British PM:
Multiculturalism has failed
David
Cameron’s remarks on West's policy draw fire from Muslim community
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.
"If we are to defeat this threat, I
believe it's time to turn the page on the failed policies of the past,"
he told an international conference in Munich.
“Under the doctrine of state multiculturalism,
we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each
other and the mainstream,” Cameron said during a panel discussion attended by
German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “We have failed to provide a vision of
society to which they feel they want to belong.”
He said the “hands-off tolerance” in
Britain and other European nations has encouraged Muslims and other immigrant
groups “to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream.”
Muslim groups in the U.K. quickly condemned
the remarks. Among them was the Muslim Council of Britain, which receives
government money for projects intended to combat extremism. The council said
that the Muslim
community was still being treated "as part of the problem as opposed
to part of the solution."
Many also criticized the timing of the
speech, which took place on the day that members of the far-right English
Defence League (EDL) held a rally in the ethnically mixed city of Luton to
protest the spread of Islam in Britain.
Cameron did not mention the EDL, but a
lawmaker for the opposition Labour Party, Sadiq Khan, accused him of
"writing propaganda for the EDL,"
Cameron’s remarks echoed statements made
last year by Merkel last year, when she also called multiculturalism a failure.
© 2011 msnbc.com Reprints\
CAMERON’S THESIS: MULTICULTURALISM
IS A FAILED POLICY è IT
QUESTIONS:
1) HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND TO
THE CLAIM THAT DEMOCRACY IS A FAILED POLICY {?}è IT
è SO, WHILE CANADA IS PORTRAYED
2) IF THIS IS A NORMAL UNDERSTANDING
TO
[PEOPLE DO NOT TEND TO SAY “DEMOCRACY
3) IN
ANALYSIS, HOW CAN WE DISTINGUISH POLITICS
FOSTER ON
STRATEGIC (HOLISTIC)
è STRATEGIC PLANNING SHOULD
DELINEATE
è OPERATIONAL PLANNING SHOULD PROVIDE
TACTICAL, INSTITUTIONALLY SPECIFIC WAYS OF
ACHIEVING MILESTONES – SHOULD ESTABLISH THE ACTIVITIES
FOSTER’S THESIS:
MULTICULTURALISM – LIKE DEMOCRACY – IS A
NAME FOR SOCIETY’S WORLDVIEW OR COLLECTIVE VISION,
THERE SHOULD BE A RECOGNIZED DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
CRITICIZING MULTICULTUALISM,
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GERMANY/ UK VS. CANADA?
ANSWER: FOR US MULTICULTURALISM IS NOT SIMPLY A POLICY IT IS A
HOLISTIC VISION (OF INCLUSIVENESS) è I.E., A
LEVELS
OF MEANING OF MULTICULTURALISM
As
Fact |
As
Ideology |
As
Policy |
As
Practice |
As
Critical Discourse |
Descriptive
and empirical statement of what is [descriptive reality] |
Prescriptive
and projective statement of what ought to be in terms of ideas and ideals |
Explicit
government initiatives to foster social equality, cultural diversity, and
national interests |
Putting
multicultural-ism into practice at two levels: 1)
political 2)
minority women and men |
Challenge,
resist, and transform the distribution of cultural power in society
[institutional power-sharing between ethnoracial groups] |
THESE DIFFERENT
LEVELS OF MULTICULTURALISM ALSO IMPLY DIFFERENT NOTIONS OF “INCLUSION”
1)
DESCRIPTIVE è INCLUDE
CULTURES CONCRETELY/ PHYSICALLY [USUALLY THROUGH IMMIGRATION].
2)
PRESCRIPTIVE è INCLUDE
CULTURES IDEOLOGICALLY AS AN OUGHT [USUALLY THROUGH BELIEF SYSTEMS]
3)
POLICY è INCLUDE CULTURES
THROUGH LEGISLATED INITIATIVES
4)
PRACTICAL è INCLUDE DIVERSE
MARGINALIZED
5)
CRITICALLY è INCLUDE
CULTURES BY TRANSFORMING THE ENTIRE SOCIETY ALONG POWER-SHARING LINES
CRITICAL
MULTICULTURALISM
CRITICAL
MULTICULTUALISM EMPHASIZES THE PRINCIPLE THAT PEOPLE
IS
A COUNTER-HEGEMONIC PROJECT THAT SEEKS TO CHALLENGE
SOCIAL AUTHORITY, RESIST WHITE HEGEMONY,
[
[*IN
ORDER TO DO THE ABOVE, “THE MULTICULTUALIST”