Posted on 02/07/2006 8:43:16 AM PST by SirLinksalot
Let's be honest: Multiculturalism can kill a nation
James P. Pinkerton
The lesson of the Muhammad cartoon controversy is: Multiculturalism between nations is inevitable, but multiculturalism within nations is disastrous.
Protests, many of them violent, have erupted across the world - including Europe, Australia and New Zealand - after the appearance of cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Muhammad in unflattering ways.
It's time for all of us to recognize that different cultures have different values. For the West, broadly speaking, the highest value is freedom, including freedom of religious expression. But for the Muslim world, the highest value seems to be Islamic piety. To draw such a distinction between West and East is not to endorse cultural relativism; it's simply to take note of cultural reality.
Not everyone thirsts for liberty. Plenty of people around the world, maybe most, thirst instead to restrict liberty. And so, if Muslim crowds can't kill the Muhammad-mocking Danish cartoonists for "blasphemy," they will settle for burning Western embassies, at least for now.
Even the government of Afghanistan - where Danish forces have contributed to Western "democracy-building" - joined in the protests. Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who would not be in power save for Western intervention, added his voice to the chorus: "Any insult to the Holy Prophet is an insult to more than 1 billion Muslims, and an act like this must never be allowed to be repeated."
It should be obvious that our effort to influence Muslim public opinion in a positive way has reached a dead end. That is, we advocate democratization but get Islamization. That process empowers the likes of Hamas in Palestine and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran.
Even Turkey, commonly regarded as the most democratic and pro-American Muslim country, is changing its stance.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Actually I intended to italicise the first sentence. That comment was not mine. I was making a reply.
Eid is celebrated in America, officially, IIRC. The White House hosts an Islamic Iftaar Party. IIRC again.
This Nation was founded on Unity, not cultural diversity. Somewhere along the way we let the Liberals destroy the Unity and replace it with a ten headed monster.
True.
Nah, just beat you to it! We are on the same page...it is an easy thing to get those two types of things mixed up.
I see it as one of the most important issues that we need to face. I am an advocate of immigration, I think it is what made our country great, and I mean it. We are all mutts here. Heck, I am French, Irish, Armenian and Italian. But I am not for allowing uncontrolled illegal immigration, and I am all for requiring English language skills to be learned to function in the USA. It is what ties us together.
Ted Kennedy's involvement with immigration back in the Sixties is what really did the damage. Can we undo it? Only if we have the will to do so.
the worst newspaper in the free world publishes a sane article on the dangers of multiculturalism. I think people must be getting it.
What the Left has done, of course, is to play the game of dialectic here. Multi-culturalism is the antithesis of natural rights and pluralism. It ends in tribalism.
Exactly!
Really? What country was that?
It's just a matter of definitions as we see them. The multiculturalism I am thinking about is essentially the melting pot -- multiple cultures contribute to the culture in general. We have always welcomed new cultures, and the their best has spread to the rest of society. That is how America is and one reason it is great.
It's not perfect though, as we've long had "Chinatown" and/or "Little Italy" in many major cities. We accepted them for the most part. So now we're getting "Little Mecca" in places. Big deal, as long as they don't try to force acceptance beyond their willing own within their little enclaves. We don't have to respect their culture, but we should respect their rights as Americans to associate as they wish.
Maybe my definition is off, causing this confusion, but that's my point.
BTTT
So, what country was it you people overran?
Did I overrun a country?
Exactly. The multicultural concept leads to the mistaken belief that people behave a certain way or should be accorded special rights merely because they belong to a certain cultural or racial group.
We are a nation of laws and liberties based on INDIVIDUAL righs, not on group or cultural rights.
Exactly !!!
Which is why peoples of other countries that immigrate to the USA must be told in advance that in order to immigrate and become a citizen of the USA you must melt into the USA population by becoming an American. Not Mexican American, Iraqi American, Egyptian American, Jordanian American, Japanese American, Chinese American etc., etc., etc., or even African American.
They must be told in advance that America is not going to change, they must change or just go back.
The tower of Babel?????
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