Category Archives: Multiculturalism

Surprise, surprise – Douglas Murray agrees with Cameron, says multiculturalism has failed

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The BBC website has a video of part of last night’s Question Time, in which Centre for Social Cohesion director and EDL admirer Douglas Murray expressed his agreement with David Cameron’s attack on multiculturalism.

This is hardly surprising, though from Murray’s perspective Cameron no doubt classes as a bit of liberal wimp on such issues. After all, Murray notoriously calls for resistance to “the demographic time-bomb which will soon see a number of our largest cities fall to Muslim majorities”, favours a complete ban on immigration from Muslim countries, holds that “conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder across the board” and concludes that “from long before we were first attacked it should have been made plain that people who come into Europe are here under our rules and not theirs”.

Thankfully, the New Statesman‘s political editor Mehdi Hasan was on hand to give Cameron and Murray’s views the trashing they deserve.

Canada: Christian fundamentalist party calls for ban on Muslim immigration, applauds Cameron’s comments on multiculturalism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

CHP-logoThe federal Christian Heritage Party is calling for a national moratorium on immigration from Muslim countries to curb increasing radical Islamist power in Canada.

Mike Schouten, CHP candidate for South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale, admits his party’s stance on this issue will likely result in charges of racism. But he says it’s about protecting Canadian values as outlined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “This issue, because of the climate of political correctness, is not allowed to be talked about,” Schouten noted.

The CHP’s call for the moratorium comes on the heels of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s recent speech at the Munich Security Conference. His nation’s “hands-off tolerance” approach to immigrants who reject Western values has failed, he admitted. “I believe it’s time to turn the page on the failed policies of the past.”

Shouten considers Cameron’s comments “powerful”. “Prime Minister Cameron’s acknowledgment that multiculturalism has, in essence, been a failure shows just how complacent the West has been towards radical Islam.” At issue, Schouten argues, is the attempt to import Islamic sharia law into Canada.

Cameron’s scapegoating will have a chilling, toxic impact

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Blaming Islamists and multiculturalism for the backlash from US and British wars risks fuelling violence on the streets, Seumas Milne argues.

Guardian, 10 February 2011

As Milne points out, Cameron’s line on Muslims and multiculturalism “has been hailed by the far right”. And not just in the UK. The Financial Times quotes Front National leader Marine Le Pen applauding Cameron’s speech for endorsing the politics of her own party: “It is exactly this type of statement that has barred us from public life for 30 years. I sense an evolution at European level, even in classic governments. I can only congratulate him.”

Tackle ‘extreme Islam before it’s too late’, Aussie MPs warn

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Australia risks becoming a nation of “ethnic enclaves” that unknowingly buys livestock slaughtered “in the name of Allah”, senior Liberal MPs have warned.

Opening up a new political faultline, former immigration minister Kevin Andrews lashed out at political leaders who failed to speak out on the rise of extreme Islam, claiming the silence contributes to the rise of One Nation-type movements. Another Liberal frontbencher, Mitch Fifield, warned of the danger of “parallel societies” developing as has occurred in Europe where hardline Muslim groups preached sharia law rather than Western values.

Amid a robust debate in Europe over failed “state multiculturalism”, Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi warned Australia must avoid the mistakes of nations that allowed religious fanatics to prosper “before it is too late”.

Senator Bernardi warned of a growing “cultural divide” in Australia as hardline followers of Islam turned their backs on mainstream values. He cited the advent of Muslim-only toilets at a Melbourne university and the halal method of meat slaughter as cultural practices that must be opposed.

“I, for one, don’t want to eat meat butchered in the name of an ideology that is mired in sixth century brutality and is anathema to my own values,” he said.

Herald Sun, 9 February 2011

Guardian letter: signatories warn against Cameron’s ‘dangerous declaration of intent’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

We believe David Cameron’s statement that multiculturalism has failed was a dangerous declaration of intent (Blaming the victims, Editorial, 7 February). His speech was reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher’s infamous 1978 statement that Britain was “being swamped by alien cultures”. He has branded Britain’s Muslims as the new “enemy within” in the same way as Thatcher attacked the miners and trade unions.

David Cameron is attempting to drive a wedge between different communities by linking Britain’s multicultural society with terrorism and national security. His speech was made on the same day as the English Defence League brought its bigotry and violence to the streets of Luton. Mr Cameron’s aim is simple as it is crude – to deflect the anger against his government’s cuts from the bankers and on to the Muslim community. The prime minister is aping attacks by other European leaders like France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, who passed legislation banning the veil, and Angela Merkel, who has also made statements denouncing multiculturalism in Germany. We believe our multicultural society and the respect and solidarity it is built on is a cause for pride, and reject any moves by this government to undermine and destroy it.

We must not allow this coalition government to turn the tide back to the days when it was acceptable, through ignorance and fear, for people with a different religion, culture or skin colour to be scapegoated and treated as inferior or outsiders (seewww.PetitionOnline.com/mcfeb11/petition.html).

