Worldivews - Multiculturalism is taking a hit
Cox and Forkum has a good roundup of the growing unhappiness with the multiculturalism concept. They link to this Mark Steyn article in The Australian which is well worth reading. From the article

At The Age, Terry Lane, last heard blaming John Howard for the "end of democracy as we know it" and calling for "the army of my country ... to be defeated" in Iraq, now says multiculturalism is a "repulsive word" whereas "assimilation is a beaut" and should be commended.

The idea that many different cultures and religions being able to survive together in a small locality is only tenable if you force each culture and religion to abandon certain violent ideas. Multiculturalism, foisted upon us by the elitist secular humanists (who feel they know what is best), fails miserably when push comes to shove because not everyone is willing to give up their religious ideas in favor of the secular humanist ideals. This blindspot is highlighted by Alister McGrath in 'The Twighlight of Atheism' where he talks about the atheist's notion of religious people giving up their religion.

Atheists often speak about the eradication of religion as if this would be a painless, even pleasant process. Perhaps they are not unlike naïve carnivores, who believe that animals conveniently lie down at an appropriate moment and die painlessly so that they may be eaten by appreciative humans. The naive atheist seems to believe that a sophisticated seminar in godlessness is all that is required to eliminate religion, showing a grateful people that they can be liberated from an oppressive and debilitating illusion. The reality of the situation is bloody, messy and brutal: the eradication of faith tends to involve firing squads and gas chambers

Perhaps now more people will see through the superficially nice sounding concept of 'multiculturalism' and realize that other cultures and religions will not necessarily give up all their cherished ideas in our own 'multicultural' society. Instead we should be encouraging immigrants to assimilate more into the local culture.
- posted by Alan Grey @ Monday, July 25, 2005