Man holder lige nu en FN-konference i Paris, om hvor nødvendigt og hvor
vidunderligt multi-kulturalisme er. Også i EU har vi betydningsfulde
grupper, som har besluttet, at "vi" skal have flere hundrede tusinde
indvandrere fra Mellemøsten og Nordafrika, og de har mange dejlige
jubel-betragtninger om hvor herligt det hele bliver når det er sket.
Jeg hørte i går fra FN-konferencen "argumenter", som lyder som dem vi ofte
fik serveret i Danmark for indtil for 7 - 8 år siden: "cigarer kommer fra
Cuba, tomater fra Chile, tobak fra Mellemamerika, kaffe fra Tyrkiet - - ERGO
skal vi have en stor indvandring" . Og som en fra konferencen sagde: "vi kan
alligevel ikke holde dem ude, så vi kan lige så godt frivilligt lukke dem
ind". Og det er måske den bedste indstilling, hvis en ting er uundgåelig så
kan man lige så godt elske den?
Her er så en 2500 siders rapport over tingenes tilstand i Holland,
udarbejdet af alle partier i fællesskab, og den er jo ikke helt så lyrisk
som FN og EU's overbetalte embedsmænd- og kvinder, er:
"Den værste fejl var at lade børn tale berber, tyrkisk og arabisk i
folkeskolen", og ideen med at lade - ofte rabiate muslimske gejstlige - køre
fritidshjem, var heller ikke så smart, ser man nu hvor det er for sent, man
er - som en af politikerne siger - i en cul de sac, man har malet sig op i
et hjørne, og det vil vel tage 100 år før en slags balance vil være nået.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in The Hague
(Filed: 20/01/2004)
Holland's 30-year experiment in trying to create a tolerant, multicultural
society has failed and led to ethnic ghettos and sink schools, according to
an official parliamentary report.
Between 70 and 80 per cent of Dutch-born members of immigrant families
import their spouse from their "home" country, mostly Turkey or Morocco,
perpetuating a fast-growing Muslim subculture in large cities.
The 2,500-page all-party report by the Dutch parliament was the
establishment's tentative answer to the critique of Pim Fortuyn, the
shaven-headed firebrand who warned that Holland's easy-going way of life was
threatened by militant Islam and over-crowding. He was assassinated by an
environmental activist two years ago.
While the report praised most immigrants for assimilating and for doing well
at school, it attacked successive governments for stoking ethnic separatism.
The worst mistake was to encourage children to speak Turkish, Arabic or
Berber in primary schools rather than Dutch. The report concluded that
Holland's 850,000 Muslims must become Dutch if the country was to hold
together. It proposes cheap housing in the leafy suburbs to help ethnic
groups assimilate with the rest of the 16 million population.
The major parties in the centre-Right government dismissed such solutions as
insufficient. Maxime Verhagen, the Christian Democrat leader in parliament,
said one had to be "either naive or ignorant" not to understand that the
policy had led the country into a cul-de-sac.
He said: "Immigrants in the Netherlands top the 'wrong' lists - disability
benefit, unemployment assistance, domestic violence, criminality statistics
and school and learning difficulties."
For years Holland was seen as a glowing example of multi-ethnic tolerance,
making huge efforts to make immigrants feel at home. Funding was provided
for ethnic diversity projects, including 700 Islamic clubs that are often
run by hard-line clerics.
.............................
Og lidt fra Tysklands debat om emnet, Der Spiegel ser også problemerne, men
mener at man må nedtone dem, og holde op med at tale om, at tysk skal være
"ledekultur":
Og de har efter min mening ret i at man - samtidig med at man arbejder med
de utallige problemer - også må fokusere mere på de steder hvor det går
godt.
The discussion in Germany currently looks like this: On the one hand, you
have leading politicians -- normally measured in their statements -- turning
into populists. Opposition leader -- and potential candidate for chancellor
in the 2006 elections -- Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian
Democrats announced over the weekend that the multicultural society in
Germany has "dramatically failed." Her sidekick Edmund Stoiber, head of
Bavaria's Christian Social Union and failed 2002 candidate for chancellor,
said we have to "defend the Christian tradition of our country." Even
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder jumped into the affair over the weekend by
expressing sympathy with the idea of banning headscarves for schoolteachers
in German public schools.
On the other hand, German newspapers and magazines are full of stories about
radical Muslim preachers -- imams -- who call European civilization the
culture of infidels. A good example is the radical imam Abu Katada (now in
jail) in England who said the only contact one can have with unbelievers is
through "the sword and blood."
In other words, each side in the debate is taking the position that it has
the superior culture. The concept of Leitkultur, it seems, isn't just a
German one.
The integration project needs work
Problems with integration, of course, do exist. There are a number of
radical imams in Europe -- and in Germany. Turkish "ghettos," with large
populations of Turkish immigrants who have shut themselves off from Germany,
don't speak German and don't share the German and European worldview, also
exist. And clearly, countries like Germany, Holland and France have the
right to defend their cultures against radicalism -- even, as German
Minister of the Interior Otto Schilly has suggested, to the point of
expelling radical imams.
But the public debate needs to be taken back from the populist and the
radical voices that have so far dominated it. Do we really know, for
example, that the majority of Turks in Germany are happy to live apart from
their German neighbors as many would have us believe? What about
Turkish-German family structures? One hears they can be abusive and
restrictive, but is that really true? And then there's the headscarf debate.
Isn't the presence of Turkish-German teachers in German schools, no matter
what they are wearing, a sign that some integration is taking place?
After all, the demonstration in Cologne shows that not all Muslims share
radical ideas. Indeed, more and more second and third generation
Turkish-Germans are becoming active in German politics, the arts and in
occupations from laborers and restauranteurs to lawyers and doctors.
The new severity of the government, as revealed in Schroeder's speech over
the weekend, is fair. In addition to questioning the headscarf and warning
against a "war of cultures," Schroeder also said that immigrants "must
clearly and unambiguously commit themselves to our legal system and to our
democratic rules of the game. We must demand that our readiness to integrate
newcomers is reflected in a willingness to integrate among those who come to
us."
But the public debate in Germany -- and in Europe -- needs to be brought
back to the middle and needs to conducted on the basis of the realities that
exist in Germany. Above all, the word Leitkultur needs to go.
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