The Netherlands Gets A Backbone

Well, my father can stop rolling in his grave:

The Netherlands to Abandon Multiculturalism

"The Dutch government says it will abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society within the Netherlands.

A new integration bill (covering letter and 15-page action plan), which Dutch Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner presented to parliament on June 16, reads: "The government shares the social dissatisfaction over the multicultural society model and plans to shift priority to the values of the Dutch people. [Ed: Sound familiar?] In the new integration system, the values of the Dutch society play a central role. With this change, the government steps away from the model of a multicultural society.""

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"The integration will not be tailored to different groups."

The new integration policy will place more demands on immigrants. For example, immigrants will be required to learn the Dutch language, and the government will take a tougher approach to immigrants to ignore Dutch values or disobey Dutch law.

The government will also stop offering special subsidies for Muslim immigrants because, according to Donner, "it is not the government's job to integrate immigrants." The government will introduce new legislation that outlaws forced marriages and will also impose tougher measures against Muslim immigrants who lower their chances of employment by the way they dress. More specifically, the government will impose a ban on face-covering Islamic burqas as of January 1, 2013.

[Ed: Yes, very familiar. In fact, it goes even further than Jason Kenney's initiative.]

"If necessary, the government will introduce extra measures to allow the removal of residence permits from immigrants who fail their integration course."

And thank you, Geert Wilders. I hope my letter to the Dutch Embassy in Ottawa played a small part. Europe, you have a civilization worth saving. Well done!!

Now, if we can just get Ottawa to put a bit more teeth into our own recently announced decision about the veil. I like the idea of booting them out, if they refuse to adapt.

HT, Abe Froman at SDA.