“We no longer accept that people don’t learn our language, we require that they send their daughters to school, and we demand they stop bringing in young brides from the desert and locking them up in third-floor apartments.”

One positive aspect of the Danish Cartoon Controversy has recently appeared in the form of some reasoned action by various European governments. It seems that instead of rolling over and playing dead in the face of outraged individuals protesting the cartoons of Mohammed, some leaders are finding their spines and supporting their national interests, culture, and pride once again. If this allows Europe to reassert itself as a force for positive results in the world, then we all have to thank that small Danish paper, the Jyllands Posten for the results.

Apparently, in the wake of the violent reactions to the cartoons, the Netherlands have shut down their borders, drastically slowed immigration and enacted laws specifically designed to target the cultural divide brought to the fore by the protests. The city of Rotterdam has enacted a new law mandating that Dutch be spoken in public. The national parliament has banned women from wearing the burqa and Judge Jan Wolter Wabeke of The Hague has stated that “We no longer accept that people don’t learn our language, we require that they send their daughters to school, and we demand they stop bringing in young brides from the desert and locking them up in third-floor apartments.” All this is happening in a nation renowned for its liberal social tradition just a short time ago.

But it is not just the Dutch. Other influential individuals are rallying behind the declaration that freedom of speech and the press is not open for negotiation, and leaders in France and Germany are re-evaluating their manner of dealing with immigrants from the Middle East. They appear to have decided that newcomers are going to have to play by local rules, rather than importing their own and imposing them on their new place of residence. There appears to be have been a significant change of European attitude, expressed in Denmark by Minister of Cultural Affairs Brian Mikkelsen in the following: “We have gone to war against the multicultural ideology that says that everything is equally valid.”

This is a highly significant declaration. Carroll Andrew Morse of TCS Daily recently indicated that the major problem facing western liberals is that they don’t really believe that “[Western] culture — or anyone’s culture — matters much.” In fact, culture does matter, for culture is a major building block on which the values of society are built, and without those values, there can be no judgment of success or failure. If the only criterion in effect is whether the society follows a code of law and / or belief, without any examination of what that code accomplishes, then there can be no improvement, no progress, and the result is a dead end.

This new European attitude was also expressed by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s statement that: “The French way of integration no longer works.” His position led to the passage of a new immigration law, based closely on new Dutch regulations, designed to test the ability of immigrants to assimilate. Among its requirements is the stipulation that the immigrant will learn French. Immigrants who fail to respect Western values may be deported, and, apparently, this is to be applied quite strictly. According to Sarkozy, “In the case of a woman kept hostage in her home without learning French, the whole family will be obliged to leave.” This in reference to a practice among some of Europe’s more radical Muslims of importing teenage brides whom they prevent from participating in European society or enjoying the same rights as mainstream European women. Of course, how the French will handle the immigrants already there is another issue.

The situation Europe now finds itself in results from the fact that liberal tolerance did not work. When immigrants were not required to assimilate culturally, it opened the door to social dysfunction. It created a subculture, allowed double standards to exist, and encouraged lawlessness by members of the immigrant culture because they were not held to answer for their behavior in the same manner as other people. They became disrespectful of the culture of the nation where they were living, and eventually intolerant of it as well. It is that intolerance, which has finally forced European hands. The new rules are the only intelligent response, and they should have been in place decades ago. Toleration does not create understanding unless it is exists with a healthy portion of mutual respect. Otherwise, only contempt will result.

So, perhaps some Europeans have now decided that culture does matter, and that it is worth fighting to retain their traditions; that expecting immigrants to join into that culture is reasonable and rational. When in Rome, they must do as Romans do. In the past, immigrants from the Europe coming to American did exactly the same. They became Americans. For Europe to require the same is reasonable and proper. If people don’t want to become Dutch, German, French, or for that matter, American, then they should live somewhere else; it is that simple.

It is hoped that Americans can learn from this experience. We don’t expect many of our immigrants to assimilate sufficiently as yet. When we expect them to do so, then it will assist America in becoming a stronger and better nation, rather than one allowing itself to be divided on cultural lines. It isn’t too late to make the corrections now,or are we going to let Europe make us look stupid?