One God, One People — or Endless Fragmentation? |
After Sydney’s deadly attacks, we go through the usual motions. Candlelight vigils, official condolences, a spike of moral outrage — then life goes back to normal. And that’s the problem. Australia is broadly inclusive. We get along, for the most part, and our laws and institutions protect our freedoms. But inclusion alone isn’t a shield against forces that can pull people apart.
The instinct is to ramp up security: more cameras, tougher laws, sterner talk. Some of that is necessary. None of it is enough. Violence like this doesn’t spring from nowhere. It thrives where social bonds are thin and shared values weak.
For decades, we’ve been told multiculturalism will take care of itself. Keep everyone separate but polite, and society will hold together. Mostly, it does. But polite tolerance isn’t enough to stop extremists from finding a foothold in the cracks between parallel lives.
The UAE offers a striking counterexample. The Abrahamic Accords created a framework for cooperation between Israel, the UAE, and other nations,........