The Wages of Multiculturalism in the Democratic West
Delectable Lie: A Liberal Repudiation of Multiculturalism
By Salim Mansur
Mantua Books, 2011
186pp., $22.00
Reviewed by Janet Levy
In 2008, Vietnam war veteran Jesse Nieto — a Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base civilian employee and father of one of 16 sailors who died in the 2000 Islamist attack on the USS Cole — was ordered to remove from his vehicle decals that a Marine’s Muslim spouse thought were offensive. The decals referred to Islamic terrorist responsibility for the USS Cole tragedy and the celebrations it prompted in the Muslim world.
Although he removed some of the decals, Nieto’s vehicle was subsequently banned from his place of work, as well as all other federal installations, denying him the right to visit his son’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery. The Thomas More Law Center filed a federal lawsuit on Nieto’s behalf challenging the military’s ban on Nieto’s right to freedom of speech. Fortunately, the judge in the case ruled for the father and astutely observed that stating “Islam is Peace” and “Islam is Love” could be equally perceived as offensive and inflammatory for Nieto, as was the anti-Islamic terrorism message to those complaining about his decals. In this case, the decision affirmed that multiculturalism and political correctness do not justify violating the Constitution.
That abyss of multiculturalism is examined in Delectable Lie, the new book by political science professor and columnist Salim Mansur. He argues that the West — the very cradle of the Enlightenment from whose soil had sprung the notion of natural law, the idea of inherent or God-given freedoms, and the concept of self-determination — has fallen into the multicultural trap of placing equality above the cherished ideal of freedom. Ironically, he notes that the most open societies, those most respectful of individual rights, have been the most pressured to conform to the ideals of political correctness.
Despite the verdict in the Nieto case, multiculturalism and political correctness usually win the day. Examples abound of multicultural pandering in the West, especially when it comes to the accommodation and appeasement of Muslims who require protection from the slightest offenses. Cartoons depicting Mohammed, criticism of Islam’s treatment of women, and disapprobation of Koranic doctrine can send Muslims into murderous rages resulting in mass human carnage and destruction.
Dutch parliamentary leader Geert Wilders has endured death threats and criminal prosecution for publicly stating views against the “Islamification of Europe.” Violent protests, fatwas, and assassinations followed the release of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, a novel that referenced alleged Koranic verses allowing intercessory prayers to Pagan Meccan goddesses. Theo van Gogh’s film criticizing the treatment of women in Islam resulted in his death at the hand of a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim.
The foundational principle of multiculturalism — that all cultures are equally valuable and deserving of equal treatment and respect – is flawed, Mansur maintains. He argues that all cultures are not equal in terms of their achievements and their ability to contribute to the advancement and betterment of mankind. Clearly, enlightened Western societies have championed the values of justice, freedom, equality, and tolerance. They operate under the rule of law and its equal application, possess superior records on human rights, and have a tradition of service or charity to those in need.
In direct contrast, Islamic sharia law imposes restrictions on the rights of women and non-Muslims, engages in cruel punishments and inhumane practices, and indoctrinates their youth to wage jihad against enemies. Western culture, with its fostering of critical thought and practice of the Golden Rule, is far superior and more advanced than Islam, which enforces a medieval, totalitarian, supremacist, and misogynistic doctrine, Mansur argues.
In recounting the emancipation of the individual that led to the end of tribalism and to the rise of democracy, Mansur credits individualism, combined with altruism, for supplanting tribal rule. As man was liberated from the collective hold of the tribe, individual rights were placed above collective interests, he observes.
However, multiculturalism has now greatly changed free societies and resulted in the abridgment of freedom, the weakening of the nation state, and the promotion of the victimhood of selected populations, he asserts. The demand to view all cultures as equal, he says, has enforced prohibitions against critical analysis and judgment and resulted in the creation of invasive, equality-enforcing bureaucracies operating under arbitrary criteria to enforce that equality, regardless of the consequences.
