16 July 2016

What France thinks of multiculturalism and Islam

In the aftermath of a devastating attack in Nice, France, Poland's interior minister, Mariusz Blaszczak, told reporters that the blame lay with the embrace of multiculturalism. “Have we not learned lessons from previous attacks in Paris and Brussels?" the Financial Times reported Blaszczak as saying. "This is a consequence of the policy of multicultural politics, and political correctness.”

A member of Poland's controversial right-wing Law and Justice Party, Blaszczak's point may be in bad taste. However, many around the world probably agree with it.

It's certainly hard to disagree with the idea that France seems to be more embracing of multiculturalism than Poland. In a recently released study by the Pew Research Center that was conducted early this year, just 24 percent of French people were found to believe that diversity made France a worse place to live. A higher proportion, 26 percent, said it made France better, while 48 percent said that it didn't make much difference. [The Washington Post] Read more