All over the world, and the stranger the place,
The heart is the same, it’s just a different face.

Could someone explain to me the meaning of the word ‘multiculturalism’? We could go on debating whether we should accept or deny the tag, but what would difference would it make? It’s a useless word.

Both immigrants (such as me) and people born here (such as my kids) are never going to change certain things, such as their lineage, their parents, their place of birth, or their mother tongue. Australia will continue to accept migrants from English and non English speaking countries. It will never have a language other than English as its official language, unlike some other ‘multicultural’ countries such as Canada or South Africa. The police and the courts will continue to uphold the Rule of Law and aim to suppress violence and other criminal actions from whosoever, regardless of the colour of their eyes or hair.

My main concern with ‘multiculturalism’ (whatever this plastic word might mean) is that in artificially supporting some particular cultural differences over others, another ‘culture’ (possibly mine or yours) will in turn be disadvantaged.

Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in his sight.

No matter how much BOAZ tries to sugar coat it, Christianity has just a brutal a history as Islam and is more thoroughly soaked in the blood of innocents.

Constantine killed more Christians than were killed in all the years prior to the formal adoption of Christianity as the official religion and those that followed we no better.

Those specious religious arguments against multiculturalism come more from a political stance rather than a moral one.

"The Fatherland will reign over a 1000 yr Riech"
"The world and all that is in it belongs to Allah and his Apostle"

He forgot to add -

"Therefore go and make disciples of ALL nations. . ."

I suppose that there may be some moderate Christians as well, but if it's good enough to generalise for one belief, why not for all?

Despite the old Monarchist dinosaurs in our society who deplore the development of tolerance between cultures,there have been examples of Community actions that have transcended the era of the White Australia Policy as this 1961 Darwin experience illustrated <http://www.roughreds.com/rrtwo/manning.html> and to confirm that it was no one off abberation, the City of Darwin was one of the first to elect a Chinese Lord Mayor In Harry Chan and Greek and Italian builders did most of the early building construction.

The final hurdle we must conquer is the acceptance of Indigenous Australians entitled to share the wealth whilst understanding their unique culture and historical disadvantages in having been thrust into hostile Colonial expansion that confiscated their homelands and proceeded with a policy of genocide well into the 20th century.

"As a policy of community harmony it has worked well over the past two decades, replacing the failed policy of assimilation."

Multiculturalism has been an abject failure and will one day be looked back in derision as a failed utopian ideology which inflicted untold misery upon the host populations of Western nations. It is by very nature divisive, no matter how loudly the multi-culti crowd proclaim that it is in fact inclusive. To be truly inclusive, a host nation would assimilate immigrants into the mainstream culture and not segregate them into different ethnic and cultural communities.

Of course, the counter-argument is that all this multicultural "diversity" will "enrich" us by exposing us to alternative cultures and ways of thinking. But we can get that by travelling overseas. The real danger of "diversity" is that eventually it makes the nation itself incoherent. In truth, there is not a single example in history where cultural or ethnic diversity has been a "strength" for a nation.

"If addressed, we can look forward to a new era of social cohesion in Australia for 2008 and beyond."

Multiculturalism has created a schism within Australia where numerous parallel ethnic and cultural groups are managing an uneasy coexistence. With no end in sight to mass non-Western immigration, it's difficult to see how our increasingly 'diverse' (read ethnically and culturally divided) population will be able to remain a single cohesive national community.

"In truth, there is not a single example in history where cultural or ethnic diversity has been a "strength" for a nation."

Ever been to the United States of America?

Interesting proposition Botheration:
How has ethnic diversity strengthen the USA?