Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has signalled a change of direction for the Church in England and Wales with an outspoken attack on the ideology of multiculturalism.
The Cardinal said efforts to create a multicultural society had led to a “lessening of the kinds of unity that a country needs”.
He made his comments after Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said that Britain needed to accommodate religious legal codes, such as Islamic Sharia law, in order to achieve community cohesion.
The Anglican leader told the BBC that the adoption of some aspects of the Sharia in Britain “seems unavoidable”. He faced a storm of protest after the remark and was forced to fight off calls for his resignation from several members of the General Synod.
The Cardinal intervened in the debate to say that migrants should embrace the idea of equality under the law rather than live by other legal codes.
“I don’t believe in a multicultural society,” he told the Sunday Telegraph. “When people come into this country they have to obey the laws of the land. There are going to be certain things which might clash in the overall culture of the country. That’s where one has to make a judgment.”
I told you Catholic Emancipation was a bad idea!
Well, at least somebody has some sense over there…and we would do well on this side of the pond to mind where all this “diversity” and “multiculturalism” can lead.
The good Cardinal wintesses to the continuation of attitudes since _Apostolicae Curae_ or for that matter since _Regnans in excelsis_ 1570.
Thanks, Mr. Rightmyer, for the enlightened assessment – and to what precisely do you object? The good Queen B and her daddy took a firm approach to multiculturalism – perhaps that is the wave of the future under British Sharia.
The Cardinal seems to have some grasp of reality, a commodity that is in short supply in airy Anglican circles. Can we get him to pinch-hit for the ABC?
Given enough time, Cultimulturalism will weaken or destroy every society that tries it.
“For a long time people felt they had to be in favour of [multiculturism] – to be against it was like being a Holocaust denier.â€
Fair comment. In the Britain of the 1980s, if you opposed mother language teaching or the creation of immigrant enclaves, you were shouted down as a racist. A middle school principal called Ray Honeyman said as much in the northern town of Bradford and his career was destroyed by disgraceful demonstrations at his school orchestrated by leftists and Muslim activists.
British Catholics were generally pro-multiculti leftists. They seem to have learned, leaving the ABC to pick up the scim-, er, torch.
#7: I meant ‘HoneyFORD’ – here’s the sad story of how muticulturalism destroyed one man’s career and his school:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/27/nmulticul27.xml&page=1
Quite insane to think these ideas should now be imported into the legal system of a country (‘interactive pluralism’) …
In those countries that currently have separate legal systems by religious group, it’s a real mess. Rights to property, alimony, inheritance and child custody are determined by the community laws. Neighbors with the same circumstances could have drastically different outcomes depending upon their religion. And what is to be done with interfaith marriages? You can tell people this is unwise, but they’ll do it anyhow. I know of a case in Egypt of a Coptic Christian woman who married a Muslim. He died, and his family came to demand that she turn over her infant child to them. This was a legally enforceable demand, since Muslim law trumps others.
“Balkanized” doesn’t begin to describe what would happen in the UK. Balkanization by town and by neighborhood, with accompanying violence, is what would result.
Actually, TomRightmyer, I read it completely different. The statement “I don’t believe in a multicultural society. When people come into this country they have to obey the laws of the land” seems to me an excellent argument for submitting to the Elizabethan Settlement.
Lapin,
It goes back further than that:
“When in Rome, do as the Romans do”.
I know, Becket and the whole d-mned business. Just for once I was just trying to keep it brief.
This Cardinal has it right. I hope he sticks to this view and has some influence elsewhere both in Britain and beyond.
Can’t the British Parliament and monarchy enact a Dissolution of the Mosques. I believe there is ample legal precedent. Very ample.
#8, very instructive.
#11, I like to add a postscript to the quotation you stated. When in Rome, do as the Romans do, BUT be a good Roman. Rome had a lot of good Romans way back when, but history indicates they has some “doozies” too.