Dina d'malchuta dina

Reading the Saturday Telegraph, I was impressed to see how much Charles Moore knows about Dina d'malchuta dina. (More than many Jews I would imagine!)

Dina d'malchuta dina ("the law of the land is law"): is an additional source of Jewish law, being the principle recognising non-Jewish laws and non-Jewish legal jurisdiction as binding on Jewish citizens, especially for many areas of commercial, civil and criminal law, provided that they are not contrary to any laws of Judaism.

The point that Charles makes is that despite all the obstacles that Anglo Jewry has faced over the last 350 years (Jews could not sit in Parliament until the mid-19th century, for example), it has made huge achievements out of all proportion to its size (Anglo Jewry makes up less than 0.5% of the population). Rather than fight the society they live in, Jews have actively tried to engage with society and to contribute to it.

The fact that Judaism isn't a prosyletising religion may help, but it's also what Jonathan Sacks has referred to as the "dignity of difference". Jews may not always agree with the way their host society behaves or everything it does, but would rather contribute to the national debate than withdraw from the society they live in. It's a lesson the Muslim community (and proponents of multiculturalism) would do well to learn.