This article was originally published by All Together Now’s Managing Director in Online Opinion

The recent protest in Sydney by a small number of Muslims has provided another opportunity for social commentators to examine the pros and cons of multiculturalism in Australia.

It quickly became clear during the days following the recent Sydney protests that a small group of Muslims perpetrated the violent behaviour seen on 15 September. This lead some commentators to conclude that Australia has lost its unique path to successful multiculturalism.

Article by Priscilla Brice-Weller and Yin Paradies | First Published March 8, 2012 for Right Now magazine

Anyone living in Australia who keeps up with current affairs would have noticed a recent increase in the amount of discussion around racism in both mainstream and social media. Everything has been covered from statements by politicians to slip-ups by sportspeople, through to the bigger questions about racism in Australia, including:

“Is Australia a racist country?”

(Yes and no, some people have racist attitudes and some people don’t)

“Is Australia more or less racist than other countries?”

(It isn’t a competition; racism is rife throughout the world. Australia is more tolerant than many countries but less so than some)

“Should [public figure] be sacked for racism?”

(Yes, but shouldn’t we be asking why our public figures are engaging in racism in the first place?)

We’re really angry to hear Jay Laga’aia was written off Home and Away due to his ethnicity – its about time mainstream TV producers showed the multi-ethnic faces of Australia!

This poll on The Age website shows that the majority of their readers agree: