Posted on 12/08/2006 12:00:19 PM PST by Eurotwit
LONDON (Reuters) - People wanting to settle in Britain had a duty to integrate and must conform to its values or stay away, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Friday.
Blair said the government would take a series of measures to encourage immigrants and minorities to mix with mainstream British society.
Migration had been good for Britain and London's hospitality to many nationalities had made it perhaps the most popular capital city in the world, Blair said.
"But we protect this attitude by defending it. Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain Britain. So conform to it; or don't come here. We don't want the hate-mongers, whatever their race, religion or creed," he told an audience that included academics, students and Muslim leaders.
Britain is reassessing its attitude to racial and religious minorities following last year's bombings when four British Islamists killed 52 people in suicide bombings on London transport's network.
The government has cracked down on radical Islamic preachers who it says inspire suicide bombers. However, experts say the government's focus on Islam could backfire if Britain's 1.8 million Muslims feel they are under attack.
ENGLISH TEST
Immigrants wishing to live in Britain will have to pass an English test and ethnic or religious groups seeking government grants will have to show they promote integration, Blair said.
There was no question of Britain allowing the introduction of religious law, he said.
According to recent media reports, some minority groups have their own courts in Britain ruling on divorce and disputes between neighbors and there is reported to be an unofficial Somali court in London dealing with criminal matters.
"We must demand allegiance to the rule of law," Blair said.
To combat forced marriages, the government will consult on raising the age for people entering Britain to get married above the current minimum of 18, he said.
The British population rose by 500 people a day in 2005 as the number of new immigrants dwarfed the total leaving the country, according to official figures released in November.
Blair said there was no need to scrap multicultural Britain, in which different communities live side by side.
"On the contrary we should continue celebrating it. But we need -- in the face of the challenge to our values -- to reassert also the duty to integrate...," he said.
Race relations are under the spotlight in other European countries. France bans Muslim headscarfs and other religious garb from state schools while the Dutch government agreed last month to ban the wearing of Muslim face veils in public.
A debate over the use of full veils by some Muslim women has also gripped Britain.
Blair, who has previously called the veil a "mark of separation," said on Friday it was common sense that "when it is an essential part of someone's work to communicate directly with people, being able to see their face is important."
Lemme guess: Islamic groups call this "alarming", and "discriminatory", and call for jihad.
Don't come here if you don't like it, warns Blair
Tony Blair today issued a strong warning to ethnic minorities that if they do not like Britain, they should not come here.
The Prime Minister said "British tolerance" was the hallmark of the country and was a non-negotiable part of living here.
He used a keynote speech on ethnic minority relations to wade into the debate on multiculturalism for the first time, and promised a crackdown on groups who refuse to integrate into the British way of life.
Speaking at a lecture in Downing Street, he said: "London is perhaps the most popular capital city in the world today partly because it is hospitable to so many different nationalities, mixing, working, conversing with each other.
"But we protect this attitude by defending it. Our tolerance is part of what makes Britain, Britain. So conform to it; or don't come here."
In his action plan, he warned of a series of measures to prevent ethnic communities from living in isolation, including:
Compulsory twinning of faith schools.
Proposals to raise the age at which arranged-marriage brides can come to the UK.
A probe into mosques which do not allow women.
A ban on funding groups which prevent integration.
In the strongest words yet used by a minister, he said: "We don't want the hatemongers, whatever their race, religion or creed.
"You, and all of us who want to, can worship God in our own way, take pride in our cultures after our own fashion, respect our histories according to our own traditions; but in a shared space of shared values. The right to be different. The duty to integrate. That is what being British means."
Blair's comments come as Chancellor Gordon Brown waded into the row over politically correct bans on Christmas by attacking children's playgroups which hold "winter" celebrations.
The Chancellor used a speech to Muslims, Hindus and other faiths to declare that no community in Britain was offended by festivities to mark Christ's birth.
He revealed that that even Labour's Sure Start children's groups had been holding alternative "winter" events in a bid to avoid offending ehtnic minorities.
Speaking in Wembley, Mr Brown said: "Children of all faiths, all over Britain, will be looking forward to Christmas in a few weeks' time and it is right that they celebrate."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=421323&in_page_id=1770&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=NEWS&ct=5
too little, tooo late
Europe will be outraged! Particularly France!
Maybe he ought to start a dialogue with his cuckoo wife who just before his last election successfully appealed and won the right of girls to go to public schools wrapped up in niqabs like mummies.
guess the other ball finally dropped....
The Muslim Association of Britain said Mr Blair's speech was "alarming".
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1750466/posts
Blair for president. The man has a set.
OH Brit freepers look what your fav PM up too
Plus, he's a non-native, noncitizen.
Could you elaborate on your views on the BBC comments section?
I know. It's just refreshing to see a little common sense come to the surface, wherever it is.
"Mr. Blair is far from conservative."
he was never supposed to be; bush isn't a democrat
Here's it basically: a huge amount of the comments have the Britons wanting to keep the United Kingdom of European extraction (it's easier when typing about the United States and European extraction) rather than primarily monocultural, they want it mono(people group)racial.
And as for the Christianity, many of the commenters (commentators?) have a views of the United Kingdom as a Christian nation. Almost all of Western Europe, including the UK, has not been primarily Christian for at least a century.
It is also hypocritical of the few who mention an ethnically (genetically) pure United Kingdom. The British Isles are supposed to have been inhabited (successfully) by Iberians, Celts, Roman/Roman conquered people, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, Norman French, Poles (19th century), etc.
So long as they still permit the influx of foreign muslims, this is useless.
Did you read the comment for which the post was response?
If I were a little Muslim girl, I'd also want to wrap myself up in multiple layers to protect myself from sex-starved Muslim men, including friendly uncles and the like.
Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
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