When cultures hijack beliefs...

With the world getting smaller and the mixing of peoples of different cultures becoming an everyday reality almost everywhere, including our own tiny country, the question of multiculturalism is bound to become increasingly topical and controversial.

A country should never succumb to pressure from whatever quarter and allow its people's beliefs and way of life be hijacked by other traditions and beliefs which are diametrically opposed to theirs.

Archbishop of Canterbury and principal leader of the Church of England, Rowan Williams, recently created a storm when he stated that Britain "needed to accommodate religious codes such as Islamic Sharia law in order to achieve community cohesion". He said that the adoption of some aspects of Sharia law "seems unavoidable" - comments which were harshly criticised and even prompted some to call for his resignation.

Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, has now come out with an apparently opposite view. He has said that "efforts to create a multicultural society in Britain led to lessening the unity in the country".

The cardinal was reported to have told The Sunday Telegraph that he does not believe in a multicultural society, insisting that those foreigners who had settled in Britain had to obey the laws of the country and adapt to them. "There are aspects of the Sharia law that are practised that we certainly wouldn't want in this country.

The laws of the country do not allow forced marriages or polygamy... Of course you can keep the variety of traditions but when you enter the country there are common values which are part of its heritage which should be embraced by everybody."

The cardinal's outspoken condemnation of multiculturalism, though seen as controversial by some, has been praised by a leading UK Catholic weekly which said in its editorial that he is against multiculturalism because "it subordinates the wider common good to the good of discreet cultures..." adding that "although he does not say so explicitly he seems to recognise that militant secularists have used the ideology to drive Christianity out of public life".