Posted on 02/12/2011 7:19:15 AM PST by sigeleagle
French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared Thursday that multiculturalism had failed.... This joins a growing number of world leaders.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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 practice 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 worshiped in the streets outside mosques when these were full.
I grew up in a blue collar multi ethnic place.
Italian, Black, German, Jew, Slovak, Greek, Irish etc.
We all got along fine because we were Americans first and our ethnicity was second.
Today, PC BS wants ethnicity to be at the forefront over nationality.
People fly the mexican flag over the US flag and the Goobermint backs it.
Gee, I wonder what the matter could be?
Sarkosy is a rock of reason.
Obama is a divisional rabble rouser.
Did he figure it out in the two decades BEFORE serious opposition parties intent on curtailing immigration (and trying to meld in existing immigrants) came about, or AFTER?
I didn’t think there was a complete set of balls in all of Europe. Still skeptical.
You know?
I have never seen such division in my lifetime as we have now.
We have chuckleheads like Obama calling for unity while doing community organization.
What is community organization?
Rabble rousers! Dividers! FUBO!
Word just in that Algerian rioting is escalating.
*Thank you Barack Hussien Obama*
This will most likely try to spill into France as 10% of the country is algerian/muslim
Good for Sarkosy for getting out in front of this BS and defying Obama.
That's on a good day!
Well,... D-UH!!!
Here is an advanced European country where for most of its modern history, knowledge and education have been highly valued, whether in technology or the arts. And in come a bunch of immigrants who believe that the only necessary education is in their particular religious writings, and that only for men -- women are not supposed to get education at all. The same folks who burn libraries because of their religion.
And there's any surprise their introduction into an educated nation lowers the overall intelligence?
The problem isn’t different cultures. It’s that SOME of the cultures are uncivilized and savage, and should not be anywhere near a civilized country.
Multiculturalism cost 13 lives at Ft. Hood as no one would dare to call out Maj. Hussan as the Muslim extremist he was.
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