A library photo of Muslims activists in Al-Manar organization.

By Nasreddine Djebbi, IOL Correspondent

THE HAGUE, May 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Dutch Muslims have organized a cultural gala featuring Andalusian poetry and music to show the artistic face of Islam to fellow Dutch.

“We wanted to reveal to the Dutch a new face of Islam that they never knew of,” Fawzia Al-Othmani, chairperson of Al-Manar cultural organization, told IslamOnline.net on Sunday, May 1.

The one-day seminar, organized on Friday, April 29, brought together Muslims and non-Muslims.

It featured reading of Andalusian poetry, especially those of renowned poet Ibn Zaydoon, accompanied by simultaneous Dutch interpretation, said Al-Othmani, the organizer.

Andalusian calligraphy also adorned the walls of the theatre with a collection of eye-catching manuscripts displayed by Egyptian-born calligrapher Mohammad El-Tawil.

The gala concluded with singing famous Andalusian terza rimas, which resonated through the building.

Al-Manar, better known in The Hague as the organization of young Muslim females, was established in 2000 to help Dutch Muslim women integrate into society.

Dutch Muslims make up one million of the country’s 16 million population.

Rebuilding Confidence

Moroccan-born Othmani, who is also a social researcher in Rotterdam’s Erasmus University, said Muslims and the West do have common heritage when it comes to arts and literature, which can help rebuild bridges of confidences.

“It is part of our culture and part of theirs,” she said. “There are a lot of untried means that can rebuild what politics have destroyed.”

Othmani said poetry, particularly the Andalusian, is indeed a common denominator.

“The poetic gala sends the message that Dutch Muslims have never been isolated or self-centered,” she said.

A. Shippers, professor of Arabic in Amsterdam University and a specialist in the Andalusian literature, said Andalusia served as a converging point between Europe and Islam.

Andalusian masterpieces and artifacts bear witness to a historical convergence between Europe and Islam during which the Islamic civilization left its indelible marks on Europe, he told an attentive audience.

Al-Andalus, which included most of the Iberian Peninsula in the extreme southwest of Europe, was ruled by Muslims from 711 CE until 1492.

The Muslim minority in The Netherlands were subjected to increasing religious discrimination and racist attacks on their places of worship in 2004.

Since the murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh, blamed on a hardline Moroccan, anti-Muslim attacks have been on the upswing.

A report by the Dutch Anti-Racism Online Center has indicated that anti-Muslim cyber racism doubled in 2004.

The xenophobia and extremism cancer prompted Queen Beatrix to dedicate her annual address to the nation last December to national unity and the importance of tolerance and moderation for the welfare of Dutch society.