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The death of the West? I don’t think so. More like the suicide of the West. It’s worth repeating. Christianity (and the very idea of unlimited tolerance) contains within it the seeds of its own destruction.
 
Kevin Donnelly lets rip……
“….Proven by the latest bizarre ­example, where Muslim students do not have to shake hands with females, it’s clear that education’s politically correct embrace of ­diversity and difference — the new code for multiculturalism — reigns supreme.
 
So much for the Christian ­admonition “When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. And so much for the fact that Australian society only prospers and grows when there is a shared understanding of what constitutes civility and good manners.
 
And Muslim students not shaking hands is not an isolated example. In 2015, a Victorian primary school allowed Muslim students to absent themselves during the singing of the national ­anthem. At the University of Melbourne, Islamic groups have been given permission to segregate meetings involving males and ­females.
 
So much for the claim made on the ABC’s Q&A by the Islamic ­activist Yassim Abdel-Magied that her religion grants women the same rights and freedoms as men and that Islam does not unfairly discriminate because of one’s sexuality.
 
Whereas in times past schools would teach all students about the values, beliefs and institutions that bind us as a nation and the debt owed to Western culture, the focus is now firmly on what ­divides us instead of what we share in common.
 
Even worse, instead of their ­arguments being properly ­analysed and evaluated, anyone questioning multicultural groupthink is quickly condemned as Islamophobic, racist and intolerant.
 
As noted by the British journalist and author Patrick West: “Tolerance in the name of relativism has become its own intolerance. We are commended to respect all differences and anyone who dis­agrees shall be shouted down, ­silenced or slandered as a racist. Everyone must be tolerant. And that’s an order.”
 
The NSW Statement of Equity Principles endorsed by the recently established Education Standards Council also illustrates the way education has been captured by the cultural Left’s long march through the institutions. The school syllabus, associated materials and assessment guidelines all focus on “difference and diversity in the Australian community” where all must be respected and treated equally regardless of “cultural and linguistic heritage, gender, age, beliefs, socio-economic status, location, sexuality or disability”.
 
Such a relativistic stance inexorably leads to the situation where it is impossible to condemn or prohibit practices such as child brides, female circumcision and treating women as inferior to men.
 
Multiculturalism ignores the reality that some cultural practices and beliefs are un-Australian and that unless we want to follow the example of Britain and Europe, where the policy has led to ethnic ghettos, violence and social fragmentation, education must teach how to discriminate between what constitutes acceptable and un­acceptable beliefs and ­values.
 
There is also the irony that the very values that cultural relativists champion, such as tolerance and respect for others, are culturally specific. The liberties and freedoms we take for granted are embedded in Western culture, our Judeo-Christian heritage, and ­historical movements like the ­Enlightenment.
 
It is the Bible and not the Koran that states: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
 
It is also because of Western moral philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill that we have a separation between church and state and that we don’t live in a theocracy like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman where sharia law prevails and basic rights are denied. So, the untouchables must be tolerant