Blair: "Immigrants duty to integrate"

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The Prime Minister has stressed the "duty and need" of immigrants to integrate into society.

Tony Blair used a Downing Street lecture to set out a series of measures designed to help create a society of "tolerance, solidarity and equality".

"Multicultural Britain was never supposed to be a celebration of division but of diversity, to allow people to live harmoniously despite their differences," he said.

"We need to reassert the duty and need to integrate."

Mr Blair set out a series of measures to help ease tensions between races and religions.

He reiterated his support for an English language test to ensure those wishing to settle in the UK can communicate.

And he said faith schools would be twinned with schools of other faiths to promote understanding.

Mr Blair stressed the need for citizens to accept equality and respect for all, citing forced marriage and religious prejudice against women as unacceptable.

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He said everyone must obey criminal not religious law while visiting preachers from overseas will be excluded if they preach hatred.

Religious and racial groups seeking grants will also be asked to show how they promote integration.

In the address, Mr Blair insisted he did not want to dilute religious identity or abandon multiculturalism, which should continue to be celebrated.

But he said "the right balance can be struck between integration and diversity".

A national row over multiculturalism was been sparked by the suspension earlier this year of a Muslim teaching assistant who refused to remove her veil in the classroom.

Mr Blair backed that decision - saying the veil was a "mark of separation" that made people of other ethnic backgrounds feel uncomfortable.

It was also a visible symbol of the wider debate about the way the 1.8 million-strong Muslim community integrates into British society, he suggested.

The event at Number 10 is being hosted by the Runnymede Trust, an educational charity whose aim is to promote a successful multi-ethnic Britain.
 
You need to post the source mate.

I saw this on the news. I'd like to see or read the entire speech ideally. I'd best get googling...
 
Conform to our society, says PM

People entering the UK must be prepared to be tolerant or not become part of society, Tony Blair has said.
In a speech at Downing Street, the prime minister said that tolerance was "what makes Britain" and warned "we must be ready to defend this attitude".

The threat came not from "generalised extremism" but "a new and virulent form of ideology associated with a minority of our Muslim community".

The Muslim Association of Britain said Mr Blair's speech was "alarming".

Wars 'not helping'

A spokesman said the prime minister should be "investing in our society" to help the deprived, rather than investing "millions and billions in illegal occupations" which had "not helped to promote multiculturalism in this country".

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"Rather than standing up and lecturing us, it's time he puts his money where his mouth is," the spokesman said.

Mr Blair also used the speech to reiterate a crackdown on funding for religious and racial groups, saying in the future they would have to prove they aimed to promote community integration. This measure was recently announced by Communities Secretary Ruth Kelly.

Conservative community cohesion spokesman Dominic Grieve said the speech was a "remarkable turnaround".

"Many of the problems in relation to the issues he addresses are at least in part the consequence of a philosophy of divisive multiculturalism and political correctness that has been actively promoted by the Labour Party over many years at both national and local government levels."

Funding crackdown

Liberal Democrat communities spokesman Andrew Stunell said: "We must ensure that the voices of moderation have their say, but support for organisations must not be distorted by government-driven targets or Tony Blair's personal agenda."

He said: "The right to be in a multicultural society was always implicitly balanced by a duty to integrate, to be part of Britain, to be British and Asian, British and black, British and white."

Mr Blair said "multicultural Britain" should not be dispensed with, adding: "On the contrary, we should continue celebrating it,"

But he said the suicide bombings in London on 7 July last year had thrown the whole concept of a multiculturalism "into sharp relief", the prime minister said.

"The reason we are having this debate is not generalised extremism. It is a new and virulent form of ideology associated with a minority of our Muslim community.

"It is not a problem with Britons of Hindu, Afro-Caribbean, Chinese or Polish origin. Nor is it a problem with the majoirty of the Muslim community."

'Essential values'

But he said there was a "problem with a minority of that community, particularly originating from certain countries".

The failure of that part of the community to integrate did not mean multiculturalism was dead, said Mr Blair, but it would be useful to define "common values" all citizens were "expected to conform to".

"When it comes to our essential values - belief in democracy, the rule of law, tolerance, equal treatment for all, respect for this country and its shared heritage - then that is where we come together, it is what we hold in common."

Mr Blair also said: "If you come here lawfully, we welcome you. If you are permitted to stay here permanently, you become an equal member of our community and become one of us.

"The right to be different, the duty to integrate: that is what being British means.

"And neither racists nor extremists should be allowed to destroy it."

