Is Multiculturalism a failure?

[Rorschach]

Multiculturalism still has a long road to travel to reach all
September 18, 2012
Gerard Henderson
Executive director, The Sydney Institute

There was much intimidation and considerable violence to and from the Muslim demonstration outside the United States consulate in Sydney on Saturday. The banners included such messages as ''Behead Those Who Insult Islam!!!'' and ''Obama, Obama, We Love Osama!!!''. But what was of particular interest was the destination.

Perhaps it is understandable angry Muslims in the Middle East or Africa would demonstrate outside American diplomatic missions against the apparent circulation of a YouTube video mocking the Prophet Muhammad by a person based in the US. There is no such excuse for Australian Muslims. Morons...

Citizens and residents of Australia know we live in a democratic society in which the government does not, and mostly cannot, engage in acts of political and religious censorship. That's why Americans have not been able to get the cheap film deleted from the web. And that's why footage of beheadings of non-believers by Islamist extremists remain on the web.

Some Muslim leaders in Australia have condemned Saturday's violent demonstration in which several members of the NSW Police were injured. Others have not. Whatever the response of Muslims, the incident provides yet more evidence that multiculturalism - after a promising start - has failed. If some Australian Muslims do not understand how democracy works, it's time for a rethink. A "promising start"? Really. Only the great tolerance, apathy and patience of the Australian people has seen it last this long. Politicians of both sides have been afraid to do anything about it. Hawke even refused to put it to a referendum, because he knew it would fail.

Some contributors to the debate ran the familiar left-liberal line that, when a small minority get violent, it is not entirely their own fault. Yesterday the Monash University academic Waleed Aly criticised the demonstrators but then went on to refer to the plight of a ''humiliated people'' who are angry about ''the West's disrespect for Islam''.

Last year, Aly made a similar point about al-Qaeda's attacks on the US on September 11, 2001. Writing in The Sun-Herald on the 10th anniversary, Aly commented that ''it is worth considering how we got sucked into contributing to the process''.

Get it? Somehow or other, the West contributed to al-Qaeda's attacks on the US in which Christians, Jews, Hindus and Muslims died. Even though this occurred before the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Interviewed about Saturday's demonstration on ABC Radio 702 yesterday, Aly criticised only one person by name: Tony Abbott. No surprise there - since Aly is on record as claiming the Opposition Leader ''embraces a reactionary form of monoculturalism''. If Aly were just another leftist academic, this would not matter much. It's just that he presents the influential ABC RN Drive program.

Paolo Totaro, the foundation chairman of the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission, weighed in with a not dissimilar rationalisation. According to Totaro, ''if we have children in the streets calling for beheadings, the fault is not of multiculturalism, but of those - all of us - who have not taught, in enough depth, the democratic values of multiculturalism''. In other words, don't blame the advocates of arbitrary beheadings. Blame us all, instead.

Mohammed El-leissy, the Melbourne-based Muslim community worker, had a somewhat different take. He told the ABC Breakfast program yesterday: ''When I looked at the footage coming out of Sydney, I didn't really see young Muslims. I saw a lot of angry men from Lakemba … I don't believe in the argument that multiculturalism has failed; I certainly believe that Lakemba has failed''. He called for more services. Never expect a Muslim to accept responsibility or blame. it is always someone elses fault.

Most Muslims have settled well in Australia. The notable exception involves some of the Muslim Lebanese who were given special privileges by Malcolm Fraser to settle in Australia around 1976 under what was called the ''Lebanon Concession'', and their descendants. Much of this group is based in Lakemba. As El-leissy has pointed out, ''quite a lot of them have very low employment and a huge lack of education''. Some other Muslims identify with this group's alienation. Many are criminals too.

Where El-leissy's analysis falls down is his solutions. All Muslims in Australia came here voluntarily and/or were born here. All have experienced the generous education, health and welfare benefits available to Australians. The rest of the country are not responsible for any alienation that they feel. Such anger will not be dissipated by the provision of more taxpayer-funded services.

It doesn't matter if the disaffected in a democracy are Catholic-born members of the Irish Republican Army or Muslim-born supporters of bin Laden. If a radicalised group in a Western society does not accept democracy and engages in terrorism or violence, there is only one response. It's over to the police to enforce the law with the assistance, where necessary, of the intelligence services. Then it's up to the judicial system.

