Multiculturalism Doubts

            Paris has been the scene of riots and demonstrations ignited by the announcement of a big fuel tax increase. French president Emmanuel Macron was quick to rescind the tax increase, but the riots have spread to many French cities and show no sign of abating. Why is that? Pundits opine that demonstrators are really protesting the financial burdens imposed on a struggling populace by the president’s climate-change agenda. But it may be more than that. Is it possible that we are seeing the beginning of a pushback against Western Europe’s love affair with multiculturalism? And why should that concern us here in the United States?

            There are Muslim-controlled “No-Go” zones in Paris where infidels are not welcome and even the police fear to tread. They are a direct result of France’s generous immigration policy toward Muslims. And France is not unique in that respect. Germany, Sweden, Great Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands have all opened their doors to Middle Eastern migrants, only to realize that they are losing a power struggle with Muslim immigrants as a result. These immigrants for the most part have no intention of assimilating culturally or politically in their host societies. Worse, the most radical Islamists among them intend to conquer and rule.

            The Western European elites who sing the praises of multiculturalism have been very late in recognizing what is happening. But it’s the people struggling to make ends meet that have felt the effects of misguided policies. They have not only seen rising rents, high unemployment, and crushing taxes and regulations, they also wonder why they should bear the burden of sympathetic social policies toward immigrants they increasingly view as invaders.

            The flames on the Champs-Elysées have now spread to Belgium and the Netherlands. Who knows where else in the coming weeks and months? President Trump has been undisguised in his attempt to prevent Muslims from coming to this country, just as he is now insisting on a wall to prevent drug dealers, criminals, and gangs from overwhelming our southern border. The president may be ham-handed in executing his policies, but are his instincts correct? We may be insulated from European travails by an ocean. But how different is the left’s advocacy of open borders so different from European elites’ willful blindness?