One of the stupider ideas which has been nearly universally embraced by our society is the notion that religious beliefs are somehow immune from criticism. This has opened the door for a certain fascist political system to advance its backwards agenda without serious opposition.
Terry , Maybe it would be more accurate to say” any religious beliefs other than Christianity”?
I have written extensively about the horrors of multiculturalism (which is not the same as pluralism), but here is one example about undoing this reactionary practice. http://clarespark.com/2011/02/11/undoing-multiculturalism/. MC’s roots are in German Romanticism and it is everywhere we look as social policy. The aim is to micromanage racial or ethnic conflict. The effect is an anti-intellectual society that negates popular sovereignty and critical thought. It will kill us all.
The idea that religions are exempt from criticism is a politically correct idea. So first let’s find out what is a religion. Judaism, Christianity, Islam was a religion until 1948. In 1948 it became a CULT. The Quran of Medina was used before the Revision in 1948. In it was a requirement that the Torah/Bible must be read with the Quran. After 1948 the MEKKAH quran was used solely.The MEKKAH did not require the reading of the Torah/Bible, but stated that the quran was the only book.
GODS NAME
ISRAEL —— ELOHIM —— G-D — BEGINNING TO PRESENT
ISLAM ——– ILAH —— GOD —– ISHMAEL TO MOHUMMED
MOHOMMEDISTS —– AL ILAH —- THE GOD – ALLAH– ( MOON GOD)—— FROM MOHUMMED TO PRESENT
JUDEAO/CHRISTIAN —– ELOHIM — G-D —-BEGINNING TO PRESENT, ALSO GOD THE FATHER, GOD ALMIGHTY, GOD THE CREATOR.
QURAN —— UP TO 1948 —– MEDINA
QURAN —– FROM 1948 TO PRESENT —– MAKKAH
Any faith that is against GOD, is not a Religion, I repeat Not, a Religion. It is a faith.
As for the criticism aspect, what others have come under more scrutiny and criticism than the Judes/Christian religions? All other faith’s freak out when someone asks a question that they are uncomfortable with, so don’t put Religion in the same box as faith.
“Western culture, with its fostering of critical thought and practice of the Golden Rule, is far superior and more advanced than Islam, which enforces a medieval, totalitarian, supremacist, and misogynistic doctrine, Mansur argues.”
This is absolutely true, and NO ONE in the MSM (or other liberal institutions) has the nerve to address these substantive points. In particular, the point pertaining to women’s rights — or, rather, women’s “natural” rights — or do modern feminists believe that women deserve no such thing? — perhaps they believe, now, that women’s proper rights are derived from men? Who bloody knows anymore? God help us! Seriously. We cannot even support right and just causes anymore. Ideology trumps all. Hundreds of millions of Muslim women are treated as slaves in their daily lives, but modern feminists would (apparently) MUCH rather discuss the latest rumor/smear relating Sarah Palin’s children than address the grotesque injustice of the burka and purdah. The pass we have come to in America and the West is disgusting beyond words. I just hope there are enough Americans out there to stand and fight against this amoral, relativist BS. I will NEVER accept this liberal, self-hating, worldview.
While the rest of the world was literally pissing on women, in Arabia women could divorce and receive inheritance and were seen as persons–and not property.
The separation of church and state did not originate with the American founding fathers but with Islamic philosophers.
We received much of the world’s wisdom from the Greeks to China to Africa by way of the Muslims.
Give credit where credit is due, we are not merely a Judeo-Christian nation, but a Judeo-Christian-Islamic nation, look how you write your numbers for chrissakes! It’s not Roman or Jewish or Chinese, it’s Arabic numerals! Precisely because much of our math comes from the Muslims.
“While the rest of the world was literally pissing on women, in Arabia women could divorce and receive inheritance and were seen as persons–and not property.”
Literally? Okay. If you say so.
So Arab women are among the freest on earth, right? They speak for themselves, right? They move and act and speak as they wish to over in jolly old “Arabia,” right?
“The separation of church and state did not originate with the American founding fathers but with Islamic philosophers.”
