Salim Mansur – Home

HOME
REVIEWS
MEDIA INTERVIEWS (VIDEO & AUDIO)
UPCOMING SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS & TOUR INFO
PURCHASE DELECTABLE LIE

HOME

Delectable Lie: a liberal repudiation of multiculturalism
by Salim Mansur

IFPS-Canada is proud to be a sponsor and supporter of this very important and timely book from one of the West’s leading public intellectuals.

Published by Mantua Books, “a small and growing publishing house which goes beyond political correctness and moral relativism to enlighten readers on the great ideological issues of our times”, Salim Mansur’s book certainly fits the criteria and will inspire debate on one of the central questions of our time.

As an organization dedicated to freedom of speech, IFPS-Canada has witnessed the challenges facing liberal democracies in the West as they struggle to maintain their cultures based on reason and principles of liberty and equality. The connection between the slow but steady loss of our liberties and the implementation and entrenchment of official multiculturalism is apparent to many and yet, honest and frank discussion of the subject is discouraged within this same climate since freedom of speech is always the first casualty in such struggles.

In sponsoring Salim Mansur’s indepth analysis of multiculturalism and his repudiation of it based on liberal values, IFPS-Canada hopes that Canadians will begin to feel comfortable sharing their own concerns and will be inspired to assert their right to speak freely. At the very least, Canadians must be encouraged to reject the politically correct notion that official multiculturalism is a sacred cow that cannot be subjected to legitimate and healthy criticism.

We hope that Salim’s book will not only stimulate a national debate on multiculturalism but if found to be a “failed project” as stated by Chancellor Merkel, President Sarkozy and Prime Minister Cameron, will initiate further discussion on alternatives.

From the author’s Introduction:

“In our time the ideology of multiculturalism ─ the set of ideas that all cultures are equal and deserving of equal treatment in a liberal democracy such as Canada ─ is linked to the pressing demand for equality in Western societies as these become increasingly multi-ethnic due to immigration and open borders.

“When first proposed, the idea of an “official” multiculturalism program to be sponsored by the state, supported by tax-payers, and monitored and enforced by thought-police (human rights commissions) was at best dubious, and at worst is by its very nature poised against Western liberalism. Moreover … it was based on the false idea ─ another official lie, really ─ that all cultures are equal. However, that is an orthodoxy of the last century increasingly dismissed by serious thinkers. That is because there are established criteria making it possible to judge the achievements of all cultures, whether in the arts and literature, religion, philosophy, technology, modes of governance, or science; but the primary criterion that makes possible all human achievement is freedom.

“My point is that although multiculturalism once seemed a very good idea, at least to politicians and others smitten with the ambition for unity, it is increasingly shown to be a lie ─ a delectable lie, perhaps, yet a lie nevertheless ─ that is destructive of the West’s liberal democratic heritage, tradition, and values based on individual rights and freedoms. This could have been foretold, as indeed those philosophers and historians of ideas who viewed freedom as immeasurably more important than equality in the development of the West did foretell. They admonished people against the temptation to abridge freedom in pursuit of equality.”