Multicultural-ism: past its' use by date!

The word 'multiculturalism' seems to divide people rather than unite people.
For Christians, the feature that unites us is acknowledging the death and resurrection of Christ as a means of restoring our relationship to God that was broken because of sin.
It doesn't matter what our ethnic background or cultural heritage is!

Multiculturalism was first introduced to Australia during the era of the federal Labor government in the 1970s. Gough Whitlam and Al Grassby were key players in its establishment.
The notion of accepting all people as equal and welcoming them to our nation is indeed a noble one. However the word multicultural has had an ISM added to it to make 'multicultural-ism'. As Janet Albrechtsen recently said "once the 'ism' was added to multicultural, an accurate adjective morphed into a philosophy: although originally based on fine notions of tolerance [the right kind!] and inclusion, it ended up separating people according to culture and eschewing any criticism of minorities". [see article below].

In recent years, the problem of Muslim integration and separatism has become a huge issue - both in Europe and also here in Australia. See section uunder '2010-2011'.

Things are changing - Andrew Robb, then government parliamentary secretary for immigration and multicultural affairs, talked about 'forging a shared identity made up of core values that unite people from diverse cultures' during 2006.

Multiculturalism as an 'ism'has separated people into distinct groups. Janet Albrechtsen has written an insightful article showing that whilst 'multicultural' might have reflected the different cultural heritages, multicultural-ism has had negative effects on our community.
She highlights how the federal government is moving away from this term and focusing again on proper integration. See link in 'Articles' section below.

2007: Now the federal government has dumped the term 'multiculturalism' from its official Department name - renaming the 'Department of Immigration, Multiculturalism and Indigenous Affairs' as the 'Department of Immigration and Citizenship'!
Click here to visit the Department website.

2010-2011 - More people oppose multiculturalism

In the past few years, the issue of Muslim immigration and integration, in Europe and here in Australia, has led to various people opposing the policy of multiculturalism. In many cases this has led to a policy of 'separatism' rather than integration and in the case of Islam, is leading the the radicalisation of some young Muslims.

Recent developments:

* Germany -In October 2010, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that attempts to build a "multicultural society" had "utterly failed".
Read article - click here.

* UK -In February 2011, at a Security Conference in Munich, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that multiculturalism had failed - that Muslims in Britain had focused on 'sepaaratism' and that the radicalisation of young Muslims was a problem. He called on Muslim groups in Britain not to tolerate extremists.
Read BBC report - click here.

* Australia -In response to David Cameron's comments, Jeff Kennett, former Liberal Premier of Victoria said that muliculturalism was a flawed policy and that migrants should eb encouraged to integrate rather than be 'separate'. He said "People make the choice to come to Australia and have to accept our way of life."
Various other people - the PM Julia Gillard supported multiculturalism...
Read report from the Herald Sun - click here.

Following that, several Liberal MPs - Sen Cory Bernardi, Sen Mitch Fifeld and Kevin Andrews - have spoken out against the policy of multiculturalism and the problems of accepting the cultural and political practices of Islam  Sen Bernardi has previously opposed the wearing of the burqa in public and says he is opposed to halal slaughter of food.
Read article: Liberal MPs warn of 'Islam danger', Herald Sun, 9 Feb 2011.