Europeans may finally understand that the mass immigration of Muslims was a bad idea. In October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that multiculturalism in Germany had failed. Over the weekend, British Prime Minister David Cameron expressed the same sentiment.
Speaking about terrorism at a security conference in Munich, Cameron explained that residing in Great Britain meant loyalty to its culture, history, and political ideas, such as “[f]reedom of speech. Freedom of worship. Democracy. The rule of law. Equal rights. … This is what defines us as a society. To belong here is to believe these things.”
Cameron said the “doctrine of state multiculturalism [has] encouraged different cultures to live separate lives apart from each and apart from the mainstream.” He continued:
We have failed to provide a vision of society to which they feel they want to belong.
We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values.
We need to think much harder who it’s in the public interest to work with. Some organizations that seek to present themselves a gateway to the Muslims community are showered with public money despite doing little to combat extremism. …
So let’s properly judge these organisations:
Do they believe in universal human rights — including for women and people of other faiths?
Do they believe in equality of all before the law?
Do they believe in democracy and the right of people to elect their own government?
Do they encourage integration or separatism?
Cameron’s remarks coincided with a protest by the English Defence League in Luton, which was countered by the leftist United Against Fascism. In March, Luton was the site of an anti-British protest led by Anjem Choudary, a radical imam. Muslim protestors disrupted a homecoming parade for British heroes returning from Afghanistan. Choudary called the British soliders a “vile parade of brutal murderers.”
Cameron erred, however, in explaining Islam: “We need to be clear: Islamist extremism and Islam are not the same thing.” Islam is extreme by its nature.
Over the years, Muslims have been agitating for and receiving special treatment in Britain. Swimming pools in London accommodate Muslim sensibilities in bathing attire. Schools serve halal food. Prison guards have been forbidden to wear St. George’s Cross because it supposedly offends Muslims prisoners sensitive about the Crusades.
Muslims have flatly called for Sharia or Islamic law in Britain. The Archbishop of Canterbury has said some form of Sharia law there is “unavoidable.”
Muslims and their supporters were not happy with Cameron’s remarks, which is hardly news.
Cameron’s afflatus isn’t news either. He seems to have grasped what any British subject with a brain knew 50 years ago, one of the most notable being Enoch Powell, author of the famous “Rivers of Blood” speech.
But at least Cameron is not alone. At a speech in Potsdam in October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that multiculturalism in the land of Goethe and Beethoven has “utterly failed.”
We kidded ourselves a while[;] we said: “They won’t stay, sometime they will be gone,” but this isn’t reality. And of course, the approach [to build] a multicultural [society] and to live side-by-side and to enjoy each other… has failed, utterly failed.
But, like Cameron, Merkel doesn’t quite get it. Like German President Christian Wulff, as the BBC reported, she believes Islam is as much a “part of Germany” as Christianity. “We should not be a country either which gives the impression to the outside world that those who don’t speak German immediately or who were not raised speaking German are not welcome here.”
That is exactly what Germany has been doing and the reason the left has been pushing multiculturalism, however. And it might the reason at least 30 percent of Germans believe their home has been “overrun by foreigners.”
Photo: British Prime Minister David Cameron chats with German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the Conference on Security Policy in Munich, Germany, Feb. 5, 2011: AP Images
