West proves not all cultures are equal
Illustration: Eric Lobbecke
Long after the West has defeated Islamic State, the jihadist threat will remain.
For the past 40 years, Western immigration policy has been based on multicultural ideology.
Its consequence is clear: Islamism has become a Western condition. Successive governments have diluted Western values to the point where they are no longer taught in schools. The result is a population unschooled in the genius of our civilisation whose youth cannot understand why it is worth defending.
Multicultural ideology must give way to a renaissance of Western civilisation in which Australian exceptionalism is celebrated and Islamism is sent packing.
Multiculturalism is not merely the acceptance of diverse cultures, or open society. It is the a priori belief that cultural diversity has a net positive effect on the West, coupled with a double standard that excuses lslamic and communist states from embracing it.
Thus, Western nations must open their borders while Islamic and communist states remain closed. The West must accept the myth that all cultures are equal while Islamic and communist states celebrate their unique contribution to world history. Under multicultural ideology, the greatest civilisation of the world, Western civilisation, is held in contempt while theocratic throwbacks and communist barbarism are extolled.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al- Hussein, regularly frames the West as xenophobic and racist. In a recent speech, he decried xenophobia and religious hatred. But he did not address the Chinese government’s persecution of Christians, or the governing Islamist regime in Gaza, Hamas, for hatred of Jews. Rather, he took aim at the West, saying: “My recent missions to Western Europe and North America have included discussions of increasingly worrying levels of incitement to racial or religious hatred and violence, whether against migrants or racial and religious groups. Discrimination, and the potential for mob violence, is being stoked by political leaders for their personal benefit.”
Western governments should explain why they continue to send taxpayers’ money to the UN when it has become an organisation expressly devoted to defending the interests of Islamist and communist regimes against the free world.
The growing hatred of Western culture goes unremarked by politicians whose populism is firmly rooted in political correctness. No major political party has calculated the cost of multicultural ideology to Western society. Instead, they extol it as a net benefit without tendering empirical evidence. When politicians claim truth without substantive supporting evidence, ideology is at play. It may be that multiculturalism is a net benefit to the West. If so, why has the evidence been withheld? Without it, minor parties can contend that multiculturalism is a net negative for the West and appear credible.
In the absence of empirical proof that multicultural ideology is beneficial, politicians such as Pauline Hanson, Donald Trump, Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen seek to curb Muslim immigration and deport those who disrespect Western values. Hanson plans to push for a burka ban in the new year. The policy has international precedent as Dutch politicians voted recently to ban the burka in some public places. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also has proposed a burka ban, but it is reasonable to question her motives ahead of the 2017 election. In a state election held in September, Merkel’s party polled below nationalist and anti-Islam party Alternative for Germany. She has driven porous border policy and repeatedly castigated European heads of state who defend their sovereign borders, such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban. Her call for a burka ban is thus viewed by some as blatant political opportunism.
Malcolm Turnbull addressed the issue indirectly by citing poor border controls in Europe as the cause of the problem. However, as with so many issues concerning political Islam in Australia, the question of a burka ban is indivisible from the defence of Western values.
One such value is the universal application of law that requires the equal treatment of all citizens. If Australians are expected to not wear a balaclava in banks, courts or Parliament House, why are some citizens permitted to cover their faces in a burka or niqab? Double standards and preferential treatment of state-anointed minorities is fuelling widespread, and rational, resentment in the West.
Consider retelling the events of the past week to an Anzac just returned from war. We would tell him that a Muslim married to a terrorist recruiter refused to stand in court because she wanted to be judged by Allah. Muslims in Sydney and Melbourne were charged with preparing a terrorist act against Australians. In France, several people were arrested for plotting jihadist attacks. News broke that 1750 foot soldiers of a genocidal Islamic army had entered Europe without resistance from Western armies. As in Australia, many jihadists entered as refugees and lived on taxpayer-funded welfare under a program called multiculturalism.
In the same week, a German politician called Angela Merkel, who ushered Islamists into the West by enforcing open borders, was lauded by a respected magazine called The Economist as “the last leader of stature to defend the West’s values”. Yet men from Islamic countries who allegedly entered Germany under Merkel’s open-border policy were arrested for sexual assault, including the rape and murder of a teenage girl. Asylum-seekers and refugees had assaulted women and children across Europe. Less than a year before, on New Year’s Eve, Merkel’s asylum-seekers had attacked women and girls en masse.
We would tell the Anzac that Britain attempted to acknowledge the negative impact of its undiscriminating approach to immigration. A review recommended a core school curriculum to promote “British laws, history and values” and a proposal that immigrants sign an oath of allegiance to British values. But secularism, private property and Christianity were absent from the principle list and as such, it wasn’t very British at all.
