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news
22nd March 2008
Attacking multiculturalism will not stop ‘extremism’
Diane Abbott MP argues that multiculturalism helps to fight extremism, not encourage it
It is amazing how in the past decade multiculturalism has fallen from a term that invoked positive feeling to the depths of terms used by right-wing tabloids to pour scorn on contemporary society and politics.
Multiculturalism has joined the ranks of ‘political correctness’ and ‘health and safety’ without a moment’s thought as to why these concepts are useful. The reason for this is usually that it is assumed ideas like political correctness, health and safety and multiculturalism are purely bureaucratic and restrain the rights and freedom of ‘ordinary, hard-working British people’.
The military and defence think-tank RUSI have published a report on British security blaming the ‘deference to multiculturalism’ for the growth in Islamic extremists. The authors suggest that whilst the Islamic militant movement has a clear idea about what they want and how to get there, Britain as a country has no such self-confidence. Britain is suffering from a lack of clear identity, national aims or values. It is a ‘fragmented, post-Christian’ society whose leadership has failed to control its immigrant communities and has therefore left the door wide open for extremism to take root.
A fundamental failing with this argument is that it does not understand what multiculturalism means, or its real aim. Multiculturalism is both a reality and a practice. In reality, Britain is a multicultural society because there are many different cultures, nationalities and races living together in the same geographical space and under the same system of government. ‘Multiculturalism’ has also been employed as a technique for managing our diverse population. Originally it was a used by the anti-racism movement to call for equal rights and an end to racial discrimination. Multiculturalism was the phrase used to describe the state in which everyone would be considered equal, but would be entitled to uphold their differences, as long as they did not interfere with others.
Suggesting that it is multiculturalism that leads to Islamic extremism is, then, quite absurd. Multiculturalism counteracts the need for extremism because people are secure that they may have their own religious, national and cultural identities whilst still having equality within the nation state. It is insecurity — be it social, cultural, educational or economical — that leads to extremism. And this is what we have seen in the growth of Islamic extremism.
Doing away with multiculturalism leads us onto dangerous ground. The suggestion in the RUSI report, that immigrant and minority communities need to be controlled in some way, is symptomatic of the racist approach we are left with. What this approach means is that immigrant and migrant communities are automatically seen as problems that need to be dealt with. ‘Controlling’ these communities in the name of preventing extremism means pushing for assimilation rather than inclusion — as multiculturalism does. The damaging effects of overlooking differences and expecting minority communities simply to blend into the majority culture are easily seen in France. The French assimilationalist model succeeds in alienating a vast amount of the French Arab population through a policy of ignoring cultural differences. It also fails to address the devastating economic effects of racial discrimination.
Neglecting to recognise the situation of young Muslims in this country — in terms of their cultural and economic isolation — is much more likely to be a cause of extremism than multiculturalism. It is no coincidence that cases of Islamic extremism crop up among Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, as these are also often the poorest, suffering from high levels of unemployment and low levels of education. Add to that the effect of years of disastrous foreign policy and it becomes clear that tackling extremism has little to do with getting rid of multiculturalism.
Taken from Socialist Campaign Group News, March 2008.
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