Multiculturalism equals Civilisation, Merkel

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement, claiming the failure of multiculturalism in Germany has ignited concerns from the world over. Crux of the argument being - with seven million foreign residents living in the country and around three-thousand mosques standing tall, how can Merkel's claims be so overtly self-righteous. Addressing fears of 'German-ness' being lost amid new mosques, headscarves in classrooms and Turkish ghettos in cities like Berlin, she added: 'We feel bound to the Christian image of humanity - that is what defines us. Those who do not accept this are in the wrong place here.'

Constitutionally, Mrs. Merkel has been counteractive to her own state-laws. To highlight clauses 1 and 3 of Article-3 of the German Basic Rights, respectively - (1) All persons are equal before the law. (3) No one may be prejudiced or favored because of his sex, his parentage, his race, his language, his homeland and origin, his faith or his religious or political opinions. Forfeiture of the German Basic Rights cause cumbersome consequences. Hence Merkel could be tried at the federal constitutional court if some bright mind plans to be a pain and reports of her legislative thwart. But since her authority is strong and opponents are representatives of the minority factions, it is unlikely to take place, if not an impossibility.

Most organized political communities throughout recorded history have been multi-ethnic, a testament to the ubiquity of both conquest and long distance trade in human affairs. Thus, as far as Merkel's statement in concerned - Germany cannot and must not have the benefit of parasitic existence. If the country is not to have shanty Turkish alleys, then the German president is also not ethically permitted to establish social and economic ties with Turkey (as it has been reportedly been doing). The world thrives on symbiosis and mutualism. Creating a complete isolation to this process has its set of downbeats too.

The history of ignoring national minorities in the New World is inextricably tied with European beliefs about the inferiority of the indigenous people who occupied the land before the European settlement. Until recently, they were viewed as wards or subject races, lacking political development to qualify as nations, incapable of self government and needing the guardianship of their 'white superiors'. To site Germany's history in view of Angela Merkel's remark, Nazi Germany justified its invasion of Poland and Czechoslovakia on the grounds that these countries were violating the treaty rights of ethnic Germans on their soil. Therefore, the possibility of an annexationist background to the controversial comment is very much valid.

Such decent-based approaches to national membership as that of Mrs. Merkel's, has obvious racist overtones, and is manifestly unjust. What distinguishes 'civic' nations from the 'ethnic' ones is not the absence of any cultural component to national identity, but rather the fact that anyone can integrate into the common culture, regardless of race and colour. Immigration and incorporation of national minorities are the two most common sources of cultural diversity in modern states. And if modernity implies to 'civilization', then factors like 'polyethnicity' and 'multiculturalism' should have no separate niche.

Peaceful coexistence is a joint venture. While the rule book of a nation should speak verses of tolerance, the multicultural minorities synchronously should reciprocate with the endeavour to learn the language and history of the residential society and participate in its social and political institutions.

In all liberal democracies, one of the major mechanisms for accommodating cultural differences has been the protection of civil and political rights of individuals. And I sincerely hope that Merkel's statement calls for rigidity in the penalty for every law being truncated, not the contrary.