Race equality

Mr Blair said the Equal Opportunities Commission would be looking at concerns about women's status inside Muslim communities. It will report in the spring.

He also praised Tory leader David Cameron, saying it was "not conceivable in my view" that he would seek to exploit immigration to win votes.

Labour MP Keith Vaz MP has criticised the newly formed Commission for Equality and Human Rights for taking just one of its nine commissioners from a background in working for race equality.

Only chairman Trevor Phillips had this experience, he added.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6219626.stm
 
What he seems to be saying is 'look, if you come to this country, you have to be nice and respectful to everyone. You can keep your own beliefs, but you have to respect others' beliefs too.'

I agree with that sentiment. However, the way in which he said it and the way in which it was phrased was unwise given the current tensions.
 
If intergration means we need to lose our identity as Muslims then stuff your idea for integration...I was born here, I get an education, pay taxes....

Why the heck do they have to meddle in everything we do man? This is turning out to be some sort of dictation. Sure I agree, we need to integrate in the sense we need to get along, help eachother out etc. etc. But not for a second will I lose my identity as a Muslim to integrate to be a 'UK citizen'....No, you can't do that. As the saying goes: I am what I am
 
Iqram said:
If intergration means we need to lose our identity as Muslims then stuff your idea for integration...I was born here, I get an education, pay taxes....

Why the heck do they have to meddle in everything we do man? This is turning out to be some sort of dictation. Sure I agree, we need to integrate in the sense we need to get along, help eachother out etc. etc. But not for a second will I lose my identity as a Muslim to integrate to be a 'UK citizen'....No, you can't do that. As the saying goes: I am what I am
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What would make you "lose" your identity as a Muslim?
 
Integration is where you 'settle down', retaining your own idenity, and living in peace with your neighbours. Most immigrants have done this in the UK.

Assimilation on the other hand is where you, well, give up your own identity and adopt the identity of your neighbouring groups.
 
What would make you "lose" your identity as a Muslim?
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If I was a Muslim girl wearing a veil over my face..That's my identity....Leave me alone....Get the picture?
 
I personally think it is important for people who come to the Uk to be good members of society, little things like offering a smile to your neighbours or ever further society, being an honest person, and the likes I think thats a basic thing, learning English again I think its an important part and quite rightly.

I think all the above would be applicable to a person wanting to live in a Muslim State, right?
 
Al Habeshi said:
I personally think it is important for people who come to the Uk to be good members of society, little things like offering a smile to your neighbours or ever further society, being an honest person, and the likes I think thats a basic thing, learning English again I think its an important part and quite rightly.

I think all the above would be applicable to a person wanting to live in a Muslim State, right?
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Of course...

I also agree with the English part. It's extremely important!
 
Iqram said:
If I was a Muslim girl wearing a veil over my face..That's my identity....Leave me alone....Get the picture?
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Sometimes it isn't possible to simply "leave somebody alone" wearing a veil. In certain circumstances the veil will have to be removed. I agree that veils shouldn't be banned outright, but in some situations and environments the veil should be removed.
 
Keltoi said:
Sometimes it isn't possible to simply "leave somebody alone" wearing a veil. In certain circumstances the veil will have to be removed. I agree that veils shouldn't be banned outright, but in some situations and environments the veil should be removed.
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No doubt about it. Such places like an airport for example...it's only common sense.
 
:sl:

In other words don't go to iraq and fight fisibililah, that's the agenda and always will be the west inabililty to accpet Jihad in it's most controversial form. When he speaks of respect and tollarence he's basicly saying, don't speak of jihad and you'll be fine.
 
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I know the issue of the veil is going to come up in this thread. I ask members to not derail it into a discussion about the veil, however.
 
FBI said:
:sl:

In other words don't go to iraq and fight fisibililah, that's the agenda and always will be the west inabililty to accpet Jihad in it's most controversial form. When he speaks and tollarence he's basicly saying, don't speak of jihad and you'll be fine.
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Well if someone is gonna go iraq then why would they want to come back to the UK this is talkingabout those who are coming to the UK.[/COLOR

Plus, Iqram why would they need to have the veils off in the airport, I mean I understand at the desks when they check in and so on they can but I mean around the airport? They have cafes and resturants and so on, are they meanto sit there without the veil?

Oh man I had to edit this out because I just saw:

Muezzin said:
I know the issue of the veil is going to come up in this thread. I ask members to not derail it into a discussion about the veil, however.
Click to expand...
 

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