Dutch Review Barn & Door Temporal Ordering

My good friend the Dutch are, in a very Dutch manner, looking at the well meaning steps they took in the past and are saying, "Pardon me. After consulting with my colleagues - we are saying that this is no longer possible."

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. 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."

The letter continues: "A more obligatory integration is justified because the government also demands that from its own citizens. It is necessary because otherwise the society gradually grows apart and eventually no one feels at home anymore in the Netherlands. 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.

The Netherlands is a medium-small country of roughly 17-million souls. They are neither as "liberal" (in the American sense) or as "libertarian" as some think - but they have a very good society and highly functioning culture.

Sadly - they have allowed the Left to bully them in to making some very bad decisions that will be difficult to correct.

As usual with problems, the longer you wait to fix a bad problem, the more dramatic the steps you are going to have to take to fix it.

Imagine this if done in the USA;

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

A nation has a right to defend itself; and this is well within the lines of allowable behavior.

A solid and defensible step - but it does remind me of a late night of talking last decade around a table of officers from a variety of Scandinavian, Baltic, and Northern European nations (there is a big difference) about their immigration problem. Interesting things right under the surface that I - and they - hope never to take place. Amazing thing though, they will talk about it.

As Mark Steyn points out - some people have made an abrupt 180 on this issue.

On the other hand - that European spine mostly went away in the middle of the last century. This fix is, perhaps, a bit late. As Scarmouche states;

But is it too late, and how in a free, Western society does one impose and police restrictions on, say, dress and manage to hang on to freedom? Tell me and we'll both know.

From Malmö to Marseille, we'll find out sooner more than later methinks. Outlaw Mike - what say you?