The Death of Multiculturalism?

In his 1998 book, ‘Europe Without Identity’, the sociologist Bassam Tibi proposed a new definition in terms of what we commonly call western values. He called this new definition “Leitkultur” – a core culture. He put forth the idea that the values needed for a core culture are those of modernity: meaning democracy, secularism, human rights, civil society and the Enlightenment (where cultural life is centered on reason).

Tibi advocated a cultural pluralism based on a value consensus, rather than monoculturalism. However, he also opposed a value-blind multiculturalism, and the development of 'parallel societies' where immigrant minorities live and work, isolated from the western society around them.

Photo Courtesy: Andrez Barabasz CC-BY-SA-2.5 wikimedia

Unfortunately, politicians appropriated Tibi’s proposal for their own purposes and used it as a platform to denounce multiculturalism and demanded the enforced assimilation of immigrants. Forcing immigrants to assimilate at any price would in any case deny the reality that most European cities today are multicultural societies. Some reactions in the media likened the Leitkultur proposals to the enforced ‘Germanisation’ in territories occupied by Nazi Germany, where the population was usually forbidden to speak local languages. Isn’t that typical. A sociologist proposes a way in which different cultures can coexist and it is appropriated by those who choose to have dominion over others.

In the last few years, certain politicians have proposed to move the discussion to a European level, to establish a European core identity. In an article in Die Welt, Norbert Lammert wrote: "If Europe wishes to preserve the multiplicity of nation identities, and yet establish a collective identity, it must develop a political core ideal, a set of foundational values and convictions. Such a European core ideal must necessarily be based on the common cultural roots of Europe, on its shared history, and on shared religious tradition".

In early 2006, cartoons published in a Danish newspaper featuring the prophet Muhammed led to violent protests in Islamic countries. Lammert now restated his demand for a re-opening of the Leitkultur debate. The cartoon protests, he said, show that every society must reach a consensus on its "foundational values and a minimal standard of value orientation”. Fundamental rights, such as freedom of the press and freedom of expression must be fully supported by a social consensus. Given the background of a multicultural society in Germany, according to Lammert, rights must be linked to certain cultural values. The idea of multiculturalism, was "perhaps originally well-intentioned", but had reached the end of its useful life.

Multiculturalism aims at recognizing, celebrating and maintaining the different cultures or cultural identities within that society to promote social cohesion. In this context, multiculturalism advocates a society that extends equitable status to distinct cultural and religious groups, with no one culture predominating. Multiculturalism could not be allowed to create a society where all values were equal - and therefore in practice had no values. In conflicts of values, society had to decide which values were valid and which were not.

The backlash to multiculturalism has been growing since the late 1990s. Not surprisingly as, in many people’s experience and opinion, multiculturalism creates friction within society. Is it not an invention of an enlightened elite who deny the benefits of democratic rights to the rest of humanity by chaining people to their roots? This allows fundamentalism of religion free rein to propagate abuses such as the mistreatment of women and homosexuals, and in some countries slavery. Multiculturalism allows freedom of religion to exceed the realms of personal religious experience and to seek moral and political influence over secular values.

Photo Courtesy: earthshots.org

Where you have a system that denies even a small part of its population basic human rights you do not have a culture worth propagating or indeed including within the ‘core culture’. Some cultures have served their time and must decline and expire. This does not mean that we cannot save certain aspects of that culture that may serve us in the new, it just means that we should not be held prisoner by our past simply because it is that – our past.

Perhaps it’s the time for us to define a global ‘Leitkultur’.