Prof Ted Cantle said that the idea of multiculturalism in
Britain is now “well past its sell-by date” and is often doing more harm than
good.
He accused the Government of fuelling separation in
communities rather than bringing people together by allowing small groups to
claim “special status” – and with it funding – amounting to a form of
state-sponsored segregation.
Councils and police are also giving undue legitimacy to
“self-appointed leaders” in some areas by inviting them to endless meetings and
consulting them on their views and allowing them to become “gatekeepers to
their communities”, he warned.
Meanwhile grants from government funding pots, councils and
charities have allowed thousands of separate community groups to grow up
representing their own interests and reinforcing separation, he said.
He accused David Cameron of failing to live up to a pledge
to tackle “state multiculturalism”.
 |
Professor Ted Cantle said that the idea of multiculturalism
in Britain is often doing more harm than good.
|
But in a highly critical paper to be presented to a
conference organised by the National Secular Society next week, he calls for a
halt to all state funding for projects and services aimed at or run by
religious groups or individual ethnic communities.
He said that should apply equally to a Bangladeshi women’s
group in one city or a church-run soup kitchen in another.
In his address to the "Secularism 2012"
conference, he will argue that the idea of multiculturalism – in which
different communities are encouraged to retain their separate identities – grew
up out of well-intentioned policies in the 1950s and 60s but is no longer
sustainable as Britain has become increasingly diverse.
“Part of the problem with this approach was that we began to
see each cultural identity with very clear boundaries,” he writes.
“Each was given a special status, often called to meetings
to discuss their points of view, generally through a series of self-appointed
and government supported leaders who became the gatekeepers of their
communities.”
“Communities also received the benefit of targeted funding
and action programmes to assist their (often separate) development.
“We have – as a result of this state intervention -hardened
and homogenised group identities and created the notion that they are fixed and
ascribed, rather than chosen and developmental.
“Ironically, many of these identities now appear more
immutable, than the now discredited racial boundaries that they have come to
replace.”
Figures produced to Parliament show that grants to
faith-based groups from two Government funding pots alone in 2010 amounted to
£13 million.
But the figure does not include support from councils and
other overnment bosies or funding for education.
(Source)
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