A poll conducted for The Daily Telegraph has found 53 percent of the respondents said that Islam posed a threat to Western liberal democracy:
The findings were revealed as Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, conceded that the multi-culturalist approach encouraged by the Left for two decades had probably been a mistake and could have contributed to the alienation that many young Muslims said they felt and experienced.
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The YouGov survey confirms ministers' fears that the country is becoming polarised between Muslims and the rest of the population, which is suspicious of them, and that a belief in "a clash of civilisations" has taken root.
According to the Telegraph, After the 9-11 terrorist attacks five years ago not even a third of the respondents perceived Islam as a threat.
Britain is now questioning the wisdom of its multi-cultural experiment. A ''cohesion and integration commission" was formally launched yesterday, and is charged with finding out whether the multi-cultural experiment has failed and, if so, why.
The Telegraph reports Ruth Kelly, the Communities Secretary, concedes that the multi-culturalist approach encouraged by the Left for two decades had probably been a mistake and could have contributed to the alienation experienced by many young Muslims:
"In our attempt to avoid imposing a single British identity and culture, have we ended up with some communities living in isolation from each other with no common bonds between them?" she asked. Miss Kelly said that diversity had been "a huge asset" but she acknowledged that the wave of immigration, the highest in British history, had brought fresh challenges. These included the importation of "global tensions" and the growing alienation of white Britons worried by the pace of social and cultural change.
The obvious comment is that of course more Brits see Islam as a threat when its London commuters being blown up in the Underground and the British air travel that is disrupted by Islamic terrorists. The more interesting thing to note from the Telegraph's article is the questioning of multiculturalism.
When I went to school, I was taught that the melting pot was central to America’s ability to assimilate immigrants. To me, the melting pot means that this country can transform people of every color and background into “one America,” with a single national identity. Today, after years of being indoctrinated in multiculturalism, younger Americans think the melting pot is a fondue restaurant.
Multiculturalism, is the opposite of the melting pot. Multiculturalism is divisive, it highlights the differences between peoples, discourages assimilation, and can only result in a separation, or is it segregation, by different cultures.
I respect the rights of others to celebrate their ethnicity, but immigrants must assimilate. We must maintain the melting pot and encourage the assimilation of immigrants.
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