Actually the founders did not call for such a “separation” — but that is a complex issue that requires critical thinking. But as for the open-mindedness of Islamic philosophers (you mean like the late Osama bin Laden?), give us a freaking break! There is no religious freedom in the Islamic world, outside of rare exceptions. In Islam, to convert to another religion from the one you were haplessly born into, is a beheading offense.
“We received much of the world’s wisdom from the Greeks to China to Africa by way of the Muslims.”
Like what? Algebra? No, actually that was from the pre-Muslim Persians. Anything else you can think of?
“Give credit where credit is due, we are not merely a Judeo-Christian nation, but a Judeo-Christian-Islamic nation, look how you write your numbers for chrissakes! It’s not Roman or Jewish or Chinese, it’s Arabic numerals! Precisely because much of our math comes from the Muslims.”
Oh, please, spare me. Take it to your local NEA-run kindergarten. Arabic numerals. Yeah, that’s what makes “America” America. The numbers one through ten (someone call Sesame Street, they may not be aware of this). Gosh, thank you, Islam. We appreciate it so much. Now would you please call off your dogs? Thank you.
First point, maybe not now, and today’s political realities which the USA and England were part of (read history), but the fact that the Muslims came up with women in divorce and inheritance laws before Europeans ever did, says a lot about women’s rights in Islam.
Thomas Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Paine, etc. etc. were for separation of church and state, this is why our American constitution is different from other European nations–American exceptionalism. That idea originated with Islamic philosophers like Averroes, etc.
Read again, Chemistry, Astrology and Algebra had its rudiments in other civilizations but it was during the reign of Islam that much of the world’s knowledge became galvanized, perfected and transferred to Europeans making the age of Enlightenment possible.
Can you imagine doing math with Roman numerals? Like it or not Western Math and Science flourished because of the Mathematics which came via Islamic civilization, which came from other civilization–and perfected and transferred to Europe.
I for one am thankful for history.
Credit be given to those infidels disguised as early Muslims who managed to pass to the West the mathematical knowledge of the Hindus. We use Hindu numerals; the arabs use a different one.
it’s called “Hindu-Arabic” numerals for a reason, there chief. google it and see for yourself. compare and contrast.
“First point, maybe not now, and today’s political realities which the USA and England were part of (read history), but the fact that the Muslims came up with women in divorce and inheritance laws before Europeans ever did, says a lot about women’s rights in Islam.”
Uh, no. Islam developed its ho-whuppin’ society long before America came on the scene to kill Barbary pirates. You can blame Islam’s gender apartheid/enslavement on England, France, Spain, whatever. But the fact remains that in Islam today, women are routinely mutilated, beaten, raped, stoned, forced to bury themselves in heavy fabric, and denied education and personal opportunities that are open ONLY to Muslim men. Is there one single woman in the Arab/Muslim Middle East who knows how to fly a plane? Ha! No way. Bottom line: women are treated as slaves in Islam today, just as they have always been. The prophet Mohammed owned a massive harem of female slaves (including young girls) replete with castrated black male slaves to attend to them. So spare us the fashionable blame-Western-civilization meme.
“Thomas Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Paine, etc. etc. were for separation of church and state, this is why our American constitution is different from other European nations–American exceptionalism.”
Wrong. The founders opposed the notion of a state-run “national” church. They demanded freedom of religion, meaning, the state could not compel anyone to worship in any fashion that they did not want for themselves or their families. And that is exactly what we have today and what we have always had. But in modern times, leftists and proselytizing atheists have tried to change “freedom OF religion” in the public square into “freedom FROM religion” in the public square– which was never the founders intent.
“That idea originated with Islamic philosophers like Averroes, etc.”
Yeah. Et cetera. Meanwhile in “modern” Islamic nations we have the doctrine of “separation of head from body” for citizens who dare to choose any other religion than Islam.
“Read again, Chemistry, Astrology and Algebra had its rudiments in other civilizations but it was during the reign of Islam that much of the world’s knowledge became galvanized, perfected and transferred to Europeans making the age of Enlightenment possible.”
