Friday, March 11, 2011

Wish It Were a BURIED Treasure

Former Canadian Islamic Congress V.P. Imam Zijad Delic pleads for the retention of multiculturalism, which he calls "a national treasure":
...A favorite complaint is that Canadian multiculturalism creates a culture of segregation and victimhood resulting in expectations of special treatment. Such objections to do not take into account some newcomers’ real experiences of political and economic repression, racism, discrimination, societal phobias, and the like. 
As recently as the late 1990s, however, there was a broad consensus among the majority of Canadians that official multiculturalism was a foundation for our success as a society and has been instrumental in establishing the cultural balance Canada has attained since 1971. But it seems those days of multicultural optimism are all but gone.
There is a fundamental problem with the judgment of multiculturalism’s critics. Look at some of the key texts on multiculturalism, as well as its practical application during the three decades following its 1971 government endorsement, and you will find quite the opposite of the current philosophy of separateness. Far from “putting people into ethnic safe zones,” multiculturalism is “about intercultural fusion in which a culture borrows bits of others and creatively transforms both itself and them all.” It doesn’t call for “ghettos” but rather recognizes group identities and their heritage...
Au contraire, imam. The fundamental problem is with multiculturism itself. It is premised on the bollocks that every "culture" is the equal of every other culture, and has something of equal value to contribute to society at large. The sole exception to this rule: "Western" culture. It fails to measure up to the "cultures" of the Third World, which are inherently more valuable and virtuous by virtue of their having been the victims of Western imperialism. Multiculti is thus social Marxism tarted up in mea culpas and feel-good bilge about "intercultural fusion." The truth is that nothing is fusing, and such creatively transformational practices as "honour" murders and female genital obliteration have now become woven into our social fabric, changing it utterly and not for the better.

Nice try though, imam. And best of luck with your future endeavours, whatever they are.

Update: Another delightful cultural practice we've imported from the old countries. (Funny how so many of these colourful customs are harmful to women.)

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