{"id":3510,"date":"2011-02-10T15:29:30","date_gmt":"2011-02-10T15:29:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/?p=3510"},"modified":"2013-09-19T13:07:52","modified_gmt":"2013-09-19T12:07:52","slug":"multiculturalism-through-the-looking-glass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/?p=3510","title":{"rendered":"Multiculturalism through the looking glass"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen I use a word,\u201d Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, \u201cit means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.\u201d
\n\u201cThe question is,\u201d said Alice, \u201cwhether you can make words mean so many different things.\u201d
\n\u201cThe question is,\u201d said Humpty Dumpty, \u201cwhich is to be master – that\u2019s all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The word this week is multiculturalism. It has as many definitions as there are experts to give them. Enthusiasts say it is about people of different races and faiths living side by side, without surrendering their identities. Critics insist it is fostering a divided society which allows minorities to behave in ways that should not be tolerated in a civilised democracy.<\/p>\n

Meaning has shifted over the decades. In the Sixties it was an enriching \u201clive and let live\u201d tolerance of steelbands, saris and samosas. Then in the Eighties it expanded to the idea of celebrating different cultures as a way of countering routine racial discrimination. But after 9\/11 hope turned to fear and the emphasis in multiculturalism shifted subconsciously from valuing diversity to avoiding conflict.<\/p>\n

A similar shift seems to have taken place more rapidly within David Cameron. In opposition in 2007 he went to Birmingham to spend two days and a night with a Muslim family in Sparkbrook. To make a more cohesive society, he wrote afterwards, integration must be \u201ca two-way street\u201d. Minority communities had responsibilities but so did wider society to offer attractive values and quality of life. \u201cMany British Asians see a society that hardly inspires them to integrate,\u201d he wrote, quoting Edmund Burke: \u201cTo make men love their country, their country ought to be lovable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ironically he warned against the \u201clazy\u201d use of language which fuels demonisation of Muslims by routinely associating the word Islamic and terrorist. \u201cBy using the word \u2018Islamist\u2019 to describe the threat, we actually help do the terrorist ideologues\u2019 work for them.\u201d We need to guard against \u201csoft bigotry\u201d, he said, concluding \u201cwe cannot bully people into feeling British; we have to inspire them\u201d.<\/p>\n

As prime minister he appears to have forgotten what he learned in opposition. His recent speech in Munich linking the \u201cfailings\u201d of multiculturalism to terrorism handed a propaganda coup to the extremists of the English Defence League as they launched one of the biggest anti-Islam rallies ever staged in Britain. Mr Cameron\u2019s speech was full of the dog-whistle \u201csoft bigotry\u201d phrases to appease the fearful Tory right (and \u201cmuscular liberals\u201d) who objected to last month\u2019s warnings by the Tory chairman, Baroness Warsi, that Islamophobia is being sub-consciously legitimised in polite British society.<\/p>\n

No reasonable person among Britain\u2019s ethnic minorities is against the \u201cBritish values\u201d set out by Mr Cameron in his speech \u2013 freedom of speech, freedom of worship, democracy, the rule of law, equal rights regardless of race, sex or sexuality. Honour killings and forced marriages (as distinct from arranged ones) are not cultural practices; they are crimes. And, yes, it makes more sense for local councils to fund English lessons for Asian women (if Coalition cuts don\u2019t prevent that) than endlessly produce leaflets in a dozen languages.<\/p>\n

But to affirm the worth of individuals from minority groups, and celebrate what is good in their cultures (or better than our own, like their respect for old people) is a positive not a negative. You don\u2019t accept the values of the community until you feel that community values you, says the seasoned interfaith activist. Fr Phil Sumner. \u00a0We want an integrated society which is a salad bowl of harmonious and complementary difference, not the bland homogenised soup of assimilation.<\/p>\n

\n

from The Church Times\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen I use a word,\u201d Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, \u201cit means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.\u201d \u201cThe question is,\u201d said Alice, \u201cwhether you can make words mean so many different things.\u201d \u201cThe question is,\u201d said Humpty Dumpty, \u201cwhich is to be master – that\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,27,37,41,38],"tags":[269],"class_list":["post-3510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coalition-britain","category-islam","category-politics","category-religion","category-society","tag-multiculturalism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3510"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3512,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510\/revisions\/3512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulvallely.com\/archive\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}