Martin Smith Love Music Hate Racism

Peter Hain MP

Jeremy Corbyn MP

Ken Livingstone

Salma Yaqoob Respect

Bob Crow National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers

Billy Hayes Communication Workers Union

Mark Serwotka Public and Commercial Services Union

Zita Holbourne TUC

Dr Rob Berkeley Runnymede Trust

Ziauddin Sardar writer

Farooq Murad Muslim Council of Britain

Dr Rob Berkeley Director, Runnymede Trust

Professor Tariq Modood Centre for the study of ethnicity and citizenship,University of Bristol

Mohammed Sawalha British Muslim Initiative

Dr Chris Shannahan

Benjamin Zephaniah poet

Lauren Booth broadcaster and journalist

Michael Rosen author

China Miéville author

Dr Avaes Mohammad poet, playwright, performer, analytical chemist

Sabrina Mahfouz poet and playwright

Tulisa Contostavlos, Dino Contostavlos and Richard Rawson N-Dubz,

Drew McConnell Babyshambles

Lowkey musician

Itch The King Blues

Daniel Stephens musician

David Peter Meads musician

Blaine Harrison Mystery Jets

Adio Merchant, Simeon McLean Kid British

Jeff Mirza comic/actor

Sabby Dhalu Unite Against Fascism and One Society Many Cultures

Lindsey German Stop the War Coalition

Hassan Mahamdallie

Weyman Bennett Unite Against Fascism

Gary McFarlane NUJ and Expose the BNP

Kanja Ibrahim Sesay NUS

Frances Rifkin Equity

Dr Jonathan Githens-Mazer European Muslim Research Centre

Bruce Kent One Society Many Cultures

Shemiza Rashid Creative Muslim Network

Laura Miles University and College Union

Gargi Bhattachryya University and College Union

Sean Vernell University and College Union

Sue Bond Public and Commercial Services Union

Revd Ray Gaston

Madani Younis Freedom Studios, Bradford, and the Artists of Freedom Studios

Mohammed Ali Aerosolarabic

Luqman Ali

Kinsi Abdulleh

Sarah Pickthall

Ayaan Aden

Tristan McConnell

Rabbi Lee Wax Chairperson, Inter religious Conference for European Women Theologians

Musleh Faradhi Islamic Forum Europe

Bruce Kent Pax Christi

Professor Danny Dorling Sheffield University

Letter in the Guardian, 9 January 2011

Did David Cameron really mean what he said about multiculturalism?

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salma Yaqoob poses the question.

My answer, for what it’s worth, is – almost certainly not, Cameron was just making a pitch for Muslims’ votes. After all, this is a man who has attacked multiculturalism on a number of occasions. A 2006 speech by Cameron, which repeated the familiar Cantle-inspired cliche about multiculturalism resulting in communities leading “parallel lives”, was reported under the headline “Ban Muslim ghettos”.

Cameron’s Munich speech marks securitisation of race policy

Posted on by Bob Pitt

In delivering his speech, Cameron clearly had in his sights a domestic audience, wooing the Sun and the Daily Mail, both of which, in calling for the disciplining of Muslim communities, have promoted a crude British nationalism based on uncritical support for the armed services and military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Only the day before, the Daily Mail had carried a feature attacking two Birmingham Muslim councillors, Salma Yaqoob and Mohammed Ishtiaq, for refusing to participate in a standing ovation for a British soldier awarded the George Cross for bravery in Afghanistan.)

But Cameron’s speech was also intended to send a clear signal to the United States and the European center-Right that Britain would no longer pursue different ethnic minority and race policies from its European counterparts. In particular, Cameron was showing his support for Angela Merkel and her German Christian Democrat party’s idea that security and cohesion are brought about not through integration and pluralism, but through monoculturalism and assimilation into the dominant Leitkultur (lead culture).

Cameron’s speech was reported as a trailer for the up-and-coming government counter-terrorism review and Lord Carlile’s review of the Prevent strategy. And it is here that Cameron indicated to a German security audience support for the German intelligence services’ approach to the compartmentalisng of Muslim organisations into ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’, with greater surveillance of those deemed ‘illegitimate’. In his speech, Cameron promised that the British government would no longer fund or share platforms with Muslim organisations that, while non-violent, were also a part of the problem because they belonged to a ‘spectrum’ of Islamism. While those who openly support terrorism are at the ‘furthest end’ of this spectrum, it also includes many Muslims who accept ‘various parts of the extremist world view’ including ‘real hostility towards western democracy and liberal values’.

In this, what should be feared is that Cameron is indicating that the government’s review of counter-terrorism policy has been greatly influenced by the approach taken by the German intelligence services (Verfassungsschutz) which has at its base a distinction between legitimate and illegitimate Muslim organisations coupled with the most widespread system of religious profiling in Europe.

Liz Fekete analyses Cameron’s Munich speech.

Institute of Race Relations, 7 February 2011

David Cameron attacks multiculturalism, lectures British Muslims on extremism

Posted on by Bob Pitt

David Cameron 2David Cameron will today signal a sea-change in the government fight against home-grown terrorism, saying the state must confront, and not consort with, the non-violent Muslim groups that are ambiguous about British values such as equality between sexes, democracy and integration.

To belong in Britain is to believe in these values, he will say. Claiming the previous government had been the victim of fear and muddled thinking by backing a state-sponsored form of multiculturalism, the prime minister will state that his government “will no longer fund or share platforms with organisations that, while non-violent, are certainly in some cases part of the problem”.

In a major speech to a security conference in Munich, he will demand: “We need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism.”

He will say that “some organisations that seek to present themselves as a gateway to the Muslim community are showered with public money while doing little to combat extremism. This is like turning to a rightwing fascist party to fight a violent white supremacist movement.”

Cameron’s aides, aware the speech may prove highly controversial, refused to identify the organisations in his sights, but it is clear one target is the Muslim Council of Britain.

Continue reading →