Protect itself from what? Protect itself from the decimation of its culture! A People's culture contains not only a shared set of values and ideals but it also serves as the basis of individual identity. To rob a people of their culture is to undermine one's very sense of self and the particular way of being human that the culture represents.  Culture relates individuals to each other and the unseen world of what we call the spiritual realm.  Culture is not a vague  sense of anything, it is distinctive and is the filter through which the group constructs reality. Culture is everything. 

The history of America does not teach us that our strength lies in cultural and religious diversity. For most of this county's history, it was overwhelmingly populated by people of European extraction. It spoke one language, was Christian and its dominant culture was WASP into which all were assimilated.

A nation has a right to self-determination.