European Multicultural Mess

Bad Moon Rising source/coxandforkum.com

Last October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a speech in Postdam in which she noted that so called “multikulti” notion that had utterly failed. Merkel opined that allowing people from different cultural backgrounds to work side by side together without integrating did not work. 

In neighboring France, there has been tension amongst nativists and their Muslim citizens over a law which bans the burqa. The law which forbids wearing a veil such as a burka or a niqab in public under threat of a $213 fine for wearing one or a $43,392 fine for forcing a woman to wear one in public. The bill was enacted after President Sarkozy declared that burka was not welcome in France. But the legislation was carefully crafted so as not to use the terms woman, veil or Muslim

While this ban on the burqa seems targeted at Muslims, there are some in the French government who have contemplated extending the ban on large crosses to daycare workers. The majority of the French are nominally Catholic but secular and anti-clerical.  Thomas Kidd from Baylor University’s Institute for the Study of Religion postulates that if things continue in this direction, the French government might also ban overt Christian expression in public 

A recent study from the Institute Montaigne  titled: "Suburbs of the Republic"  warned that Arab communities in France are becoming separate Islamic societies.  These enclaves reject French values as the denizens immerse themselves in Muslim culture and lifestyles.   Respected French Political Scientist Dr. Gilles Kepel reported that in some areas 1/3 of the residents do not hold French citizenship and that many of those individuals area drawn to Islamic influences rather than simply rejecting or failing to find a secular identity.

The French call these Islamic enclaves as "sensitive urban zones".  The French have been diplomatic in framing this phenomenon.  During the 2005 riots in Paris and other major cities, the violent perpetrator were only obliquely referred to as "youths", when the reality reflected self isolated Islamic enclaves.



The French call these Islamic enclaves as "sensitive urban zones".  The French have been diplomatic in framing this phenomenon.  During the 2005 riots in Paris and other major cities, the violent perpetrator were only obliquely referred to as "youths", when the reality reflected self isolated Islamic enclaves.The German magazine Bild reports that even police fear going into such areas as there has been a 60% increase in violence assaults against officers  in No Go Zones between 2005 and 2009.

During the Munich Security Conference in February 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron railed against the failure of "State Multiculturalism".  While Cameron tried to draw a clear distinction between the religion of Islam and "Islamic extremism", which he defined as a political ideology that attracts those who feel rootless, this is a difficult political correctness line dance.  Cameron advocates instilling British values like "Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Democracy, the Rule of Law, Equal Rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality.  Alas, the English yobs who rioted in Tottenham in August only partially embraced those classically Liberal values so it hard to expect these liberal virtues to be reflected in Islamist oriented individuals. 

These should be cautionary tales for us in North America in responding to dhimmitude demands of political correctness and schizophrenic sweeps towards public secularism.