Greg Sheridan, How I lost faith in multiculturalism
IN 1993, my family and I moved into Belmore in southwest Sydney. It is the next suburb to Lakemba. When I first moved there I loved it...File under: now counting the days until a journalist writes a tortured epiphany about the insanity of Asian immigration and suicidal support for the rise of an ultranationalist superpower.
But in the nearly 15 years we lived there the suburb changed, and much for the worse.
Three dynamics interacted in a noxious fashion: the growth of a macho, misogynist culture among young men that often found expression in extremely violent crime; a pervasive atmosphere of anti-social behaviour in the streets; and the simultaneous growth of Islamist extremism and jihadi culture.
This is my story, our story and the story of a failed policy ...
... Bowen, in his February 16 speech, titled "The genius of Australian multiculturalism" ...
I'm afraid Bowen's speech had the opposite effect on me. It completed my transformation.
Whereas once I wholeheartedly supported multiculturalism, I now think it's a failure ...
... the problems that Bowen is talking about are problems with Muslim immigrants, not with immigrants generally ...
The US, Canada and Australia have far smaller Muslim migrant communities as a percentage of their total populations than do most of the troubled nations of Europe. Could this be the explanation? ...
But the only people who don't think there is a problem with Islam are those who live on some other planet...
... You can find extremists in every religion and from every background, but there is no equivalence in the size and strength of the extremist tendency in other religions.
... for Australia the Muslim population will grow by 80 per cent between now and 2030, to about 715,000, growing about four times as fast as the rest of the population ...
It may be that by 2030 we will start to have a much more European-style, polarised society as a result...
Christopher Caldwell's book ... establishes definitively that this has been overwhelmingly a determined illegal immigration, not a refugee question.
The same is happening in northern Australia now ... exactly replicating the dynamics of Europe's disaster ...
... many North Africans were not going to Europe to embrace European values but to continue their North African life ...
Does Islam itself have a role in these problems? The answer is complex and nuanced but it must be a qualified, and deeply reluctant, yes...
To have concerns about these matters is not racism or xenophobia. It is reasonable ...
... the Koran itself contains numerous injunctions to violent jihad and suppression of infidels. It also contains passages against violence and against compulsion in religion.
... it is undeniable that at the very least a sizeable minority of Muslims choose an extremist interpretation.
How can Australia sensibly take account of all this while maintaining a non-discriminatory immigration program? ...
The inflow of illegal immigrants by boat in the north, almost all Muslim, mostly unskilled, should be stopped.
... a legitimate stress should be placed on need but also on the ability to integrate into Australian society.
... we simply should not place immigration officers in the countries with the greatest traditions of radicalism.
A few years ago there was an informal view across government that very few visas should be issued to people from Afghanistan, Pakistan or Iraq, as these were the three likeliest sources of extremism.
These sorts of discussions take place all the time among senior officials, politicians and others. But I have never encountered a policy area in which private and public positions are so different...
Islam is a political ideology which is in direct contradiction to the western social operating system of liberal democracy. Coupled with that it is in direct contradiction to many of our fundamental human rights and the constitution. Our system is very fragile! and can be over run by Islam and the violence associated with it.
ReplyDeleteI want a law to stop Islamic immigration into Australia immediately. I am not the only decent educated pluralistic Australian citizen I know with this opinion. I am well educated on law, political science, the Koran and Islamic culture having lived with Muslims and I am extremely concerned about our politically correct immigration system which passes over some very good hard working people who would likely have 2 or so children and live in difficult over populated countries, though, they are passed over for Muslims. This is an extremely unfair idealistic immigration system we have, full of contradictions.
Yes, "Islam is undeniably a religion of conquest" as Sam Harris wrote. Given the sword chopping example of Muhammad and his early followers, it could never be anything else. So yes, Western countries are completely insane to continue Muslim immigration. Sooner or later it will have to be stopped.
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