The key, in my mind, is assimilation. I lived in the United Kingdom for the last four years and moved back to the States 6 months ago. I’ve seen first hand the problems inherent in multi-culturalism. If you want to march in a parade honouring your cultural heritage, go for it. Carry your flags, eat your traditional food and sing your traditional songs. As an Irish-American I understand the pull of the Old Sod, generations distant though it may be. But I don’t think it chauvinistic to say that if you want to live in the United States, you must speak English, accept our laws and culture, allow your children to be Americans, and to leave the prejudices of your old culture in your homeland. This hasn’t happened in the UK, particularly among Asian Muslims.

They live in their equivalent of Little Italy, speak their own language, go to their own schools and generally interact as little as possible with British society at large. Of course this isn’t true for every British Muslim, I don’t mean to imply that, but it appears to be true for at least a significant minority. The inevitable result is a huge increase in general mistrust, racial violence, alienation of youth caught between the two cultures and an extremist, right wing backlash. Just look at the success of the British National Party in areas with a large Muslim population.

The theory of implied consent states that an individual agrees to the limits imposed by their society by their decision to stay within that society. It is easily extended to immigration: If you can’t accept the prevailing social mores of the country you intend to immigrate to, then immigrate to a country that more closely matches your personal morality. If you speak Spanish and want to move to the U.S., learn to speak English or immigrate to Spain. If you’re Muslim and don’t want to see billboards with women in bikinis, then don’t move to the States or the U.K or Western Europe. I wouldn't immigrate to Saudi Arabia or the Sudan because I do not agree with the basic precepts of their culture. Therefore if you don't agree with mine then don't try to come to my country.