Multiculturalism and Democracy

A debate rages in Europe today on the role of multicultural policies in stimulating religiously motivated extremism, Islamism in particular. In this discussion, multiculturalism is generally understood as government support for the cultural and religious institutions of minority communities. The groups at its center are immigrants or their first- and second-generation descendants. Sustaining the language and cultures of the Scots and the Welsh in Britain or the Catalans and the Basques in Spain is not at issue, even when tensions between these indigenous groups and the majority population of their countries seriously threaten national cohesion. The issue is immigrants from Muslim countries, although other immigrant groups are frequently drawn into the controversy.