Multiculturalism has resulted in honour killings, female genital mutilation and rule by Sharia law, a former Archbishop of Canterbury has claimed, as he called for Britons fighting with Isil to be “banished” from the country.
Lord Carey of Clifton said Muslim communities must “discipline” their young people or see them “banished” from Britain after leaving to fight in Syria and Iraq. Islamic leaders in Britain have failed to clearly denounce religious fanatics in the wake of the murder of James Foley by a suspected British jihadist, he suggested.
Britain must “recover a confidence in our nation’s values”, Lord Carey wrote in the Mail on Sunday.
“For too long we have been self-conscious and even ashamed about British identity. By embracing multiculturalism and the idea that every culture and belief is of equal value we have betrayed our own traditions of welcoming strangers to our shore. In Britain’s hospitable establishment different beliefs were welcomed but only one was preeminent – Christianity.
“The fact is that for too long the doctrine of multiculturalism has led to immigrants establishing completely separate communities in our cities. This has led to honour killings, female genital circumcision and the establishment of sharia law in inner-city pockets throughout the UK.”
Islamic radicals should be challenged with the values of liberal democracy, he said. “In this must involve the power and co-operation of Muslim communities who need to state, more clearly than they have done so far, their denunciation of these fanatical forms of Islam.”
British Muslims preparing to travel abroad to commit terrorist acts, and those who have already travelled to the Middle East to fight, should be stripped of their passports, the Archbishop says.
“Young people who travel abroad to commit violent Jihad should know before they go that there is no way back to civilised society. It may focus their minds to know that the privileges and luxuries of our country (including our gyms, games consoles and relative peacefulness) will be denied to them in future.”
Lord Carey added: “Muslim communities are being challenged as never before to discipline their young people or face the consequences that such radicalised young men will be banished from our shores.”