the wrongs of multi-culturalism

an interesting piece here by Kenan Malik on how the misguided policies of councils such as Bradford, particularly from the 1980s on, created sectarianism in their cities where there had been none.  Fearing Asian riots, they accepted uncritically the dictums of community elders, who said that it was Western values which were turning their young men into street fighters, drug takers and so on.  Islam would save them from this.  And these powerful men would then become even more powerful at the heads of the mosque committees, set up with council funding.  And the communities' votes would be parcelled up for the councillors who had provided the funding. So everyone was happy.  I saw precisely this happen in Reading from the 1980s on.  It culminated, if that is the word, in white politicians like Martin Salter marching for Salman Rushdie to be killed, and burning his book.  The immigrants from Pakistan in the 1950s did not ask for halal meat in schools, or for their daughters to be educated separately from boys.  They may have been believing Muslims, but they did not seek municipally funded piety.  But now we see the result of this misguidedness - in postal vote fraud as well as in the election of a poltroon like Galloway in Bradford West, after the retirement of the decent Marsha Singh, a secular, non-turban-wearing Sikh.  Politically wrong, all wrong.