I used to be unequivocally pro-multiculturalism. How naive I was
by Bella Wallersteiner, Telegraph:
We have not created a harmonious melting pot, but a society where prejudices and tensions can fester.
Just one day before the October 7 terrorist attack, I tweeted that Conservatives should stop bashing multiculturalism. In the five months since, however, it has become clear that Britain is not the success story I naively believed it to be. Extremist ideologies have been celebrated on our streets. Minority communities have been targeted. And our failure to confront the root causes of division has become all too apparent.
The nation’s silent majority have watched in horror as protests descended into platforms for hate speech. As posters were vandalised with swastikas and mobs chanted anti-Semitic slogans, often without any understanding of their true meaning. Not all movements for justice, we know now, are inherently just.
Multiculturalism has failed. It has failed to counter extremist ideologies. It has failed to uphold shared values such as democracy, human rights, tolerance and peaceful coexistence. For too long, we believed that embracing “diversity” without considering how different cultures, beliefs and rights might collide, would deliver harmonious integration and social cohesion. It didn’t, and it won’t, until we fix the underlying factors which lead some to be radicalised.
And this now poses a security risk. Islamism makes up 75 per cent of the counter-terrorism caseload, yet for too long we have shied away from acknowledging the true nature of this threat. It should have been obvious that allowing organisations like Hamas to garner support within multicultural societies would create fertile ground for radicalisation and undermine efforts to combat terrorism. There has been a 589 per cent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents following October 7. The Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-Jewish abuse and attacks, said the increase was a “watershed moment”. As a result, it is surely necessary to reevaluate whether Britain really is a poster child for multiculturalism. There are, clearly, prejudices and tensions in our society which have been allowed to fester.
Read here (£)
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