http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/02/15/theodore-dalrymple/kicking-off-the-conversation-dalrymples-response/ Big Ideas for a Better World Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:16:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/02/15/theodore-dalrymple/kicking-off-the-conversation-dalrymples-response/#comment-202 It looks obvious » Blog Archive » The Immigration Issue Fri, 17 Feb 2006 01:23:37 +0000 http://www.cato-unbound.org/2006/02/15/theodore-dalrymple/kicking-off-the-conversation-dalrymples-response/#comment-202 [...] A while ago I had a discussion with Tanner about the Muslim immigration to Europe and is it in fact a problem. Therefore I was waiting to see Tanner’s response to Dalrymple’s latest comments and his unequivocal opinion about the Islamist immigration to Europe: I cannot agree that multiculturalism, embraced in fact as well as spirit (or theory) is part of the solution to our problems posed by Moslem immigrants. This sees to me preposterous. The idea that the French riots took place because the inhabitants of the banlieues did not speak sufficient French is absurd: they all spoke French. And I fail to see how embracing multiculturalism will do anything to inhibit Muslim extremists. As one Italian put it, multiculturalism is not couscous: it is the stoning of adulterers—and, as we have recently discovered, far worse than that. The United States has an advantage because it has a compelling foundation myth, which Europe does not have, and this helps to integrate new arrivals. [...] [...] A while ago I had a discussion with Tanner about the Muslim immigration to Europe and is it in fact a problem. Therefore I was waiting to see Tanner’s response to Dalrymple’s latest comments and his unequivocal opinion about the Islamist immigration to Europe: I cannot agree that multiculturalism, embraced in fact as well as spirit (or theory) is part of the solution to our problems posed by Moslem immigrants. This sees to me preposterous. The idea that the French riots took place because the inhabitants of the banlieues did not speak sufficient French is absurd: they all spoke French. And I fail to see how embracing multiculturalism will do anything to inhibit Muslim extremists. As one Italian put it, multiculturalism is not couscous: it is the stoning of adulterers—and, as we have recently discovered, far worse than that. The United States has an advantage because it has a compelling foundation myth, which Europe does not have, and this helps to integrate new arrivals. [...]

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