It's time to be practical about multiculturalism

Following the murders in Paris at the Charlie Hebdo magazine and the kosher supermarket, one could hear the comforting sound of tens of thousands of footsteps marching in enraged opposition to the terrorists.

But if you listened more carefully, you could also hear the shattering of a concept that has formed much of European life for the last half-century -- "multiculturalism."

Oh, the word sounds so good! It is even melodious when spoken, and it promises societies imagined anew. Born out of the civil rights turmoil of the '60s and '70s, multiculturalism does not, for instance, mean enjoying the famous writers of Mexico or Nigeria; what it DOES mean is dividing nation-states, until now made up of millions of individuals, into sealed ethnic groups that then bargain for privilege.

This old struggle came up anew this week when a well-meaning Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal spoke in London about Islamic "no-go" zones in England where the British police dare not go. The poor guy was all but crucified when the multicultural observers arose to smite him.

In fact, he was slightly wrong on the "no-go" thing, which is more characteristic of France's huge "grands ensembles," reminiscent of Chicago's massive, and now demolished, public housing. He should have spoken about how radical, anti-British Muslims are working to take over the public schools in Birmingham, since the "Trojan Horse" scandal is in the London papers every day, and about how Pakistani men in Rotherham had lured away 1,400 teenaged English girls, "groomed" them with liquor and drugs, and turned them into prostitutes.

One of the most interesting -- and terrifying -- things about the latter situation is that the police knew about the 1,400 girls for 15 years and did not report it because it would make them look, according to the London papers, "racist." That is multiculturalism.

Indeed, another case occurred in America recently when the prestigious Duke University gave permission for the beautiful Christian bell tower on campus to be used to issue a weekly call to Muslim prayer. One wonders what those university officials were thinking about the rights of Christians to keep their own precious churches.

At any rate, there were so many complaints from former students and interested people that the permission was withdrawn; but it was done so with the clear attitude that the complainants were somehow lacking in, well, "multicultural" understanding.

Multiculturalism was always far more prevalent in Europe than in America, perhaps because Europeans have always been more ready to accept new political schemas. Indeed, until now, some have given Muslim immigrants -- Pakistani and Bangladeshi in England, North African in France and Turks in Germany -- preferences above their own citizens.

But now, with the advent of the age of terrorism, these attitudes have changed. Politicians in France called the murderous attacks on Charlie Hebdo and the kosher supermarket "game-changers," and they more than likely are. How could it be otherwise, when the average citizen sees the horrors of Syria and Iraq now being visited upon their own streets and people?

But to even start to deal with it now is difficult indeed, when almost every European state has a sizable Islamic minority, and the hope of a non-warring Europe lies in the hands of the European Union, through which anyone can move without the slightest problem.

The Muslim populations are now rooted in their new countries. Terrorists can go and come at will. The European and British governments seem unable to treat their Muslim populations with normal expectations, but continue to pamper them, fearing that awful term, worse than terrorist -- racist!

But both Europeans and Americans need to learn that it is not racist to say that different peoples, societies, cultures, races and religions -- at ANY period of history -- are not the same. They have different memories, experiences and hopes.

Nor is it racist to say that northern European tribes were dancing naked around fires when brown-skinned Egyptians built the greatest empire of the time. Nor that it was Muslims, when ancient Greece dissolved, who held the Grecian manuscripts safe in the great universities of Baghdad and Damascus. Nor that one of the greatest liberal societies in history thrived under Islamic rule in Al--Andalus in Spain between the eighth and 15th centuries.

Today, common sense tells us to respect Islam, but to be practical about hunting down Islamic terrorists, for that is what they are, and also to be cautious about enlarging ethnic enclaves where assimilation becomes more and more difficult, if not impossible.

Multiculturalism -- judging people by their group and not their individuality, and thus sealing them in that group -- was always to invite division and disunity into our proven societies. One feels that the Europeans have finally gotten the idea.

Previously:
• 01/07/15: Tension mounts against Muslim immigration in the West

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Georgie Anne Geyer has been a foreign correspondent and commentator on international affairs for more than 40 years.