There were few Anzacs left to see what the West has become. I suppose that’s a kind of mercy. We have dishonoured the millions of soldiers who laid down their lives in the 20th century fighting for our freedom and the future of Western civilisation. We should hang our heads in shame for letting the Anzac legacy come to this. We are the descendants of the world’s most enlightened civilisation. It is our turn to fight for its future.
Well said Jennifer. The Multiculturalism myth needs to be challenged. Australia's success with massive immigration was not based on multiculturalism but integration. This has added to a very rich Australian culture. Multiculturalism was never agreed to by Australians, it was slipped in under the radar by the political class and unfortunately now supported by both sides of politics.
What a powerful message - thank you Jennifer
I will be storing this masterful message for one very long time
Very well-written article. Two points:
1) "Western nations must open their borders while Islamic and communist states remain closed."
Only the Anglophone countries (USA, UK, Australia, Canada, NZ) and Europe are pressured to accept multicultural ideology and all it entails. All those societies are Western, and Christian-based.
Thus, for example, Japan is not expected to become multicultural or criticised for lack of diversity.
2) Central to multicultural ideology is billions of dollars in funding for a sector of largely unaccountable bureaucrats, not-for-profits and service providers of questionable quality, whose golden gravy train depends on migrants being kept separate from the broader society.
If they integrate and people get on well, the multicultural industry loses its power over the migrants and its ability to use them as commodities for funding, and to drive wedges in the society to enhance its own power.
If the media would only look closely, the real problems are coming from this source, not from the migrants per se. The migrants are being told how racist the society is so they need protectors by way of the multicultural lobby. They're told to assert their culture as a defence against that racism etc etc.
Many migrants have come for a new life, to escape the old tyrannies only to find they are pigeon-holed by the multicultural sector here and told they are not Australian.
As the son of an Anzac and a Vietnam Veteran, I could not agree more with what you have written, well said.
Powerful, powerful, powerful......so well written. A brilliant article.
The link to the ANZAC nailed it.
Thanks Jennifer, we need such inspiration to fight this good fight. We also need to coin a sumarising phrase that says Make The West Great Again - suggestions please.
You are being too kind to Turnbull by saying "Malcolm Turnbull addressed the issue indirectly by citing poor border controls in Europe as the cause of the problem".
Malcolm Turnbull stood beside Ms Merkel when the Muslim flood happened in Europe and stated that Australia would take more 'refugees'. The headline in The Australian was "Turnbull slaps down Abbott". This was the same Turnbull when after the Lidnt Cafe terrorist event, stood before the media saying that we needed to be 'more inclusive'.
When the Dutch invaded colonised Southern Africa and introduced A partied maybe they were onto something .
Such is the official acceptance now of cultures that are not just different, but contrary to ours, that last year the LNP accepted a head-scarf wearing Muslim as a candidate for the State election. Fortunately the candidate was not successful. Bob of Brisbane.
I doubt the Australian people have the stomach to do what is required to take our country back from both the Marxist ideologues and the cultural invaders.
Politicians are starting to worry about gun control as people realize they must take steps to be self reliant - and there is no will from State and Federal governments to act to protect our own citizens (Lindt Cafe) for fear of inflaming the "cultural sensitivities" of an increasingly more powerful voting block. It is only a matter of time before the anger is turned towards those who have betrayed us in order to stay in power. Those who have abandoned their principles to remain in power. Promising what they can not deliver and lying to conceal their guilt.
It was less than 6 years after Sarajevo hosted the '84 winter Olympics that the Bosnian Civil war began in 1991. From being considered a civil and an advanced country capable of hosting a huge multinational event to descending into the depths of hell and depravity did not take long. The veneer of civility can be stripped away remarkably quickly.
Great nations were forged by people willing to fight for their principles and beliefs. The US fought a war to gain its independence and both the US and France endured bloody civil wars. The wisdom of US founding fathers rings more true each day.
I'm hoping the US post-election climate of shining a overdue spotlight on the folly of the left is extended to the UN.
Read Dame Louise Curtis's report released last week to Westminster to get a straight answer to all this. Twenty years overdue and to the point! Stop the political correctness, integrate, speak English, live and swear by UK standards and only then....,No more Islamic ghettos and multiple marriages. She found that almost all Bangladesh and Pakistani men married foreign brides. We wonder why.
The beliefs of Islam will never be compatible with a western democracy. Firstly, they believe that the Koran is the direct voice of god. Not an interpretation by mohammed, but god's actual words. Secondly, there are clear instructions about lawmaking, government, etc in the Koran.
The only Muslims who will be happy in this country are those that realise that Islamic beliefs (and all in fact all religious beliefs) are either BS, or worth ignoring in order to live in a safe and prosperous country.
