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iversity that any society can accept without destruction, if not total disintegration. In Britain, for example, calls for the application of Islamic law to Muslim British citizens have thus far been rejected, as have demands for female genital harm on the NHS. On the other hand, as noted above, a high court judge has justified by reference to cultural custom his lenient sentencing of men who murdered a female relative, and state funding for Islamic denominational schools has been approved. Human social being implies at least a minimum level of compromise, or commitment to shared norms (Macey, 1995b) and in democracies there is a need to balance the rights discussed by citizenship of a society with the responsibilities that this demands (Marshall & Bottomore, 1992). When populations are very diverse in ethnic, cultural and religious terms there are no doubt that reaching a balance or consensus is very difficult, as is established by the different approaches to multiethnic populations taken by Western European states. France has adopted a stance of 'ethno centric assimilations,' Germany has' institutionalized precariousness' and Britain has taken the path of 'uneven pluralism'(Melotti, 1997). All these approaches are difficult, mainly in relation to achieving equal opportunity of conduct and opportunity for members of minority groups who wish to preserve a typical culture. All raise basic, and potentially conflictual, questions about minority in contrast to majority, individual versus group rights and, finally, the very nature of the liberal democratic project.

On many issues there may be little or non-conflict between majority and minority cultures and values, as appears to be implied in Ben-Tovim's suggestion that multiculturalism be seen: '. . . not as an end in itself, but as a component of the resist for social equality, justice and freedom within the non-relativistic framework of secular liberal and social democracy' (1997, p. 220).

Poulter's study, like that of Mitchell and Russell (above) places of interest the potential conflict essential in widely opposed philosophical views on human social existence, mainly the question of universal versus particularistic rights. We need to acknowledge the reality of such differences, the fact that some may not be reconcilable and thus that decisions have to be taken on the basis of value decisions.

3.3 Problems and Issues of Identity: Ethnicity and Race
All of this demonstrates to the fact that inter-ethnic inter face has a long history. We humans are not new to the dispute of trying to get along with 'unfamiliar' others. What strategies were used in early times to accommodate or transcend differences? How did inherited societies recognize and deal with humans who differed from themselves, both culturally and physically? In existing times many areas of the world are supporting a way with 'ethnic' conflicts, and 'ethnicity' seems to be a fairly new notion about human identities stopped with elements of exclusivity, opposition, competition, and antagonism. Some groups define themselves in conditions that appear rigid and unyielding and in disagreement always to 'the others.' In many belongings we have seen populations state an almost lasting addition an ethnic or religious identity, as if such features of our social selves are determined by our DNA and cannot be transformed or diminished by any social mechanisms. In some cases, populations t