Australia is a viable democracy in which virtually all groups have prospered, including the vast majority of Muslims. If last Saturday's demonstrators don't appreciate this, tough. It is not our fault.

Gerard Henderson is executive director of The Sydney Institute.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ ... z26n8aNqS4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Rorschach]

Great Britain.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41444364/ns ... as-failed/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

MUNICH, Germany — Prime Minister David Cameron, in a speech attended by world leaders, on Saturday criticized his country’s longstanding policy of multiculturalism, saying it was an outright failure and partly to blame for fostering Islamist extremism.

He said the U.K. needs a stronger national identity to prevent people turning to extremism.

Germany.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/ ... K320101016" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(Reuters) - Germany's attempt to create a multicultural society has "utterly failed," Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday, adding fuel to a debate over immigration and Islam polarizing her conservative camp.

Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel said allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating had not worked in a country that is home to some four million Muslims.

France.
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2011/F ... as-Failed/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Thursday in a nationally televised debate that multiculturalism was a "failure," warning that such a concept fostered extremism.

"We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him," Sarkozy said.

The French leader said that while it's important to respect cultural differences, France should be a place with a national community - not a place where different cultural communities just coexist.

Russia.
http://islamversuseurope.blogspot.com.a ... ailed.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Multiculturalism “elevates the (idea of the) ‘right of minorities to be different’ to the absolute and, at the same time, insufficiently balances this right with civil, behavioral, and cultural obligations in regard to the indigenous population and society as a whole,” Putin argues.

What multiculturalism is leading to in many countries, according to the Prime Minister, is the formation of “closed national and religious communities…which not only refuse to assimilate, but [do not] even adapt.” Putin expressed his astonishment that “neighborhoods and entire cities where generations of immigrants are living on welfare…do not speak the language of the host country.”

There can be just one outcome for such a social model: xenophobia on the part of the indigenous population, which understandably seeks to “protect its interests, jobs, and social benefits from the ‘foreign competitors.’”

Holland.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2 ... led_ve.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Christian Democrat leader Maxime Verhagen on Monday said the multicultural society has failed. He was speaking during the recording of tv show Nova College Tour, reports the Algemeen Dagblad.

Verhagen told the programme the Dutch no longer feel at home in their own country and immigrants are not entirely happy here either.

The minister wants the Dutch to be prouder of their country like people in the US where they first say they are American and then where they originally come from, says the paper.

He follows his European colleagues in declaring multiculturalism a failure. German chancellor Angela Merkel, British prime minister David Cameron and French president Nicolas Sarkozy have all said the same, the paper states.

[Rorschach]

Multiculturalism

I can’t remember an election or referendum, where the Australian people were asked to register their opinion, on Multiculturalism. The quiet patience of the vast majority of Australians has been taken advantage of. Our society has been hijacked by; minority interest groups, simple-minded bureaucrats, social reformists and opportunistic politicians. Multiculturalism has been foisted upon us, like it or not.

Over these Multicultural years, the cries of racism and the brand of racist has been bandied about to the point of stupidity. Politicians, (our elected representatives), and the Media, have been the main offenders. Time has more than passed for the voice of the true Australian to be heard.

I, as with most Australians I know, am not a racist. I do not believe, my genes, make me superior in any way, to any other race of human being. I believe there are greater and lesser people in every race. I also once believed that Multiculturalism involved the process of assimilation. That is: that no matter where you came from, that if you chose to stay in Australia, you would eventually become, Australian. But, Multiculturalism, is not about assimilation, it is not about putting Australia first. It is about tolerance. We, as a society, are expected to allow others to come here and maintain; their way of life, beliefs, even language, for as long as they choose to live here. In doing this, aren’t we simply allowing others to transfer their culture, their way of life, to a place in our country? Aren’t we encouraging the creation of enclaves within our own society? Is it little wonder then, that there are now places within Australia, that actually look and feel, like another country.

There are Politicians and others, that would brand me racist, for what I have just said. Even though, I have made no racist comments. For some people, particularly the politically motivated), there seems to be no distinction between the terms of racist, (with all its negative connotations), and racial. A term, which merely points out, that someone or some group of people, are of a different race. People of many races can make up a society, people of many races can be Australian. If we make a comment about people of a particular racial background, is that necessarily being racist? I think not.

