's how thank you for the years of hard work at this mosque and that's a day that i remember that that's the day that the community saved my life. the bright light in the door was that it was people who were muslim remember talking to i priest there were people who were fights of all communities and just

what are you doing i would have been in a mosque but most of my bad weapons a big one to fit into. your mind of the call for them to get even raise your hand in anger. but it was like these. holy places off limits. remember it came time for prayer and it was like this thank goodness ok everybody plays his prank. and there were actually coming down. and it to be surely people dispersed. but as they struggled to contain the rage of the dispersing crowd community leaders fear the worst. i know from people was i should have. and i was quite a lot to have pulled old baseball bats that was a lot of guns out there. and i was very affected. by eight

pm the crowd is still fuming and large groups gather at a nearby service station. i know it's clear that the horror of the night before is about to be repeated. the middle east was on the move with the second strike. the next morning community leaders make calls to the place and new south wales premier. i knew we needed to act but we need to act to quick otherwise we will not be able to contain the situations supreme swells was contacted and we told them what we should be done on the fifteenth of december. newsource

was parliament was an equal for one solution to actually posit you just lay should down. in lockdown hundreds of palais stopping vehicles coming out the british interests doubling child care report to you that the police will step up their efforts to bring in the fives and drops your response of all for those not time attacks to justice. the tough new laws result in the biggest police operation since the sydney olympics with two thousand police setting up roadblocks on major roads going into for an hour and all the major beachside suburbs unfortunately some of the televisions took place but. i must tell you that could have been taos.

some people think it means that the muslim lebanese community is going to withdraw into itself turns back on australia and bunker down in some sort of see each others see it as a cathartic moment which to my agent after years of separation and mutual antagonism . the future after an hour is going to be very difficult. as the new don't the horrifying events of december two thousand and five still reverberate among community leaders in a place that. i think anyone who saw the level of anger and venom that was sort of coming out of the series of events that became known as a chronometer riots was very disturbing at the end of it all i think some good came of it in a sense of everybody having to step back take a deep breath and say we don't want that to ever happen again. canara is

a turning point the government realizes that it can't allow a continuing demonize ation of muslims in the muslim communities more widely in the lebanese in particular say they have to reengage with the wider society. the community in chronology and the shire realizes that they have to start building bridges. people are looking far more for ways of bringing people together than of dividing them and from that point on you start to see a lot more energy poured into rebuilding the fabric of australian society. that we really need to be proactive into building bridges between over a community and the shire communities. we needed to get them to know us who we are rather than read about us we concentrated on to open

our borders mosques to do barbecues to invite people to come along there was a big transform a shot at that time following chronology of events. three months after the riots a new bond between wider and arab astray is formed on canal a beach. working with the surf lifesaving association and canal a shi'a council the lebanese a strain community launches an initiative called on the same way. we're sure what about we train some muslims in becoming law is that as. a nation where corruption is endemic now embroiled in a battle to hold the power to account. how has this radical

transformation occurred. i mean nobody i mean if you want to call it shedding light on the romanians pressing for change and there unconventional methods to eliminate corruption remain people at this time on al-jazeera. we have a newsgathering team here that is second town they're all over the world and they do a fantastic job when information is coming in very quickly all at once you've got to be able to react to all of the changes and al-jazeera we adapt to that. my job is is to break it all down and we held the view on the stand and make sense of it. all does iraq expose prominent figures of the twentieth century and how my will receive influenced the course of history beginning with the

giants of the struggle for civil rights the. hundred systems they've lost over a variable who oppressed people government look at me and continue to think that negroes to be defensive about what you mean by that about malcolm x. and martin luther king preached to fix at this time on al-jazeera. hello i'm daryn jordan and with a quick reminder of the top stories here on the al-jazeera north korea's leader kim jong un says he's open to dialogue with south korea and hopes times will improve between both countries and he's going to the press he said north korea has weapons capable of reaching the entire u.s. mainland and at the launch button is on his desk franzl he has more from seoul. it is of course new north korea's nuclear ambitions that the whole world is most

concerned about and on that front north korean leader kim jong un used his new year's day address to call for the mass production of nuclear warheads and missiles as well as their deployment in the field now he also reiterated the claim that north korea has now completed its push to become a nuclear force it is a claim that north korean leadership has made with before specifically in november when it conducted a when it launched an intercontinental ballistic missile which weapons experts say has the capability of reaching the entire u.s. mainland iran's president hassan rouhani has made his first speech following days of protests against economic hardship and corruption he said the government must provide space for criticism but also one protest is that violence was unacceptable . israel's governing liquid party has passed a resolution urging its leaders to establish israeli sovereignty and formally omics parts of the occupied west bank the vote was non-binding but could streamline

