UK RECOGNISES BOGEY OF MULTICULTURALISM
The west is going through a period of transition from faked multiculturalism to monoculturism after realising that multiculturalism does not work in so called multicultural countries. Britain, for example, is in the midst of a crisis after a statement by Mr. Jack Straw, the present leader of the commons, that he did not want to see Muslim women wearing the veil. The following is an extract from "The Telegraph" on 7th October 2006.
"Jack Straw provoked anger yesterday by suggesting that community relations would be helped if Muslim women did not wear full veils. The Leader of the Commons disclosed that for the past year he had been asking women who visited his constituency office to remove their veils so that he could see them face-to-face. He always made sure that he was accompanied by a female member of staff and so far no constituent had refused to lift her veil.
Mr Straw said that wearing the full veil was bound to make "better, positive relations" between communities more difficult, as it could be seen "as a visible statement of separation and difference". He had felt "uncomfortable" whenever a woman had worn one in his Blackburn constituency office."
In March a school in Britain won a case in the House of Lords on the same question of Muslim students wearing the "veil" to school. "The Telegraph" had reported the event in the following manner.
"Some anti-dhimmitude in, of all places, Al-Britannia: the House of Lords has ruled that the existing concessions to Muslim sensibilities made by the school were quite sufficient, and no more need be made."School wins Muslim dress appeal," from the BBC, with thanks to Interested:
A school which was told it unlawfully excluded a Muslim pupil for wearing a traditional gown has won its appeal at the House of Lords. The Court of Appeal had said Denbigh High School had denied Shabina Begum the right to manifest her religion in refusing to allow her to wear a jilbab.
But in a unanimous ruling, judges at the House of Lords overturned that. They said the school had "taken immense pains to devise a uniform policy which respected Muslim beliefs". It had done so "in an inclusive, unthreatening and uncompetitive way".
When the British High Commissioner in Sri Lanka tells us that the British had failed to provide adequate checks and balances to safeguard the rights of the so called minorities in Sri Lanka one wonders whether he would tell the same to the Judges in the House of Lords, and the House of Commons. When some diplomats from the western countries wonder whether the recent judgement given by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court on the so called merger of the Northern and the Eastern Provinces was conducive to peace, one cannot refrain from asking the British High Commissioner whether the decision of the judges in the House of Lords would build bridges between the Muslims and the Anglo Saxon Christians.
We should also remind ourselves that according to the checks and balances of the Soulbury constitution one could appeal to the selfsame Judges in the House of Lords against a decision given by the Sri Lankan Supreme Court, under the infamous section 29 of the said constitution, that really meant that the "independence" given to us was not complete. The British who had baptised Tamil racism would do anything to deprive Sinhalathva its due place in the country. If we had the Soulbury constitution still operating, and if a Sri Lankan school were to file a case against a Muslim student coming in the traditional Muslim dress to school, and if the case went as far as the House of Lords, one wonders what would have been the decision of the Judges of the House of Lords. The section 29 was supposed to safeguard the rights of the "minorities", and a case by a Sri Lankan school would have exposed the British hypocrisy in these matters. However this hypothetical case would not have arisen as in Sri Lanka, which is supposed to discriminate against the non Sinhala Buddhists, the "minorities" are not deprived from wearing their "traditional dresses" to school or to any other place. As far as I can remember there was one such incident when the principal of a school in Badulla asked a Muslim student not to attend school in the traditional Muslim dress. However, it happened to be a Tamil medium school with a Tamil principle and the NGOs and the diplomats missed an opportunity of bashing Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinism. If it had happened in a Sinhala school with a Sinhala Buddhist principal then the local and foreign media with the help of the NGOs that are maintained by the west would have had a month of multiculturalism with seminars, workshop, protests, films etc., for the benefit of the Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinists.
Not to be outdone by the politicians and the Judges in the House of Lords, the Church of England has had its share of anti multiculturalism in recent weeks. The following extract is also from "The Telegraph" the British newspaper "traditionally" identified with the Conservatives and the right in general in politics. I quote at length to give the readers an opinion of what is happening in good old England, where minority rights are supposed to be treasured, and multiculturalism is supposed to be practised unlike in Sri Lanka where Sinhala Buddhist Chauvinists led by Buddhist "monks" are supposed to play havoc. "The Church of England has launched an astonishing attack on the Government's drive to turn Britain into a multi-faith society In a wide-ranging condemnation of policy, it says that the attempt to make minority "faith" communities more integrated has backfired, leaving society "more separated than ever before". The criticisms are made in a confidential Church document, leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, that challenges the "widespread description" of Britain as a multi-faith society and even calls for the term "multi-faith" to be reconsidered.