Right, so it was Muslims who came up with the periodic table and differential equations, right? And this is why the Islamic world today is on the cutting edge of scientific & technological advancement, right? Yes, we owe SO very much to Mohammedean culture — where to begin?
“Can you imagine doing math with Roman numerals? Like it or not Western Math and Science flourished because of the Mathematics which came via Islamic civilization, which came from other civilization–and perfected and transferred to Europe.”
Actually you are talking about the “Hindu Numeral System” which was later passed on to the Arabs (which is why it later become commonly referred to as the “Arabic Numeral System”) and from them on to the Europeans in the 10th century. And what all this has to do with the ongoing Islamic practices of purdah, honor killing & forced clitoridectomy is what?
“I for one am thankful for history.”
Right. Of the revisionist variety.
Roman women were able to divorce, inherit and own property before there was Christianity and centuries before Mohammed. Rome is (was) in Europe, I believe. Christianity (St. Paul) teaches the equality of women and women held prominent positions in the early Church (as they did in Arabia during the time of the Prophet). But Global Cooling brought about the fall of Rome and a European dark age. Just as the Crusades and the Mongol invasion triggered a dark age in Arabia. Curiously, the things the European barbarians learned from the Arabs helped trigger Europe’s emergence from the darkness.
Are the things we Americans find objectionable characteristics of Islam or are they elements of Arab culture justified by a particular interpretation of the Koran? Kind of like how Christians used the Bible to justify the burning of witches.
As for the equality of cultures: that view is an element of a particular culture. The assertion that “all cultures are equally valid” is a nonsensical as the assertion that “there are no absolute truths”. Both are self-refuting.
BS
Sounds more like horse poop to me. Islam is a primitive barbaric militaristic superstition. That doesn’t make all Muslims bad people. But Winston Churchill perceived that the problem with the Middle East is Islam. Churchill referred to Islam as Mohammedism. The people that commit acts of violence in the name of Islam are modeling their behavior on Mohammed.
The is a Muslim problem in the world. Arabic numerals doesn’t helps us here.
Calculus was invented by europeans.
You’re full of taqiyya.
And no, this isn’t a dirty word. Though what it refers to is a truly filthy thing.
When will we do away from the permanent enshrined legalized permanent minority with special benefits and status, that is, American Indian tribes?
The problem with Multiculturalism and Diversity promotion is only highlighted by Islam and Muslims. The same crap promotes Satanic Worship in our prison system as a protected religious right. It promotes gang culture as respectable. It promotes sub-cultures which are centered around behaviors that lead to failure personal and societal as merely a lifestyle choice. It promotes identity politics….but only non European Christian Heterosexual Male identity politics. These cultures and groups are to pushed back to make room for the promotion of everyone elses interests, well being, and culture.
Its cultural suicided, built upon post colonial, post segregation, post holocaust guilt. Eventually those groups are not going to be prevented from joining overt identity politics. Sew the wind, reap the whirlwind.
Not cultural suicide. Although many Leftist followers are Americans, the vanguard is composed of people who are not directly related to Americans (i.e., NW Europeans). American society is not their society; they hate America and Americans. They are different peoples, with their own societies and cultures. They attack America with the view of weakening us so that their values can be imposed on us. Humans are social animals — not solitary animals (Libertarians) or herd animals (Leftism). Societies are dominance hierarchies. There are no ties — one group dominates all other groups. So, logic tells us, just as with treason, to undercut ‘your side’ is objectively to support the enemy.
This long period of nearly five thousand years saw the rise and fall of many a civilization, each leaving behind it a heritage of literature, art, philosophy, and religion. But what was the net achievement in the field of reckoning, the earliest art practiced by man? An inflexible numeration so crude as to make progress well nigh impossible, and a calculating device so limited in scope that even elementary calculations called for the services of an expert.
Man used these devices for thousands of years without contributing a single important idea to the system. Even when compared with the slow growth of ideas during the dark ages, the history of reckoning presents a peculiar picture of desolate stagnation. When viewed in this light, the achievements of the unknown Muslim, who some time in the first centuries of our era discovered the principle of position, assumes the importance of a world event.