procedures for the construction and expansion of settlements. security forces are reportedly killed at least seven protesters in democratic republic of congo demonstrators in the capital kinshasa calling for president joseph kabila to step down they're angry at his refusal to leave when his term expired a year ago and then promised elections by the end of twenty seventeen but they've been delayed until december. twelve people have died in a plane crash in northwest costa rica the aircraft was carrying ten foreigners and two local crew it took off in the going to cast a province and crashed into mountains because of the accident is unclear. and the world is ringing in twenty eighteen with spectacular fireworks displays mexico city has a place to welcome in the new year people in new york also braved the cold weather to join in the celebrations in times square. but those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after once upon a time in punch box agent that's

a water bottle.

three months after the riots a new bond between wider and arab astray is formed. working with the surf lifesaving association and council the lebanese a strain community launches an initiative called on the same way. we tried. in becoming law. so not only did i say we're being a lot sobers about but i also i can give an opportunity if people understand what they are about. i guess having witnessed the kernel riots and other forms of. racist attacks. i fell into the trap of the victimize asian mentality where those poor me poor muslims poor lebanese.

you know i'm sitting the hair thinking you know this person needs to do something and this person needs to do something i thought why don't i do something. mecca la la is nineteen years old and about to make history she's the first muslim woman to ever train as a lifesaver and is one of the first to wear the a strain designed caney. day. putting on the rick amy was amazing. it gave me the freedom. within the water. it was an amazing feeling to be back into the ocean swimming comfortably freely. make did the training logs other seventy and we had many injuries. someone broke his arm.

some of my injuries included a fractured nars in a way of had common had lifted the board and so it had smacked me right in the face . i had severed tendons in my fingers i sprained both ankles at the same time even though i had sustained all of those injuries i just kept going because i wanted to be able to achieve my bronze medallion so it's a great personal achievement show me. one of my proudest moment in my community life when those kids graduated there with a truly each our world and the look in that mecca. and that the only yellow bird kitty patrolling the beach as a volunteer i was proud of what she has done australia should be proud of what she

has done because what she did was first and no good. in the end the initiative does not end bigotry on the beach racial harmony is more an uneasy truce. but make a law and her fellow lifesavers make their point. i wanted to be able to put out there that muslims and muslim women in particular as well are just as easy as anyone else and. i hope that having achieved that that that message somehow resonate had with the wrong one. three years later make a large joins jamaal jihad southwest sydney labor in pay jason clare and the future minister for immigration scott morrison on a journey to the very heart of what it is to be a stray and today the code. track. jason was to bring

kids muslim kids and scott was to bring life services from the shire area. to go to the my cheap trick because as other people from different sides can be mites everything about my chick everything that walker kind of was about stood for. that sense of sacrifice that sense of belonging. we wanted to take them with. and go through that experience. but once you're in conditions like that you know walking through the mud you know in a rain forest it's quite easy to to look beyond physical appearance so a lot of people didn't say me you know as they go that way the scarf and i didn't say that person as just a lifesaver. you couldn't say that one person was more astray

end than the other. one we stood at anzac day as it is short of a memorial and let me tell you one thing all over differences melted into one we we're all one we will all are sad. and there is one other bridge being built the police have been working at improving their relationship with the community for the past six years but the canal or riots is the catalyst for even more action. we've ramped up because surely as an officer program these are not police officers and sworn staff as we call who are imbedded in a real large number of police stations around the the sydney area we established a consultative committee for the commission which is populated by

a really the. vers range of representatives of ethnic communities we also have now drawn coordinators position and it's simply somebody who dedicated say working life to monitoring issues of high crime and i think we were lucky because. there was a lot of good people that meant well at that time a new police force and a new community. in two thousand and six there is one place initiative with which some in the lebanese a straining community and not impressed whatever it tikes to give back control of the streets days are two of the biggest nights on strike for steroids wanted list based on experience and evidence gathered during a crackdown on a mattress turf war in south west sydney the new south wales police expand the charter of taskforce again and form the middle east an organized crime squad new south wales has made a decision which many other states have refused to mind to actually label the

people as the criminal problem. so it said we're going to have a middle east an organized crime scored something which specifically targets middle eastern people. that did not help. a middle eastern crime squad. i can understand it if it was in the middle east. i just can't understand the terminology in sydney. we've never been happy with start to knowledge and we're still not happy we're stuck in minority because it actually works against old bridge building between our society and the police are i think the middle east organized crime squad is call right now because that is actually what it investigates. and certainly some within the community feel that's a good thing and then i was also feel that it's