Over the years, I have personally witnessed discrimination against Australians in their own country. Sadly, there is evidence of it almost daily. I have even experienced it myself. I also know people that have lived here for years, some, longer than the time they have spent in their own country. Some of these people consider that the moment you pass through their front gate, that you are no longer in Australia. I have known children, taught by their parents to look down upon Australians, and to praise and love a country and a way of life, they have never really experienced. These things are not rare.

Does the present multicultural system, help to reinforce these things? How many migrants bring their own prejudices and problems with them? I have seen “New Australians,” burn the Australian flag on National television. How many ethnic communities, do we see protesting and behaving in ways the rest of us would consider, not Australian? How many of these protests are about problems they have supposedly, left behind? How can you leave behind a way of life in a multicultural society? Perhaps it is the policy of Multiculturalism itself that is to blame for these things. Perhaps many aspects of it need to be overturned.

Surely, as Australians when we welcome migrants here, we can expect them to become Australians. To adapt to our attitudes, and adopt our language. Are we not offering them our way of life? Are they not accepting this by coming here? Surely they can live here without forgetting their past, their native land and culture. Surely they can pass on the good from their native country, as well as accepting the good in ours.

When parents expect their children to marry only others of their culture, religion or race. Are they not discriminating against others? Does Multiculturalism reinforce this type of discrimination? If people come here to continue their way of life in our country, is this not merely another form of invasion? The Aborigines certainly think so. Is it little wonder then that people are concerned about this?

[AnimalMother]

Multiculturalism always contained the seeds of failure.

That's because of its hypocrisy. It claimed that all cultures were equally valid (which of course they aren't) - but then went on to attack Western, European and Anglo cultures.

Based on a falsehood, and acting out a lie, it could never have succeeded in the long run.

[Rorschach]

here are just a few excerpts from...
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nationa ... 6031793805" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The article should be read in its entirety, after all this is a convert FROM Multiculti.

IN 1993, my family and I moved into Belmore in southwest Sydney. It is the next suburb to Lakemba. When I first moved there I loved it.

We bought a house just behind Belmore Sports Ground, in those days the home of my beloved Bulldogs rugby league team. Transport was great, 20 minutes to the city in the train, 20 minutes to the airport.

On the other side of Belmore, away from Lakemba, there were lots of Chinese, plenty of Koreans, growing numbers of Indians, and on the Lakemba side lots of Lebanese and other Arabs.

That was an attraction, too. I like Middle Eastern food. I like Middle Eastern people. The suburb still had the remnants of its once big Greek community and a commanding Greek Orthodox church.

But in the nearly 15 years we lived there the suburb changed, and much for the worse.

Three dynamics interacted in a noxious fashion: the growth of a macho, misogynist culture among young men that often found expression in extremely violent crime; a pervasive atmosphere of anti-social behaviour in the streets; and the simultaneous growth of Islamist extremism and jihadi culture.

Whereas once I wholeheartedly supported multiculturalism, I now think it's a failure and the word should be abandoned

.

Hawke and Keating nonetheless stuck with the term. It was hotly contested and highly divisive. It had two big political dividends for Labor: it led to deep divisions within the Liberal Party; and it helped convince migrants that Labor was more naturally sympathetic to them.

Mark Latham once remarked that the journalists and commentators who most vigorously support big immigration in Sydney live in the eastern suburbs, the inner city or the north shore. They don't live in the western suburbs where life is much more hard scrabble.

Because of my passionate commitment to the refugee issue, it took me a long time to wake up to the routine scamming of refugee processes today.

Living next to Lakemba for nearly 15 years also gave me a different view of how immigration can go wrong. Our sons went initially to a state primary school that had a brilliant principal and did a fine job.

But as they approached secondary school a senior teacher told us that our boys had academic potential and it would be a tragedy to send them to the local high school. It was riven with violence and misogyny, drugs and gang and ethnic conflict.

Lakemba and surrounding areas such as Punchbowl had a large Lebanese Muslim population, many of whom had come when Malcolm Fraser crazily instituted a come-one, come-all admissions policy for those claiming to be refugees from the Lebanon conflicts of the 80s.

