On February 5, 20111, British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke at a security conference in Munich on the issue of Islamic extremism. While taking care to separate radicals from peaceful Muslims, Cameron admitted that the British policy of multi-culturalism had not worked in solving the problem. His speech has aroused a great deal of controversy in Europe. Below is the full text from the Prime Minister's official web site.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/speeches-and-transcripts/2011/02/pms-speech-at-munich-security-conference-60293
Three days later, last Tuesday, French President Sarkozy echoed similar sentiments (Europe News DK).
http://europenews.dk/en/node/40084
The below video (in French) comes from Gallia Watch and Francois Desouche with English translation below.
"Here are the highlights of Nicolas Sarkozy's speech last night (Thursday February 11, 2011). The moderator asked him to comment on whether or not multiculturalism in France had failed, and cited both Angela Merkel and David Cameron as having admitted failure in their respective countries:"
"- Do you not find, Mr. President, that multiculturalism is a failure and that it is the cause of many problems in our society?"
"- My answer is clearly yes. It is a failure. The problem was that in all our democracies, we were too concerned about the identity of those who arrived and not enough about the identity of the country welcoming them. Let me explain. Of course we have to respect differences - that's normal. But we do not want, at any rate it is not France's intention, to have communities that co-exist next to each other. When you live in France you have to agree to meld into one community - the national community. And if you don't agree to that you cannot be welcomed in France. Countries like England or the United States who sought to develop multiculturalism community by community, strengthened the extremists, and each one, forgetting that he belonged to a national community, developed defenses against the others. We do not want that, we do not want that.
And these things are perfectly clear. This raises the question - let's not obfuscate the issue - of Islam and of our Muslim compatriots. And to refuse to say this, on the pretext that extremists on all sides may seize on it would be an error. You can't resolve a problem by refusing to talk about it. There is clearly a problem.
My position is that our Muslim compatriots must be able to live practicing their religion, like any other citizen - Jew, Protestant, Catholic, but it must be an Islam OF France, and not an Islam IN France. This is why I had the law against the burka passed. We do not want women wearing a total covering in France. We do not want people to pray ostentatiously in the streets of France. But we say that in France it is perfectly normal that mosques exist so that our Muslim compatriots can practice their faith. France is a secular ("laïque") country with separation of religions from the State, prayers do not offend anybody, but we do not want on French territory aggressive religious proselytizing…"
"- Whatever it may be?"
"- Naturally, whatever it may be. And I believe it is a terribly hypocritical thing not to recognize certain realities that are in front of you. I say it, though I have always been opposed to zero immigration (which has no meaning), though I find that some speeches by extremist leaders are shameful, I say I am the Head of State of all my compatriots whatever their faith, or if they have no religion, BUT if you live in France, you bring your identity to the national community, you respect the national community. The French national community does not want to change its life style, or its equality between men and women, we don't want to change that, the freedom of little girls to go to school, we don't want imams to preach violence, we don't want that. We don't want to change the calendar, we believe that religion - which is perfectly respectable - is part of the private domain, not part of the public domain."
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Last October, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a Christian Democrat gathering in Potsdam that Multi-culturalism in Germany has failed (The Telegraph).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/8069434/Angela-Merkel-multicuturalism-has-failed.html
Fousesquawk comment: These are not calls for "ethnic cleansing" or kicking out minorities. They are an affirmation that all groups in each country should be bound together by their common nationality and national values.
Could it be that Europe's political leaders are waking up to what their citizens already have known?
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2 comments:
Anti-Semitism has been taught in Arab and Muslim schools for so long now that it has become interstitial ... imbeded in
their cells and tissue. They will continue to clng to it, without considering how much harm this does to their society. Nothing will change until this is fixed.
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Ooops. I meant to post my post above on the "Whither Egypt" thread. It doesn't really relate to this topic.
Sorry.
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