Hi Folks
I have been concerned by the current administration’s policies towards the Middle East. Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann on Friday expressed regret over the fall of US ally Hosni Mubarak “while President Obama sat on his hands.” This sitting on his hands, as I have mentioned several times, goes back to the Iranian uprising in 2009.
Earlier this year Obama attempted to put Israel on the US State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terror; however, pro-Hamas Turkey is to chair an Obama backed counter-terrorism body. This panel is not to include Israel and is being done quietly, in the shadows of the UN General Assembly this week. Hillary Clinton calls this “smart power approach to counterterrorism,” and described the founding group as “traditional allies, emerging powers and Muslim-majority countries.” I call it another attempt to subjugate the power and strength of America to its enemies.
There is also that little and far too under-reported “want” from the administration to put in a direct phone line to Tehran.
http://msmignoresit.blogspot.com/2011/09/obama-gets-cosier-with-iran.html
Having experience many cultures and worked with their members as equals, I know multiculturalism is born of a lack of experience. Some people have no experience with anyone not completely like themselves.
Certainly all cultures are equally valid, but not very meaningful: rather some are more competent and do better by their members. Animals go extinct when the ecosystem changes, why can’t we except the same for culture and peoples?
If that were not so, why do so many leave their homelands and why is their no traffic the other way? Clearly they have passed a judgment on their homes and found them very wanting. Unfortunately their wonder unique cultures do not prepare them for honest effort or benefit for the host other than proving employment for social service types, and political activists.
Shakira said she wished the US would open its borders. Fine and anyone with any experience with Colombia would believe that it would be best for Colombians to clean up the mess their country has become rather than bring their problems here.
Kismet believes like all multiculturalists that saying something makes it so. Islam has made no contribution to philosophy since Ghazali won through. Arab learning before then came from people chased off by Justinian.
Every time I read comments, I’m either enlightened by a few astute comments, or hopelessly brought down by irrelevant babble and sniping. Grow up! Bring something of substance to the table not mere opinion. http://www.slideshare.net/ghael0625/origin-of-numbers, here is the simplest tutorial which takes seconds to look up and seconds to comprehend, something we do as humans.
The point of the article is how today multiculturalism is eroding freedom. How a lack of “melting pot” mentality is creating divided societies, not united ones. You can keep all your homy cultural beliefs and mannerism, no problem as long as you’re not killing anyone, but once in America, for instance, become American. Last I looked America still has more ethnicities and races under her legal immigration policies, and freedom offered to all, than any other country. But, to keep it, we must keep our values, Western Democratic values, with multiple origins, but appeal to all.
Exactly right military mom 2! Dr. Kismet can’t see the forrest for the trees.
Good comments and a good article. I wonder if the author approves of Rep. King’s House investigation of Islamofascism, mosques, sharia, jihadism, and sleeper cells in America? I sure do. Having visited Europe and see the horrid influence of Islamofascism, I wonder how the author would find a way for peaceful Muslims to completely deny sharia,jihadism and still contribute to free democratic republics? If they do not, I do not want them in my nation.
I find that when someone tells me all cultures should be equally respected that replying with, “So you believe that the culture of Nazi Germany should be respected,” tends to induce confusion and self-examination.
The simple and true point of this article is this.In the US every culture can’t be everything. The main plus of our democracy is that the best of every culture can unite under one flag!
Come on, PJM, if you’re going to review posts, REVIEW them! This clown is an obvious spammer with some sort of mental disorder.
Are you a Darwinist, Dr. Lips?
The problem is that this screed is entirely off topic for the thread. Nor is it sufficiently funny, clever, and BRIEF that people wouldn’t much mind it being off topic.
psssst, we’re not suppose to ever mention the Discovery Institute (it’s suppose to be a secret, “agnostic”, group behind the scenes, funding like bin Laden was funding freedom fighters, soldiers of god).