Can the Utopian dream of a one big 'melting pot' ever really materialise?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....rld-child-brides.html

Is it any wonder that peoples from these countries when they come to our shores, must find it very hard to settle down and change their culture so as to fit in with our laws and our culture?

[youngmafbog]

No, not while 15Century Religion and culture is still practiced.

Better stand back though AOG, I'm sure you will be deluged by the many hand wringing apologists on this site who will pretty much deny this even happens as it ruins their self-righteous ideological view points.

[Old_Geezer]

Cultures change slowly. Not overnight. I suspect there will be just the one eventually but not for many generations to come. It's not as if any one culture is above reproach. Just that some seem to have further to go than others.

[FredPuli43]

How many cultural practices which are contrary to accepted western practice continue in the United States, a country built on immigration from many countries and which continues to take in immigrants of many cultures? The US prides itself on being 'one big melting pot'.

The immigrants learn to adjust and stop cultural practices which don't fit in. If the US is any guide, that happens very quickly.

[emmie]

they don't seem to, at least not where we live.

[Gromit]

No.
Most people when they go to another country know they have to abide by the rules of that country. There is no evidence that the practice of child brides is widely undertaken in the UK, so the OP question is totally irrelevent.

[emmie]

really

http://www.onelawfora...urts-it-must-end-now/

[Brenden]

Sharia courts in the UK should be made illegal, I have said quite a few times on AB that we are not privvy to what goes on , which makes them above the law of the land - they profess they only deal with domestic matters, it seems like an insidious way of introducing sharia law into this country.

[emmie]

been here a long while, and not likely to go any day soon.

[Gromit]

Em10,

Did you really mean to post that from the Iranian Communist?

[Gromit]

Brenda,

Do you think Jewish Courts in the UK should be made illegal also? Apparently hey have been around for over 100 years.

[emmie]

why should they not comment?

We are writing to you today to ask for your urgent and immediate support.

As you may have seen in the papers recently, there is growing evidence that young children – some as young at 5 years old – are being “married” to older men in Sharia courts across Britain. This is increasingly being sanctioned by the Islamists who run Britain’s network of Sharia courts, and there is evidence that this practice is growing.

Recent Investigations

[emmie]

we need women like this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryam_Namazie

[ladybirder]

It is absolutely heartbreaking em, wherever it happens. Appalling for the poor girl and for her daughters and on it goes...

[Gromit]

Em10,

From your link.

// Moreover, she is.... the Central Committee member of the Worker-communist Party of Iran. //

I suppose foreign commies are OK, but not British ones.

[emmie]

that is just the problem, there has been so much head turning away that more young girls and women are suffering.

[emmie]

i have sympathy for any woman, no matter the country or party if she is an advocate for girls and women's rights. I have long held the opinion that men have had things their own way for far too long, time to let the ladies get on with their own lives without undue interference.

[Kromovaracun]

I don't think a cosmopolitan society is a utopian dream - on the contrary, it has a long history all over the world and people from different backgrounds often seem able to live together not as any utopian ideal, but just as a perfectly practical reaction to their circumstances.

Before the C19, large multi-ethnic states were the norm, not the exception. It's only since the very modern idea of nationalism came to be popular that anyone has really expected a state to be just made of one homogenous group of people.

But that doesn't mean these actions can't be condemned or criticised. An important feature of cosmopolitan societies is that they share common laws and cultural rites. Additionally - they should take ideas from everywhere, and the idea of gender equality is one with some pretty impressive results that these marriages aren't compatible with. Our society is perfectly entitled to stand firm by that principle even if others don't.

[FredPuli43]

What's all this nonsense about Sharia law? If it requires someone to do something against the law of this country, that person will be dealt with by the courts under the law of this country. If a Sharia court is used to arbitrate in civil disputes over, say debts, and the parties agree to that arbitration and abide by it, that's not materially different from other agreed arbitration. The civil courts are still open to the parties. If it's a matter of deciding on something purely religious then , the parties agreeing, there's no harm in it, subject to the effect of the judgment not breaking any of our laws. These are the kind of matters resolved by Jewish courts, which have been going a long time. Nobody claims that Jewish law is taking over the country.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....dont-tell-anyone.html

/// More than 1,000 of the 8,000 forced marriages of Britons each year are believed to involve girls of 15 or under, with one case last year allegedly involving a girl of five. ///

/// The clerics were approached by man posing as the father of a 12-year-old who wanted her to marry to prevent her being tempted into a decadent Western lifestyle. ///