Posted on 03/08/2008 4:51:08 AM PST by Clive
Future historians of the phenomenon known as "multiculturalism" that the West bone-headedly adopted towards the end of the second millennium will note the precise time when it was dealt a mortal wound.
It was at 8:46 on Tuesday morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when the first of the four commercial airliners hijacked by Islamist terrorists -- all of Arab origin -- struck the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Since that time other western cities -- Madrid, London, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Toronto, Paris, Washington --have been targets of successful or failed attempts by Islamist terrorists determined to spread random death and destruction.
Those involved in the planning and execution of such terror are immigrants or born of immigrant parents belonging to the rapidly growing Muslim population in the West over the past 40 years. I happen to be a part of this wave of immigration to the West.
This western Muslim population, with its ethnic diversity reflecting the vastness of the Arab-Muslim world -- stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from central Asia to sub-Saharan Africa -- could have given some timely ballast to multiculturalism by unambiguously and unapologetically defending the West against barbarity.
MINIMUM OWED
This was the minimum Muslims in the West owed to the civilization where they sought refuge, and where they found security, prosperity, freedom and self-fulfillment of the like denied them in their native lands.
Instead Muslim-based organizations, at first having offered denial, followed with an unending volume of polemics condemning the West for past sins. By exploiting the West's post-colonial guilt they held it responsible for the conditions in the Arab-Muslim world that breeds the politics of terrorism.
These bald-faced polemics are sheer nonsense, and yet they resonated in much of the West that went limp with the anodyne of wishful multicultural thinking.
The idea that all cultures are equal in merit and deserving respect, an idea devoid of any historical perspective, could be seriously proposed and adopted only in western liberal democracies. And logically such an idea meant only one thing, the diminution of the West and its achievements in comparison to other cultures.
Multiculturalism institutionalized as a policy, run by self-perpetuating bureaucracies and sustained by entrepreneurs of a growing multicultural industry, became an easy ride for its proponents and clients.
Immigrants were not required to embrace the West's culture and complex history; and the West did not have to strain itself in instructing immigrants on the need or importance of embracing it, warts and all.
Multiculturalism worked so long as the illusion of cultural harmony could be maintained.
But once the sham of equality got exposed by the heat of Islamist violence -- once it became undeniable that a culture in which a woman, for instance, can assert her individual freedom without fear is not at par with a culture where a woman's worth is less than that of a man -- multiculturalism as an idea was dead.
Historians will note a period of confusion followed the death of multiculturalism before the West asserted its ideals of freedom and democracy, and moved on.
-
Why on earth should any white Westerner feel guilty about colonialism?
It may have been foolish, but it was a multi-century long expression of Christian compassion for the suffering of the barbarian tribes which has been replaced with - nothing.
The residents of Kampala, Nairobi, Freetown, Dakar, and Abidjan are incomparably worse off then they were in 1960.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is blind, deaf, and dumb.
I suppose they could feel guilty about that.
He means a period of wars
My question is will we ever wake up before it's to late.
Wishful thinking, I fear. At least in America, the more Muslims arrive and/or procreate, the more politicians will pander for their votes.
Multiculturism helped destroy the Roman Empire. Eventually those “absorbed” turned on the absorbers!
Multiculturism can work just fine, as long as it works the way the ‘No Homers’ club worked on the Simpsons.
Yeah, dragging the world out of the Stone Age. Makes me feel terrible about how the west screwed up the world.
I think we should go right down to Mexico City and put that huge rack of sculls back in the center of the city and take away all the metal to try to set things right again.
I sure hope this author is correct, but it is difficult to see, from the eye of the storm, the conclusion that the West will successfully move on. It is equally likely, particularly with the next Presidential election, that multiculturalism will fatally infect the US and bring about the collapse of the unifying culture.
Great article. Great comments.
The greatest anti-truth, anti-freedom, anti-individual, anti-life collective in the history of civilization.
It can last long enough to destroy us before it dies. But that’s the purpose of it anyway.
Follow the money. Multiculturalism, like so many liberal “causes celèbré” including global warming is nothing more than a guilt trip created to transfer wealth filtered through government coffers from one group of people to another. Through this process, the loudest proponents of the causes handsomely line their own pockets.
I will assume that here you are speaking about the Middle East because some former colonies have done well such as India and Australia.
In the Middle East colonial rule has been replaced with despotism and the subjugation of basic human rights.
The World Wars brought a premature end to the colonial period which may be their most evil and lasting legacy.
I hope there some survivors who've built up anti bodies.
(Islam) The Downfall of the Netherlands- Land of the Naive Fools
As much as I wish this were so, it's utter nonesense! Reminder to the writer: since that day New York, where the biggest attack took place, has elected Hillary Rotten Clinton, Chuckie Schumer as senators, and voted for John Kerry (who served in Vietnam) for president. All three of these think multiculturalism is the answer, not the problem.
As I was reading this, Ahmed Bedier of CAIR was making the case on FOX for the addition of Islamic holidays to the school calendar.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.