a bad thing and that it tarnishes everyone from middle eastern background i don't see it that way i am of middle eastern background myself and i doubt feel tarnished in any why in july two thousand and six the nation's respect for and loyalty to lebanese astray lin's is made clear. when israel launches air attacks on parts of lebanon in its war against his villa the howard government evacuates over five thousand a strain citizens. was. to his credit john howard. and the difficult circumstances evacuated these citizens and know why that was very difficult very costly. but humanely and since differently than. i have no doubt there was evacuation was conducted by das feel that we are no longer

australian of second class citizens we are australian as anyone else. and there's another event which is destined to change the fortunes of many in south wales sydney's lebanese a strain community. it is now five months since she had more through the doors of punchbowl boys high school. oh never forget the dialogue. was taking on something that was just too big was a do it wall to get most of that hit out of all of those questions that were running through my head. one by jumping out of a fraud payment into the fire. when i walked in in two thousand and six i felt that the voice itself for a long period of time as a school i was struggling numbers numbers would win ling there was there were threats of closure they were there were things that just wouldn't work i was a school and every diet seem to just lurch from problem to problem to problem. in

the late one nine hundred ninety s. the school was just ten minutes away from one of sydney's most notorious drug dealing areas. tilapia street. once again dozens of police would go on the notorious montreal three times at least two murders drive by shootings forum i didn't earn money had had enough and. one of the biggest difficulties you have in running a school is you can't control what's going on outside of the school the school becomes a melting pot of its local community and you've got something right to life history which keeps coming up in the news. when a school has got the title that's the same name as this other that keeps getting that negative media attention it does have a massive effect on the school you go yeah yeah. i did represents a generation of young professionals who decide they want to give back to the community and build it that emergence not just of deal but

a whole generation of young people who are tertiary educated with i think creating vision which is both lebanese muslim and destroyed. means that. there is a new agenda that is possible. thing i noticed was that there was a sense of hopelessness amongst the students we had right teaches and i've been trying really hard but there was another was there was like a feeling that. they'd been a give up mentality and. quite a few principles they'd come and gone staff didn't stay long which. it's always indicative of a school it's in a bit of turmoil it wasn't a place where anybody aspired to go to he didn't want to take a punch bowl boy. this curious to know where i belong going on talking about not only the score but in the water part of the didn't feel like i belonged anywhere but i believe it was actually it is i want to love that it is i want to believe in

it and someone who could say i you can do this. by two thousand and eight jehad has been appointed principal and over the next two years student numbers increase by around seventy percent over the same period the school records the nation's highest improvement right in test results for literacy and numeracy. jehad db is changing young lebanese astray in boys' lives like thirteen year old now has just started a new seven. when i first got to the school or the lucky thing at all you know i just didn't want to be there. in the toilets working working to get to. school often just to get all of the things i sang over a lot about paper who were. like what a dress. and it doesn't take him long before he's in trouble with the principal. always used to get away with and school always it's been the. scene i said. this

one time out of four whatever the guy for of all the teachers students parents parents were getting scared and afraid of the kids' safety a lot that was true a. mistake. suspensions mount when he turns fifteen he's taken aside by jihad did is that they told me my school might not be cut off. or try. you know save your bit of cause your stay is going to be with me or. now is now two years into a plumbing apprenticeship and the influence of his old headmaster is still strong. i think that means that they really hoping in similar together because they'll take it to start up my own destruction from home and i'll take on very big social sorts

of a lot of students from l. areas take morgan the petition in a get a murky so that i'm going on the straights. and i have is of in the core of it for what they were. but you can't describe how good it feels to be able to make someone's life better and to be able to make them all help them make the right choices in life where once upon a time university was an option. it's it's there where once upon a time you will look down upon because you want to be a triesman. it's interesting we save kids and we get kids on the right track and we get kids to become successful and now more is to make a difference no matter what at any cost. today punchbowl boys high continues to record some of the nation's highest growth

rates in literacy and numeracy. for many lebanese a strain families the school is more than a source of pride it's clear and effective proof that their children a less likely to be lost to the streets it isn't long before the community finds itself once again in the negative media spotlight. the court hared that the man had stockpiled weapons chemical bomb making instructions. in two thousand and seven after a three year investigation the value of a close relationship between the middle east and community and the police is demonstrated when a stray is biggest counterterrorism investigation operation pendennis comes to court in melbourne and sydney are set you do

a term of imprisonment of twenty years. and then it's a started wins a counterterrorism unit victorian police received information from was ins a community about. of australian muslims working to plan. act. it was members of those communities who felt that some people had run off their ass and that it wasn't right and that they needed to do something about it. unless we engage with the community and have this support they will probably never succeed it's up to us to win the confidence to build that credibility with them to build that rep or with them in a time of modern crisis he cannot go to these communities after something very bad has happened and say look i haven't bothered to get to marry you but trust me.

