Growing Intolerance

The Dutch are the epitome of tolerance. At least, they used to be.

Dutch borders have been virtually shut. New immigration is down to a trickle. The great cosmopolitan port city of Rotterdam just published a code of conduct requiring Dutch be spoken in public. Parliament recently legislated a countrywide ban on wearing the burqa in public. And listen to a prominent Dutch establishment figure describe the new Dutch Way with immigrants. "We demand a new social contract," says Jan Wolter Wabeke, High Court Judge in The Hague. "We no longer accept that people don't learn our language, we require that they send their daughters to school, and we demand they stop bringing in young brides from the desert and locking them up in third-floor apartments...Welcome to the end of tolerance, or at least to the nonnegotiable limits to what Europeans will tolerate. Whether it's the Netherlands' rediscovery of Dutch communal values, or the universal affirmations of free speech (to mock religion, or anything else), Europe is everywhere on the defensive."

Maybe "tolerance" isn't the right word. Maybe "foolishness" would be a better word. Now the Europeans realize the ways of their foolishness and wising up. Perhaps American leaders will one day follow.

Regardless of what multiculturalists may say, it takes more than "tolerance" to change people from foreigners into countrymen and countrywomen. What is wrong with a country demanding a certain level "here is how we do things" from new citizens? Nothing. In fact, failure to do so will ruin the national identity. And that is exactly what we see in Europe - and even the United States.

The Bible shares an interesting thought: "My people perish for lack of a vision." I believe this applies here - there is no vision of what a country should look like. Multiculturalism has taken out the vision of national identity.

There is no "Muslim problem" in The Netherlands - or in Europe, for that matter. There is a problem with failure to promote a strong national identity, and a failure in bringing new people into this identity. And a terrible failure by allowing new citizens to reject this identity - for decades.

I'll say it again: it takes more than tolerance to take foreigners and forge them into countrymen and countrywomen.



Tags: Europe , Cartoon Controversy