ABSTRACT
Beliefs and values, language and family traditions, dress and diet, are central to an individual’s sense of identity. Most people would say that these things should be respected, and liberal democracy has developed into an ideology that places great stress on respecting diversity of belief and lifestyle. A fully human existence entails the freedom to live according to your cultural traditions. But what if a particular cultural tradition is hostile to liberalism? What if, for example, it holds that girls should be educated to fulfil a subservient role, limited strictly to the private sphere of the family? What if it advocates discrimination, or even violence, against adherents of other religions, or gay and lesbian people or different ethnic groups? These are questions raised by multiculturalism, an ideology that has emerged since the 1960s, but which stands in a complex relationship to older ideologies.
