Yes European cultures clash, but there is a road to solidarity without compromise.

Fears across Europe that its diverse mix of communities will lead to hostility and violence are very real. Europe has a history of wars and terrorist atrocities caused by clashes of ideology, race, nationality and religion. Some argue that many identities are set on a collision course to clash because they are incompatible. They therefore and seek to control the offending group and subdue them. We see this today with the rise of the far-right.

Multiculturalism has attempted to allow different cultures to co-exist freely, but often without requiring them to assimilate locally at all. This is particularly true for many first generation immigrant communities. To often you find people who do not even speak the language of their home country after 20 or 30 years of living there. The positive side of multiculturalism is that it has created an environment where we can all experience people different to ourselves. However, all too often it has translated into ghettoised communities not integrated ones. This is often how mistrust and violence spreads between communities. 

Some academics (Rawls particularly) have argued that whilst cultures (or civilisations if you prefer) may appear to be irreconcilable with each other’s values, they in fact overlap when you begin to dig down to what people really believe and want for themselves and their families. So for example, a Pakistani  and an Indian may disagree over Kashmir, but they may both be concerned at the unemployment rates affecting their job prospects in their region.

Other academics have criticised the notion that anybody can claim a single dominant identity, such as I am 'a Hindu,’ I am ‘gay,’ I am 'a teacher,’ I am 'a whatever'... Instead, we all have multiple identities, and these again overlap with each other. So I might be a ‘gay, Hindu, teacher,’ and so I can find solidarity with anyone who shares in one of these identities. I hope that my diagram below makes this clearer.

So if we are in conflict with another culture, it may only be one area that we clash over. By finding solidarity first in what we share, we can then move onto what we do not. By denying that we share anything and focusing only on where we disagree, it is much harder to build a relationship that can deliver peace. Rather it reinforces our justification to hate each other and use violence.