Our leaders have unnecessarily introduced Multiculturalism to deliberately destroy our Australian ethos. And they did it for the same reason that George Soros supported and financed the mass migration of mostly Muslims into European countries - to break down their borders and cultures as a step towards a One World Government. Bob of Brisbane.
Islam has five pillars, Our society has four core values, The Rule of Law, Equality under the Law, Freedom of the Individual and Mateship. Individuals seeking naturalization are asked to sign a declaration that they understand and respect these values, in a slightly different form, and that they will obey the laws of Australia, pledging loyalty to Australia and its people. Surely our education system should present these values to our and their children ensuring that all schools include them in their curricula.
Excellent piece.. its time to stop the rot. Multiculturalism and political correctness is the weapon of choice by those who hate the West and Australia in particular. Its time we silent majority " worms must turn".
This article blithely uses the terms "The West", "Western culture" and "Western Civilisation" (seen as 'the world's most enlightened') without any attempt at definition or provision of detail. If we're using a term that might embrace the Enlightenment, modern democracy, tolerance and scientific advance, but may also cover colonialism, militarism, nationalism and environmental vandalism, perhaps a slightly more nuanced approach is required.
“Western governments should explain why they continue to send taxpayers’ money to the UN when it has become an organisation expressly devoted to defending the interests of Islamist and communist regimes against the free world.”
At least that is indirect funding of those who would and do harm us. But what can be said about politicians who refuse to act on public funding of terrorists in our midst.
Islamic Polygamy, Hamdi Alqudsi, invalid pension. Spousal payments, his 2 wives (and presumably money for children and stepchildren) Carnita Matthews and Moutia Elzahed.
And what does Hamdi do with Australian taxpayer's money.
“Much of the trial focused on a series of intercepted calls and text messages seized by police which detailed conversations between Alqudsi and fighters in Syria, including organising accommodation for the men, money exchanges and the price of AK47s, handguns, swords, knives and grenades.”
And our government, our upstanding politicians. Senator Cormann, and no doubt instructed by our genius of a PM. It's cheaper than welfare paid to the mothers themselves.
So what is Centrelink doing about this horrible mob. Business as usual.
I was horrified that a government department chose to take it upon itself to decide on welfare policy for this nation and pay spousal payments for polygamous or whatever Islamic, (not Australian), marriages the likes of this man have adopted. And when caught out and the PM came after them, they clearly want haha he has been sacked we can go on trashing our values.
And then there is Malcolm. How long before you are under the bus Mathias. Funding terrorism because it is too hard to confront this invasive destructive culture. Shame Shame Shame.
Well said! It's about time our politicians stood up for our values, our culture and our heritage! For too long the 'mad leftie PC brigade' have done nothing but denigrate and vilify western values and culture, it has to stop!
And believe me the fight is coming. I would not want to be a left-lending politician in Europe, the US or Australia. The quite majority have had enough. Just watch seat after seat fall to the 'deplorables'.
Thanks for telling it as it is without political correctness. Britain has shown it can elect a leader capable of starting the reverse of the decline of the West and the US has now followed with their President-elect. However, as of now, Australia has yet to produce such a leader although Abbott, unhindered by the bed-wetters in his Party, would probably be the one.
Wonderful article! Thank you. The multiculti brigade will abhor this piece for its logical common sense. If the cultural cringers of the West can't defend their own magnificent legacy, let's turn the heat on them to justify why Islamist culture is evidently superior to them. Where are their symphonies, their dance and art, medical science breakthroughs, mathematical and chemical formulas, space exploration, industrial and technology inventions that have dragged billions out of poverty, their information superhighway?
No, all they can claim fame to is warfare and copying. The myth about algebra coming from the Middle East is just that. Why are they still living substandard violent lives when their civilisation is thousands of years old? Why are their women treated as mere chatels? And it goes on. It's time we started to ask these questions. And it's time, post truth, that we received credible answers.
Once again Jennifer you have hit the nail on the head. Regretfully, our PC driven politicians will ignore such advice and instead talk about "the forgotten people" in economic terms.
In Aust we have Centrelink paying spouse support payments for multiple "wives" in some Muslim families and here was me thinking polygamy was illegal in this country. Silly me! It doesn't take much to change the regulations to require Centrelink to assess all payments in terms of a family setting instead of individual payments.
In Aust we are told to have such tolerance that it undermines our Western values and allows non Western cultures to demand more and more, calling any opposition racist and discriminatory. Worse, we have a large cohort of influential people in positions of power making sure that particular state exists via supporting the intolerance demonstrated by new comers with a different value set.
In the end, we can blame our education system and curriculum developers for this. Because they have succumbed to the drive for multiculturalism and PC behaviour. Worse, the concept of tolerance is shrouded with the idea that it is quite OK for the West be tolerant even to its detriment. And at the same time must accept the intolerance of others!
