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Anti-Muslim Laws Led By Christians In Secular Netherlands
AMSTERDAM (IslamOnline) - The Dutch parliament passed this week controversial legislation that would give Muslims who convert to Christianity, or stop believing in Islam, the right to remain in the affluent European country and qualify for political asylum.
The bill was approved after two main Christian Parties, the Reformatorische Politieke Federatie (RPF) and Gereformeerd Politiek Verbond GPV, operating under the coalition of the Christian Union, lobbied strongly for it. The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy - Liberal (VVD) opposed the legislation.
Dutch Christian parties had originally proposed a law that would give refugee status for Iranian, Somali and Bosnian immigrants who claimed persecution for converting to Christianity. They said Iranian law penalized those who denounce Islam, and therefore, Iranians converting to Christianity should qualify for refugee status.
The Netherlands angered Muslims in Egypt and in many parts of the Muslim world by giving refuge to Naser Hamid Abu Zeid, an Egyptian university professor who was denounced by a Cairo court in 1996 as a Muslim apostate. In a high profile cased, Abu Zeid questioned the authenticity of the Qur’an, Islam's holy book. As a result, since he was found no longer to be a Muslim, he was ordered to divorce his wife.
Some human rights activists and religious leaders criticized the law and said it was a crime in itself to use the plight of refugees and immigration seekers to convert them to Christianity.
J. Van Tilborg, of the Christian Institute for the Support of Refugees, said the law was "tantamount to an insult to Muslims" and that some would use it as an immoral way to get a Dutch passport.
Tilborg said that the law also violates The Netherlands' international human rights commitments. "Using the social and legal problems of asylum seekers to change their religions and beliefs is totally unacceptable," Tilborg said.
According to the U.S. Department of State’s Annual Report on International Religious Freedom released in 1999, Holland has now a sizable and fast-growing Muslim community. Official statistics say that only 49 Muslims lived in the country in 1879. After 1960 the number of Muslims began to rise due to the arrival of migrant workers, primarily from Morocco and Turkey. Family unification increased their numbers to include 234,000 Moroccans and 279,000 Turks by 1998 (out of a total population of 16 million).
Additional Muslims came from the former Dutch colony of Suriname. In the past decade, Muslim numbers further increased due to the large numbers of asylum seekers from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Bosnia. By 1998, about 700,000 persons, or 4.4% of the population, were Muslim - the majority Sunni.
Islam is growing quickly in The Netherlands, with the number of mosques growing to over 300. The increased influence of Islam is also reflected in the founding of over 30 Islamic schools, facilitated by legislation that recognizes and provides equal funding to schools representing different religious or philosophical backgrounds.
The U.S. report, however, said that the Netherlands was being increasingly secularized.
Around 40% of Holland's population are atheist or agnostic, while approximately 30% consider themselves Roman Catholic, 15% Dutch Reformed, seven percent Calvinist Reformist, and eight percent non-Christian (Islamic, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist.)
The U.S. report quoted the Dutch Government's Social Cultural Planning Bureau as saying that church membership has declined steadily from 76% in 1958 to 41% in 1995, and still is decreasing, although at a slower pace.
There are reports, however, that missionary churches target Muslim refugees, and that many were converting to Christianity. Baba Khani, an Iranian Christian, said that many Muslims "were curious to know about Christianity."
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