Multiculturalism
asserts that all value systems are equally valid and that we should treat them
as if they were equally worthy of adoption.
Multiculturalism
has its roots in the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. From the valid concept that one human being is not inherently better than another grew the
significantly different idea that one culture is just as good as any other.
That, in effect, is multiculturalism.
But
let’s be clear about an important distinction: Accepting all humans as “human”
and worthy of being treated fairly is not the same as accepting that all social
customs and traditions are equally good for people.
For
example, according to The New York Times,1 hundreds of women are murdered by their
own relatives in Pakistan and other Middle Eastern countries each year to
defend their family honor. These so-called “honor killings” are shocking when
they occur across the ocean, as in August 2008 when five women were buried
alive because they wanted to choose their own husbands. Other women have been
raped, killed, and mutilated in a variety of gruesome ways by their families
for such “crimes” as wearing Western-style clothing or meeting someone on
Facebook.
But
it couldn’t happen here, could it? Well, it already has. According to the Boston
Globe,2the following honor killings occurred in 2008:
In
Jonesboro, Georgia, Chaudhry Rashid, a Pakistani immigrant, allegedly strangled
his 25-year-old daughter with a bungee cord because she wanted to end her
arranged marriage. Rashid explained to police that “he is Muslim and that
extramarital affairs and divorce are against his religion [and] that’s why he
killed her.”
In
New York state, an Afghani immigrant named Waheed Allah Mohammad tried to kill
his sister by stabbing her several times. Mohammad was
reportedly “infuriated because his younger sister was going to clubs, wearing
immodest clothing, and planning to leave her family for a new life in New York
City” and because she was a “bad Muslim girl.”
In
Irving, Texas, police issued an arrest warrant for Egyptian immigrant Yaser
Abdel Said after his teen-aged daughters were...