Utterly stupid thinking!
Erudite observations.
Take a look at your child's high school curricula in context with communism, for example.
It is described variously as a political and social system calibrated to place the control of otherwise corrupted open markets and exploited/misused resources into the hands of 'the people'.
I'm paraphrasing, but the summary is accurate.
Communism's downfall is attributed to the imperial aggression and military expenditure/expansionism of the USA.
Not its own systemic and structural failures. Not its depravations, brutality and depravities. Nothing. Yet another noble cause, destroyed by western society's inherent evilness.
What our kids are being taught about communism is little short of propaganda. In fact...it is propaganda because it is simply untruthful. Western Self Loathing forms the foundation of almost every subject with the exception of mathematics.
It's all publicly available if you're curious enough to take a look. As a counter-cultural partisan force, the undergraduate groupthink of the ABC pales in comparison to the blatant indoctrination our kids are receiving through the education system.
Great article Jennifer this should be compulsory reading for all students ( who can read) . Why does this thinking not get more space in news and papers .
Net immigration would be less worrisome if there were not an incessant PC-driven encouragement for multiculturalism and some sensible policies that encouraged integration. Perhaps immigration would be less of a banner issue for the press and we could all get on with getting along as Australians first - immigrants a very distant second.
Courageous article. Many have thought this for a long time but to have it articulated so eloquently is priceless. Great work, Ms Oriel.
White people lived in temperate and colder climates where you can't survive by picking dates or coconuts. They had all winter to invent ingenious methods to maximise the summer for the next winter. This northern European inventiveness continues and people now say things like "work ethic", but esentially they had superior methods of contolling the natural world and self organising. Our forefathers understood the value of it, and the value of their culture, but now we have a generation, or even two, of complacency with this wealth of heritage, coupled with third world culture that has seen the internet and "wants what you've got", but does not understand that it takes all our law and society to be this way. Acceptance of Islam into the west could well stop us going to space. This is not a culture that I want contributing.
Jennifer, Thank you, thank you Thank you for stating truth, without paying the normal media constraints, that we all know so well. Politically correct clap trap. For some years now via my Granddaughters senior education, where there was amazement when Dorothea MacKellar's "My country" wasn't given star status and was offered as part of multiple choice Every time part of the choices in just about anything was to do with Global warming or politically correct ways to be dealing, ending with bullying. as a precursor to opinions. To the point where one of my Girls said," We can't have strong opinions about anything,or we offend other cultures' ..
Wonderful article Jennifer. You are standing up and saying what needs to be said. It's well past the time when the ordinary Joe needs to wake up.
I am surprised the CFMEU isn't more vocal about this issue. Although, I guess if they live on the dole then the union can't really accuse them of being foreign workers stealing Australian jobs
And telling the truth is then held up by the Left as evidence that white Australians are racist haters who are alienating Muslims and increasing the chances of them going 'Allahu Akbar' and slaughtering innocent people. A Leftist reading this will want to console Muslims and offer protection. The Left believe white wickedness must be eradicated through open borders to strengthen global citizenry utopia. Left ideology includes ignoring evidence about cultural patterns because apparently not 'stereotyping' is more important than truth or the public interest or protecting real values. The Left side with the 'other' in every dispute, as if ritual surrender to the darkest forces in the world is a virtue.
Antipostmodernism Stephen
Jennifer's main point here is we now encourage minorities to stay separate from the mainstream. How can they respect us when we are so eager to tell them to stay separate? The real enemy is the soft totalitarian left who control schools and universities. Combined with the vicious hard totalitarians from Islam who sense weakness, an unholy alliance has formed that will wreak our country if this goes on unchecked.
There has never been a better time for a conservative leader to break with political correctness and state the obvious. He or she would take the country by storm and thrash the ALP/Greens out of sight at any future election.
Multicultural advocates can't explain the benefits of a diversity of cultures in a cohesive society because there is no acceptable and reasonable explanation, and the evidence belies it.
We might just as well throw away all of the advances of civilisation and all that makes us what we are, and that is something which many around the world aspire to share, before we tell them they can have it all without changing one jot.
The totally illogical aspect of this is that the predominate western style culture cannot be relied on as a driver of future policy when it is not respected, and to deny the majority of us our cultural view of things as being not progressive and stuck in the past, albeit only the 1950s, when tolerating and recommending the continuation of culture and lifestyles from 14 centuries ago, really doesn't make one bit of sense, as is pointed out wonderfully by the Anzac analogy.
Jennifer, you are wonderful.
Things you say here openly, have been whispered all around the nation for years, but few had guts to say it as loudly as you did today.
Things you say here openly, have been whispered all around the nation for years, but few had guts to say it as loudly as you did today.
Congratulation, Jennifer Oriel.