The Church says 'privileged attention' has been given to the Islamic faith. It claims that divisions between communities have been deepened by the Government's "schizophrenic" approach to tackling multiculturalism. While trying to encourage interfaith relations, it has actually given "privileged attention" to the Islamic faith and Muslim communities. Written by Guy Wilkinson, the interfaith adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, the paper says that the Church of England has been sidelined. Instead, "preferential" treatment has been afforded to the Muslim community despite the fact that it makes up only three per cent of the population. Britain remains overwhelmingly a Christian country at heart and moves to label it as a multi-faith society suggest a hidden agenda, it says.
The leaked report follows a week of tension in which a Muslim policeman was excused armed guard duty at the Israeli embassy in London, Asian and white youths clashed in Windsor, and Jack Straw suggested that Muslim women should not wear the full veil across the face in public. The report lists a number of moves made by the Government since the London bombings in July last year to win favour with Muslim communities. These include "using public funds" to fly Muslim scholars to Britain, shelving legislation on forced marriage and encouraging financial arrangements to comply with Islamic requirements. These efforts have undermined its interfaith agenda and produced no "noticeable positive impact on community cohesion", the Church document says. "Indeed, one might argue that disaffection and separation is now greater than ever, with Muslim communities withdrawing further into a sense of victimhood, and other faith communities seriously concerned that the Government has given signals that appear to encourage the notion of a privileged relationship with sections of the Muslim community."
Insiders at the House of Bishops meeting last week, where the briefing paper was "well received", say it marks a radical departure from the Church's usually diplomatic relations with the Government on the multi-faith issue. One bishop said it was the first time the Church had launched such a defence of the country's Christian heritage. The paper, entitled Cohesion and Integration - A briefing note for the House [of Bishops], argues that the effort invested in trying to integrate Muslims since the London bombings has had no positive impact on community relations and that Ruth Kelly's controversial Commission on Cohesion and Integration seems doomed to fail. It can also be revealed that the archbishop met Miss Kelly, the Communities Secretary, last month to discuss how the Church of England could contribute. Bishops are dismayed that no Christian denomination is represented on the commission (emphasis added). The bishops' document questions how effective it will be and says the focus for solving the problem should not be placed on one particular minority but "with the 'majority' communities and in the core culture" (emphasis added). "In relation to faith, there has been a divided, almost schizophrenic approach," the briefing paper says. The Government was misguided in "scapegoating the Muslim community as the source of the problem at the same time as believing that they should be uniquely responsible for solutions". It goes on: "The contribution of the Church of England in particular and of Christianity in general to the underlying culture remains very substantial (emphasis added)."
The 2001 census showed that 72 per cent of Britons describe themselves as Christian. "It could certainly be argued that there is an agenda behind a claim that a five per cent adherence to 'other faiths' makes for a multi-faith society," says the document. Mr Wilkinson, who was an archdeacon in Bradford during the riots of 2001, says the Government is wrong to see faith as the cause of a divided society."
Imagine the Mahanayake Theros expressing similar sentiments. All hell would have broken lose with the high commissioners, special envoys, the NGO pundits, Church representatives preaching from their respective altars, but in good old England the hell and the heaven are kept in tact, and we know who goes to hell and who goes to meet St. Peter. Mr. Wilkinson is accusing a government that is prepared to deprive the Muslims their right to wear the "traditional dress", as one driving to turn Britain into a "multi - faith" country. Interestingly the Church of England is telling the government that solving problems should be placed with the majority communities and core culture. In Sri Lanka the so called ethnic problem is being solved without any representation from the majority country and without listening to the views of that community. To talk of core culture in Sri Lanka would be sacrilege, and if anybody attempts to do so he would be sacrificed as the first lamb at the altar of the NGOs. Interestingly Sri Lanka had a Muslim high commissioner in London until recently, can anybody name the last Muslim high commissioner to represent UK in Colombo?
The above is not a phenomenon peculiar to Britain and it could be experienced in countries from Australia to USA, through France. Multiculturalism is only a catch word that is dictated to the non western countries by the western Political Scientists and Sociologists on behalf of their clergymen, politicians etc., and remains to be analysed from our point of view.
Professor Nalin de Silva
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