Thursday, August 04, 2005

Multicultural Britain is not working, says Tory chief

Faint glimmerings of intelligence from Britain's political class

Muslims must start integrating into mainstream British society, says David Davis, the shadow home secretary and front-runner to take over the Conservative leadership. Writing in The Daily Telegraph today, Mr Davis signalled a significant shift away from the policy of multi-culturalism, which allows people of different faiths and cultures to settle without expecting them to integrate. Often, the authorities have seemed more concerned with encouraging distinctive identities rather than promoting the common values of nationhood," Mr Davis writes.

His call for a rethink of the approach to immigrant communities came as Hazel Blears, the Home Office minister, sought to reassure British Muslims that they were not being deliberately targeted by the Government's anti-terrorism powers. After meeting Muslim leaders in Oldham, Miss Blears said the use of stop and search powers by police had to be "intelligence-led" and carried out in a non-discriminatory way. "The counter-terrorism powers are not targeting any community in particular, but are targeting terrorists," she said. Her remarks represented a retreat from her earlier support for Ian Johnston, the Chief Constable of British Transport Police, who said young Asian men should be targeted and police should not waste time "searching old, white ladies".

Miss Blears received a mixed reception at the start of a tour of Asian communities. Riaz Ahmad, an Oldham Labour councillor, said he was glad there was no intention to "demonise" the Muslim community. But Zahid Maqbool, the editor of a magazine for Asian youths, said not enough attention was being paid to the views of young Muslims.

Mr Davis's call for an end to multiculturalism is an indication of a fundamental rethink under way within the political parties and government over relations with the Muslim community after last month's suicide bomb attacks in London. Although Tony Blair has rejected calls to restrict the growth of separate Muslim faith schools, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, whose Blackburn constituency contains a large Asian community, said Muslim religious teachers and Islamic schools could be licensed.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow attorney general, said few politicians yet appreciated the sense of anger and alienation felt by many Muslims in Britain. He said the London suicide bombings were "totally explicable" because of the deep sense of anger over the Iraq war, a wider despair about the Islamic world and what Muslims saw as a "decadent" western society. However, Miss Blears said there could be no justification "for people blowing themselves up and murdering hundreds of other people".

Mr Davis argues today that questions must be asked about how the "perverted values" of the suicide bomber were allowed to take root. He says Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, was right to call multiculturalism outdated. "We should learn lessons from abroad, for example from the United States, where pride in the nation's values is much more prevalent among minorities than here," he says. "Above all, we must speak openly of what we expect of those who settle here - and of ourselves. "Let us be clear. Non-Muslims have obligations to their Muslim fellow citizens - to strive for equal opportunities for all, to accept the mainstream version of Islam as a part of society and to reject the vile racism of the BNP and its like. "But Muslims in turn have obligations: not simply to condemn terror, as one Labour MP put it, but to confront it." He praised the Government's response to the London bombings and promised Tory support for tougher laws to catch and convict those preparing terrorist acts or inciting extremism. Mr Davis calls for the establishment of a new border control police force to secure Britain's "porous" borders.

The process of granting British citizenship should be reviewed. It is "totally unacceptable" that one of the alleged bombers was given a British passport despite having a long record of bad conduct, including time in jail. Mr Davis repeats the Tory call to review the Human Rights Act.

Source



THE BLOOMBERG IDIOCY: WHEN CORRECTNESS BECOMES VERY DANGEROUS

The fact is that political correctness could easily become the death of us all because of stupid politicians. The latest idiocy comes from New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg who recently told WABC Radio host John Gambling during an interview, "I think if we've learned anything, it is you can't predict what a terrorist looks like." Yeah, right. And you can't predict that someone's a gang member by the colors they wear, right Mayor? Incredible.

He went on to say that the terrorists come "in all sizes and shapes and forms" and that profiling Middle Eastern men wouldn't be "fair". Not fair? What about everyone else that is at risk from this demographic? Now of course I'm not suggesting that all young men of Middle Eastern extraction are terrorists - the vast majority are not, but the fact remains that in today's world, virtually all terrorist acts are committed by that very group.

Down here in the South, we have an old fishing adage that says simply, but eloquently, that you go fishing where the fish are biting. Put another way, going anywhere else is a waste of time if you want to catch fish. The same is true with apprehending and preventing terrorists - it makes no sense whatsoever to spend time searching little old blue haired ladies when they're not the ones flying airplanes into buildings, setting off explosives on subways and the like.

I recall a recent trip taken by myself, my wife and my mother-in-law during which we were pulled out of line at the airport by security and were all summarily patted down and forced to remove our shoes. I even had to undo my belt so they could examine the buckle (a standard one, not some big knocker like those worn by bikers - mine wouldn't have hidden a toothpick, much less a knife). All of us are white, by the way - and my mother-in-law is over 60 and walks with a cane due to knee and back surgeries. While we were being inspected, at least two-dozen Middle Eastern types walked straight through without being pulled. I guess that would be Bloomberg's idea of being "fair" - sure couldn't risk offending those Middle East folks now, could we?

What astounds me is the complete lack of logic in all of this. If it were middle-aged white men who were committing the majority of terrorist acts, I would understand and indeed, expect to be profiled. Profiling is the only effective approach of trying to make us all safer and makes perfect sense when you're trying to solve or prevent a crime.

Politicians like Michael Bloomberg need to learn that while fishing where the fish aren't biting is a harmless waste of time, taking that approach on a matter as grave as terrorism is both foolhardy and suicidal.

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