The debate on European multiculturalism: More links
Here are some quotes from the international debate on European multiculturalism:
“I am not in the slightest bit ‘embarrassed’ by [Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s] critique of Islam, nor have I ever denied her the right ‘to refer to Voltaire.’ But if Islamic reform is the goal, then such denunciations are not the best way to achieve it, especially if they come from an avowed atheist.”
“I went on to suggest that [Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s] approach ‘is not showing the way forward for most Muslims in Europe, at least not for many years to come. A policy based on the expectation that millions of Muslims will so suddenly abandon the faith of their fathers and mothers is simply not realistic. If the message they hear from us is that the necessary condition for being European is to abandon their religion, then they will choose not to be European.’ I continue to insist that this is an obvious truth, and an important criticism of the position adopted by both Ali and Bruckner.”
Paul Cliteur writes that today’s cultural relativists think that “defending Enlightenment values of democracy, free speech, and the rule of law as ‘universal principles’ is one more kind of fundamentalism that has to be rejected.”
Necla Kelek writes that the Islamic definition of human rights is not compatible with liberal democracy. The Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam is “a political programme designed to defend the identity of Islamic culture against capitalist globalisation.” The Islamists objective is to establish the vertical separation of men and women within democratic societies, Kelek believes.
For more on the origins of this debate, read this post.
