Nationalist Rally in Australia Ends in Violence

Australian white nationalist and anti-racist groups clashed in the streets of Melbourne, fighting each other and police.

Reuters reports that a rally by the Australian nationalist Rise Up Australia party called Reclaim Australia ended in violence when hundreds of rally supporters fought with anti-racist protesters, drawing in some of the 450 police officers who were on the scene to prevent such violence.

Four people were arrested and a number of people were pepper-sprayed as the police used the chemical substance to try and drive apart people who were fighting. A similar protest in the city of Adelaide was less eventful, although one person was arrested there.

These rallies were the first in a series over this weekend, with more than a dozen planned in towns and cities throughout Australia for Sunday, July 19. A member of the party currently governing Australia is set to speak at one of the events.

Anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic sentiment has been on the rise recently as Australia has been trying to cope with a migrant crisis of its own, similar to that in Europe, while also falling victim to attacks from people sympathetic to the Islamic State.

Thousands of people from Southeast Asian nations like Myanmar and Cambodia, and island nations like Fiji regularly make dangerous voyages to Australia on makeshift vessels in the hopes of finding a better life.

At the end of 2014, a mentally ill man who sympathized with radical Islamists took hostages at a chocolate store in downtown Sydney, sparking an hours-long standoff that resulted 3 deaths, including the death of the attacker.