Dear John,

Multiculturalism should offer people a choice. They should be able to decide for themselves how much they wish to sequester themselves within their ethnic enclaves. Where they can learn to make that choice is in the public school system. Among other things education should give children the tools for critical thinking, knowledge about the humanities and science, the skills either to make a living or go on to further education and knowledge about the wider society. While parents should have a choice in deciding whether they want their children to go to public or non-public schools I do not believe the state should subsidise that choice. There should be no funding for non-public schools.

You also wrote: “In Australia children have rights that are not always consistent with those of the home - for example arranged marriages: arranged marriages are O.K. but the state will not force a boy or a girl to enter into such an arranged marriage if they do not wish to do so.”

Here again the public schools are key. The state should replace the school chaplains with trained counsellors so students of all religious backgrounds can feel free to go to the counsellors. That would be one way in which a teenager pressured into an arranged marriage can make the fact known. Otherwise it might require great resources and intrusive investigation to make sure such things are not happening.

I believe Christian, Jewish and Muslim schools can all be harmful. I believe one of their implicit purposes is to prevent their students from marrying somebody of a different religion. Such mixing has strains but can have desirable consequences. Christian schools can be harmful if they teach such nonsense as Creationism. Jewish schools can be harmful if they teach devotion to Israel over devotion to Australia. Muslim schools can be harmful if they teach submission of women.

Social attitudes should be respected, and we should not expect somebody with those attitudes to abandon them to any greater extent than necessary. However, we should give their children a choice.

I love how the turkish parents took their daughters out of scholl cos they thought they would be sexually molested by Aussie lads, yet the very same parents will ship those same young girls off back to some tukish vllage for a prearranged marriage with an much older man!!

Rock on germany, somebody talking sense at last

Interesting article,and a refreshing change from the usual ill -defined versions of 'multiculturalism' that have been previously presented on this site by wannabe social engineers.

I agree with the author's last paragraph. It's a promising approach to solving culural conflicts, however it doesn't quite go far enough. The best approach is to ignore 'multiculturalism' entirely.

Yes of course it goes without saying that "MultiCulturalism" has not just failed but failed utterly.

Germany... see it in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvpnDFIo9xA&has_verified=1

You need to have an account to access this vid.

We have already seen exactly this in the lead up to and aftermath of the historic anti racist, pro Australia Cronulla Protests of 2005

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0IaAe6p7vU

There is overwhelming evidence that mixing disparate cultures does not work or lead to peace.

MAIN FACTOR the primary problem with "MC" is that it is never understood by the migrant cultures as the Government states the policy. They see it as an opportunity to advance their own culture at the expense of the host culture..rather than simply 'practicing as long as it does not infringe Australian law' their own.

Then there are those who simply want to change the law so their cultural ethno/religio/centrism can have free reign and be unchallenged.

Has not worked... is not working..and will never work.

Of COURSE multiculturalism was doomed to failure.

How obvious is it that the majority of people in a given country with a given culture would object to that culture being progressively diluted as peoples with very different practices and beliefs became a prominent part of their society?

A small number of people of diverse cultures living amongst us would not be a problem. They'd be welcome, for as long as they observed the core values of their new country, and for as long as they did not become so large in number as to have political or social clout to seriously change, dilute or corrupt the practices and beliefs of their host country...or to dominate enclave areas where 'traditional' Australians feel most unwelcome.

It really is as simple as that, isn't it?

And you can bet your bottom dollar that as all manner of stresses increase in our Australian society, that mutliculturalism will become a progressively bigger problem, with less tolerance being shown between all manner of groups.

G'donya Angela!

The author has defined multiculturalism in such a way that no reasonable person could object to it. After all, most of us don’t care whether you call the inside of your house France, Timbuktu or Fairyland. You are at liberty to speak French, English, Serbo-Croat or Klingon.

You can listen to whatever music you like, eat whatever food you like and practice whatever religion you like.

For the most part you are free to cover your face or not as you like.

My friends good naturedly accept the fact that I still support the South African cricket team against Australia.

But the author’s definition does not properly describe multiculturalism as it is practiced today.

Here is an example of multiculturalism in action in Australia.

>>LAST week the Perth District Court imposed a Muslim cultural practice on a group of non-Muslim men.

Judge Shauna Deane told the men - all journalists - to leave her court so a Muslim woman could feel free to give evidence in a fraud trial without wearing her niqab.

Deane had earlier ruled that Tasneem, whose last name has been suppressed, had to remove her face-covering veil so the jury could read her face as well as hear her words.

But the male journalists were ejected, despite applications from the Seven, Nine and Ten networks to let them stay.>>

See: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/lowering-veil-on-mens-rights/story-e6frfhqf-1225940876966