in two thousand and twelve the community faces its biggest challenge since the kernel of riots a controversial film about the prophet muhammad sparks a furious wave of anti-american protests across the globe. a few days later it arrives on sydney's doorstep when two hundred. people demonstrate outside the u.s. consulate. the protesters move through to see these to me so you cannot simply you know spread the message of hate and say there you know this is a freedom of expression. it's quite significant of a very very small proportion of these lamma community paid any attention to the protests and i think one of the reasons that is the case is because we learn from

that we can always base so emotional and irrational when. we're dealing with things like that. that is now twenty two years old and has just left university with a social science degree and is now working for the muslim women's association. they marched down to hyde park to most families had left and then that's when it sort of got out of control and they created an opportunity for the demonstration which was peaceful to get hijacked sydney has been shut down the stopped hundreds of angry muslim protesters stormed the city. yes we do laughs a prophet but that's not zoom way you defends the prophets image and reputation so did more damage does it profit and is. actual video itself

was. like. you cut out one of the neighbors. here to show you how. interesting what happened next is that the community itself saw the footage saw the news coverage and decided for themselves this was not accepted. leaders of all of the different organizations quickly got together and said we don't accept this. this is not what we can dine and we with this christ are this so that in itself shows how far we've also come since cornell. lebanese astray in muslim leaders break ranks with their counterparts around the world openly criticizing their own community. over the past several day high profile when leaders have spoken out against the actions of

the few slimy organizations will not allow for such activity to take place because at the end of the day the only community will be tarnished by that exists is this really was a. it's not easy for community leaders to criticize some of the around and it hasn't happened too often but certainly on this occasion they were unequivocal of their condemnation of what happened of this support of the police so we will have to work together to ensure that we live in this great country i think was a really fine moment for the muslim community in sydney. i was very proud of the way the world community handled itself i was very proud of the speed we mobilized. community effort to defuse the situation and to send zip misusers and the different forces but same message and submissives was violence will not

be tolerated not now not ever. the lebanese a strain community has spent the last thirty years under siege no other migrant community has had to endure the same. but after three decades of pain and struggle the community has emerged stronger than ever. i'm really proud to be part of this community. who is sold. that has survived the gulf war. saddam hussein and the gang grapes john howard pauline hanson and we have proved. as australian as anyone else. i think we have developed a platform where we've really dealt with pretty much every thing that has been thrown at us cultural issues identity issues settlement issues we've dealt with

racial issues with issues in face and extreme we've i don't know what else there is to come but i'm sure there will be something. but i just think we've developed a platform and i was doing is that is so strong. and like any group of history in living in a big city the people of south west sydney face challenges gang activity and gun crime still exist but it toxic minority is no match for a decent majority fighting for a positive future. there's a great sense of hope and out of everything comes growth and the arabic community the lebanese community the whatever community first and foremost. when i go overseas or i've put as much drawl as i came into morsi x. and i have a do it. and then my parents sit back and they know they made the right

decision with us and we never came here for anything other than to have a bit a lot. more continue contributing. you know moscow principal i'm a commissioner in the community relations commission one of my brothers is a world boxing champion two other brothers run their own businesses my sister is a beauty therapist. we are all. giving and we're all part of the society. and i think the parents too they just sit back sometimes it's a little bit reminds me of the castle at the very end where mr kerrigan sits at the back you know where he's patio and he just sits back and he's just happy and that's my parents there's no back and i go yeah we've done bloody good.

how i we've got some rather blustery showers pushing into the eastern side of the med it's right in that the moment little clutch of storms just fades filter in that swartz cypress affecting a good part solved as that makes its way for the race was already tended to snow over the mountain so some wet weather coming into lebanon jordan northern parts of syria a few showers that fall back that further east is talking lousy fodder dry twelve celsius in kabul either the next couple of days twelve celsius to four to run on tuesday wintry mix a little further north that will see some prices sky just coming back into baghdad and across the the western side of the region back over towards the levant fun and try to across a good possible the arabian peninsula we've had the any morning mist and focused around the the gulf recently here in qatar for example. on monday suggest the

possibility of a misty start to the new year but the winds will pick up as we go on through cheese day have a help to shift and he early morning mist and fall twenty four celsius the top temperature over the next couple of days then we will see a few showers affecting southern and eastern parts of south africa or over the next diet say some rather lively shadows too coming into madagascar as you go on through tuesday we see big down pulls to tanzania.

very important force of information for many people around the world. have gone i'm still here to go into areas that nobody else has talked to people that nobody else is talking to and bringing that story to the forefront. the nuclear button is put on the desk in my office at all times. threatens the. talks with saul.