A middle-aged white woman emerged from the station alone. She was rather oddly dressed, with a strange hair-do.

The two young men walked up beside her, began taunting her and then finished their effort by spitting in her face. They laughed riotously and walked away. She wiped the spittle off her face and hurried off home. It was all over in a few seconds.

These events in Lakemba and nearby are not unique. Lots of people from lots of different backgrounds commit violent crime in Australia. There is a good deal of unemployment, combined with a highly advanced informal culture of welfare exploitation, often freely discussed at the local schools, in the area. But Lakemba is different from most of Australia.

A senior policeman from nearby Bankstown once told me that policing in the Bankstown area was unlike working anywhere else in Australia, and he was amazed how much violent crime went unreported by the media.

Does Islam itself have a role in these problems? The answer is complex and nuanced but it must be a qualified, and deeply reluctant, yes.

Islam is a deep sea with a tradition of much spiritual goodness and genuine insight.

However, the Koran itself contains numerous injunctions to violent jihad and suppression of infidels. It also contains passages against violence and against compulsion in religion.

These things are to a considerable extent matters of interpretation but it is undeniable that at the very least a sizeable minority of Muslims choose an extremist interpretation.

How can Australia sensibly take account of all this while maintaining a non-discriminatory immigration program? Three obvious courses suggest themselves.

In the formal immigration program, there should be a rigid adherence to skills qualifications so that the people who come here are well educated, easily employable and speak good English.

The inflow of illegal immigrants by boat in the north, almost all Muslim, mostly unskilled, should be stopped.

Within the formal refugee and humanitarian allocation of 13,500 places a year, a legitimate stress should be placed on need but also on the ability to integrate into Australian society.

And, finally, we simply should not place immigration officers in the countries with the greatest traditions of radicalism.

[Neferti]

Multiculturalism

I can’t remember an election or referendum, where the Australian people were asked to register their opinion, on Multiculturalism.

There hasn't been. Elections aren't about stuff like that, they are about Pollies promising lotsa stuff and the electorate wondering "what's in it for me". Most referendums have failed and I very much doubt ANY Government would have one about our "immigrant" population ....

The quiet patience of the vast majority of Australians has been taken advantage of. Our society has been hijacked by; minority interest groups, simple-minded bureaucrats, social reformists and opportunistic politicians. Multiculturalism has been foisted upon us, like it or not.

Australia needed migrants from countries other than Britain and the ones that came from Europe after WW2 must have suffered a lot but they fitted in ... wanted to fit in ... and BECAME AUSSIES ... and we took them into our hearts and homes. Sure they, eventually, went back "home" for a visit but most of them remain True Blue Aussies and their kids are the same. We did NOT need multiculturalism ....

If I went to live in another Country, I would want to learn the language and the cultural differences, cook the food, and try to be as friendly as possible to FIT IN. Not expect them to cater to me!

Well, Rorschach, I started off quoting your post but got a bit bogged down as you were repeating yourself.

1. Multiculturalism .... is a FAIL
2. Migrants should fit in (like they used to) and this includes religion and language. English speaking country. Learn the language.
3. The Government of any flavour can NOT do anything about it. They would lose votes!
4. Whoever bought in PC should be SHOT.

[Rorschach]

You'd be surprised to know how many immigrants from the post war period that didn't become Aussies then Neferti. I can name a couple of hundred Italians, Greeks and Spaniards for starters. And once multiculti came in, free range,

People that when you enter their front gate you are no longer in Australia.

[Neferti]

You'd be surprised to know how many immigrants from the post war period that didn't become Aussies then Neferti. I can name a couple of hundred Italians, Greeks and Spaniards for starters. And once multiculti came in, free range,

People that when you enter their front gate you are no longer in Australia.

So what is your background then? Come on, let it out. You aren't a Serb are you?

[Rorschach]

Ah no...

http://jimball.com.au/Multi_C.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not sure what you mean by repetitive neferti, but yes it does build and back itself up.

[Rorschach]

Frank (I'm really just a wealthy idiot) Lowy thinks Multiculturalism is about Assimilation and Integration.
Frank, Frank, Frank...
If only you'd shut up and concentrate on turning the world into a big Westfield Shoppingtown and leave Australian Soccer alone, before you do more damage to it.