The backlash against multiculturalism is partly a neoliberal attack on welfare provision.

Evidence

Of course, raising questions about multiculturalism is not in itself tantamount to endorsing Islamophobia. Even today, Europeans across the political spectrum believe that multiculturalist policies have generally not succeeded in building bridges between Muslim minority communities and the majority population, though there is plenty of disagreement about why these policies have failed and whether they are worth revamping. However, once it became politically and culturally permissible to question the efficacy of multiculturalist policies, the door was opened for some in the majority population, including prominent politicians, to blame Muslims for most social ills and to question whether the dominant culture should tolerate a segment of the population that adhered to a backward, intolerant religion. The Rushdie Affair was thus a catalyst that generated the conditions in which first multiculturalism and then Islamophobia became such politically and culturally divisive issues in Britain, if not Europe. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 360 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Questioning multiculturalism opened a path from policy critique to blaming Muslims — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 360; Neoconservatism and neoliberalism unite mainly through shared hatred of the welfare state

Related

• Questioning multiculturalism opened a path from policy critique to blaming Muslims (similarity 0.87)
• The multiculturalism backlash is largely an attack on welfare provision (similarity 0.86)
• The anti-multiculturalism backlash is an economic attack on welfare, not a values debate (similarity 0.83)
• A novelist can celebrate multicultural living while rejecting multiculturalism as politics (similarity 0.82)
• Perceived Muslim rejection of secularism eroded European faith in multiculturalism (similarity 0.81)
• Critics of multiculturalism deserve reasoned evaluation, not merely rhetorical condemnation. (similarity 0.80)
• Multiculturalism is abandoned once minority culture stops being market-friendly (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Questioning multiculturalism opened a path from policy critique to blaming Muslims #expands (0.75) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 360