Multiculturalism: A Death-nail to a Nation

Fire of Liberty
I think that Kenan Malik has pretty much hit the nail-head with this opinion piece in The Times, which notes that the UK's devotion to the silly ideology of multiculturalism is what has allowed the development of such horrific thinking that emerged on July 7, 2005. Here's a sneak peek of this excellent piece:

For an earlier generation of Muslims their religion was not so strong that it prevented them from identifying with Britain. Today many young British Muslims identify more with Islam than Britain primarily because there no longer seems much that is compelling about being British. Of course, there is little to romanticise about in old-style Britishness with its often racist vision of belonging. Back in the 1950s policy-makers feared that, in the words of a Colonial Office report, "“a large coloured community would weaken . . . the concept of England or Britain"”.

That old racist notion of identity has thankfully crumbled. But nothing new has come to replace it. The very notion of creating common values has been abandoned except at a most minimal level. Britishness has come to be defined simply as a toleration of difference. The politics of ideology has given way to the politics of identity, creating a more fragmented Britain, and one where many groups assert their identity through a sense of victimhood and grievance.

This has been particularly true of Muslim communities. Muslims have certainly suffered from racism and discrimination. But many Muslim leaders have nurtured an exaggerated sense of victimhood for their own political purposes. The result has been to stoke up anger and resentment, creating a siege mentality that makes Muslim communities more inward-looking and more open to religious extremism — — and that has helped to transform a small number of young men into savage terrorists.

I'm hope that more people in the UK will start thinking real hard about promoting a British national identity rather than departamentalising its people into p.c. identity groups. Above all else, the folks living in the UK should be proud about being a citizen of the UK rather than being a hyphenated subject of the crown. I think that these acts of terrorism in the streets and subway tunnels of London has knock the patina of of the adsurd notion and the dangers of multiculturalism. Too bad the BBC, The Independet and The Guardian are still wearing their rose colored glasses.