Sarkozy condemns multiculturalism

Joins other Western leaders:

FRANCE: French President Nicolas Sarkozy has censured multiculturalism a failure, joining other western leaders that have already rejected the notion despite boasting freedom as a founding principle.

Sarkozy in a televised interview Thursday said: "I don't want a society where communities coexist side by side" and that "France will not welcome people who don't agree to melt into a single community".

"We have been too busy with the identity of those who arrived and not enough with the identity of the country that accepted them", he added.

The comments have brought the French President in line with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the UK Prime Minister David Cameron, a former Australian premiere John Howard and Spanish former Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar who have previously expressed their opposition against multiculturalism.

Sarkozy also emphasized that he does not want Muslims to pray on the streets.

The French president's controversial remarks come as Western fears of rising Muslim population grow across Europe.

Official reports show that out of 65 million people living in France, at least 5 millions of them are Muslims, making it the European country with the largest Muslim population.

This is while Muslims in France still have no representatives in the French parliament. Sunday, Press TV