"Political correctness" is often treated as a joke, but it can have serious consequences.

That's one of the fundamental lessons that Melanie Phillips explains in her book "Londonistan," an examination of how Britain has become an international center of Islamic radicalism. Here's an excerpt of an interview with Mrs. Phillips in The Washington Times today:

Q: Your most famous previous book, "All Must Have Prizes," was a critique of egalitarianism in British schools. Do you see a connection with the problems of the education system and the rise of the terrorist threat in Britain? A: Yes, in that the root cause of Britain's education disaster is the loss of belief in the core purpose of education: the transmission of a society's culture to the next generation. An intelligentsia that has lost faith in the British nation -- and indeed in the idea of "the nation" itself -- has torn up Britain's cultural map. The result has been young people left culturally adrift in a sea of ignorance, unable to think for themselves and no longer knowing what values they must defend.

Mrs. Phillips, a columnist for the Daily Mail of London, warns that the cultural collapse in Britain -- a crisis highlighted by the July 7, 2005, bombings in London -- threatens to deprive the United States of its closest ally in the war on terror.

And she is not the only one who sees a connection between the prevalence of multiculturalism and the inability of Western societies to defend themselves against terrorism. Mark Steyn has made similar arguments in "America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It", which is reviewed by Christopher Hitchens in the latest issue of City Journal.

-- Robert Stacy McCain, assistant national editor, The Washington Times