First Merkel, Then Cameron, now Sarkozy
Multiculturalism has failed, says French president
PARIS (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Thursday that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of world leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it.
"My answer is clearly yes, it is a failure," he said in a television interview when asked about the policy which advocates that host societies welcome and foster distinct cultural and religious immigrant groups.
"Of course we must all respect differences, but we do not want... a society where communities coexist side by side.
"If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France," the right-wing president said.
"The French national community cannot accept a change in its lifestyle, equality between men and women... freedom for little girls to go to school," he said.
"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 in the TFI channel show.
British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Australia's ex-prime minister John Howard and Spanish ex-premier Jose Maria Aznar have also recently said multicultural policies have not successfully integrated immigrants.
Merkel in October said efforts towards multiculturalism in Germany had "failed, totally."
The comment followed weeks of anguished debate sparked by the huge popularity of a book by a central banker saying that immigrants, in particular Muslims, were making Germany "more stupid."
Britain's Cameron last week pronounced his country's long-standing policy of multiculturalism a failure, calling for better integration of young Muslims to combat home-grown extremism.
He urged a "more active, muscular liberalism" where equal rights, the rule of law, freedom of speech and democracy are actively promoted to create a stronger national identity.
The prime minister, who took power in May 2010, argued that "under the doctrine of state multiculturalism, we have encouraged different cultures to live separate lives, apart from each other and the mainstream".
He said this had resulted in a lack of national identity in Britain which had made some young Muslims turn to extremist ideology.
Sarkozy said in his television interview Thursday that "our Muslim compatriots must be able to practise their religion, as any citizen can," but he noted "we in France do not want people to pray in an ostentatious way in the street."
French far-right leader Marine Le Pen late last year came under fire for comparing Muslims praying in the streets outside overcrowded mosques in France to the Nazi occupation.
Marine Le Pen said there were "ten to fifteen" places in France where Muslims worshipped in the streets outside mosques when these were full.
8 comments:
Midnight Rider,
Good! People are beginning to accept reality, even through its unpleasant.
Where I come from men take off their hats when they enter a church, when they step into the shower, and sometimes when they get into bed with the wife. So, I usually wear a hat, like most men, at least where I come from. I have for years now spent some considerable time choosing my hats carefully, not just for utility but for the sake of public presentation. I would usually wear a slouch hat for my daily doings, and dressing up means wearing a fedora; but I find that mostly here in Canada I wear a baseball cap. They have logos on the crest, and that's what prompts me to spend so much time choosing just the right one.
Last night I wore my "Esso" baseball cap out to our weekly meeting. I wear that to show to the world, as it were, that I am a rebel. Yes, I am a radical with wild and anti-social ideas here. I am keen on oil companies, the bigger and richer and more powerful the better. My cap signals that I am a real outsider.
I have some great hats, like one from a mining company, a logo of a mountain goat; a "Hummer" hat; and one that pissed off some hippie kid pretty severely: a hat with an atomic whirl-i-gig logo. I saw him staring at me with deep hostility, so I called out: "Nuclear energy, man, Power to the People."
I now find myself not so utterly isolated in the common world. "Right wingers" like the leaders of Germany, England, and France are stating, however tepidly and timidly, that multiculturalism fails us. What next? Will they say that cheap energy and private transportation benefit people and should be state concerns?
No matter, I'll still be a radical in the eyes of many. I have a cap with a logo from a local meat packing company.
Pretty daring, I know. It's just the kind of evil man I am that I like it and don't care about Mother Nature dying of gas attacks.
If anyone has or knows where to get a cap from Elmo's Radiator Repair Shop, Post Falls, Idaho, please let me know. It's collectable now, and just the thing for me.
We've had Chinese, Indian, Ugandan, Sikh, Buddist; they have all enriched our culture and become a part of us. Why will none of the hypochrites not just admit the truth. Multiculturalism has not failed, it is Islam that has failed.
"Pretty daring, I know. It's just the kind of evil man I am that I like it and don't care about Mother Nature dying of gas attacks."
Man, you and I could really be friends. And I am saying that not just to the above pasted part but your whole comment. I would do the same here in Dubai except I would get arrested if I wore "Don't mess with the Mossad" t-shirt here.
That's funny, I was crossing from Eilat one day into Aqaba, giving the border guard girls a hug before I left, and then started walking across no man's land, when I heard one of the Israeli girls running and shouting at me. She said, "Adom, your hat! Take off your hat!"
I didn't even realise I was wearing my IDF commando cap, a gift from a friend. I took it off and crossed into Jordan without incident, but I needed a new hat. I went to the souk and got anything at all till I could scout it out a bit and find something good. In the meantime, I ended up with something that had a bill Daffy Duck would be proud of. Me? Not so much. A better hat? Good luck to that in Jordan.
I eventually settled on sewing a Jordanian patch over the IDF logo. My seamstress skills are good enough for emergency first aid, so I only got most of the logo covered, but enough to pass. Until, that is, I got stalked by the Muslim Brotherhood fanatic who was determined to convert me. He chased me around all day, and then, around sunset, he stared at my cap, and he said, quietly for a change, "Have you been to the Zionist Entity?" It wasn't a question at all.
I thought I'd have to get into a scrap with him on the street, but no, it just encouraged him to try harder to convert me. Like a barrage of Jew-hatred would make me happy enough with him to convert.
Ditched the patch somewhere in the Balkans during a battle against some Albanians. Funny thing about that. A day or so later a lady saw my logo and started toward me, seeing the Hebrew, and then she stopped and shuffled, and walked away, wondering if she had stumbled onto some guy she really didn't want to be involved with. Which just goes to show that a good-looking hate doesn't necessarily improve its wearer.
Dag,
Your posts read like prose in a novel: "A Man who Wears Hats."
I like that, Rose, thank you.
Our friend Jonathon Narvey has just published a novel through Amazon, one of those print on demand (POD) works, and has me excited about the concept. I'm getting way too old now, sort of, and I have stacks of old manuscripts that really no audience exists for beyond a few old guys in seedy diners, sort of like one might meet in an Edward Hopper painting, and I can't see a commercial publisher putting a cent into any of them; but Amazon doesn't care about that. I can publish all sorts of old stuff as books that would otherwise end up in the dumpster upon my demise. Even some of my blog posts might make it as a short work through Amazon.
One of my favourite books includes this admonition, which I blithely ignore:
Ecclesiastes 12: 12, King James Bible
And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books [there is] no end; and much study [is] a weariness of the flesh.
Yes, and such is a blessing to us all.
Ecclesiastes 1:18 For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.
Life is tragic, often, and to know is to know ones place as a humble and grateful creature. To live in a state of satisfaction, complacency, certainty, that is, to me, a punishment. To write books and to wonder and discuss, that is a blessing.
My Esso hat.
I was wearing it as I sat playing mah jong with a bunch of Chinese geezers. They kept saying, "Play, esso." I finally got it. I responded, "Ah, fuck you, too, esso."
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