Tsunami in the Netherlands ?

© www.internationalesocialisten.org; Geert Wilders, Extremist, Damages you and the siciety.

Wilders himself lived in Kanaleneiland for a while, a small neighborhood in Utrecht that is mostly inhabited by Muslims of Moroccan and Turkish origins. According to Wilders, the Muslims in Kanaleneiland are not integrated in the Dutch society because, among other things, — the Moroccan youth are "hanging on the streets the whole day and they are making the neighborhood not safe." 

These and other experiences made him think about the circumstances that became worse and worse in these neighborhoods, "One does not feel that he is walking in his own country anymore. There will be more mosques than churches after a while."

At the moment, Wilders tries to affect the Dutch citizens by pointing out these bad circumstances in areas like Kanaleneiland. In sum, he argues that there is a "Tsunami of Islamization" in the Netherlands. He also argues that "Muslims should accept criticism much more."

The fear of Islamization made Wilders address very sensitive subjects in the Dutch society. In the process, he set about to produce a film in which he intends to "show how violent Islam is," according to him. This film will be presented in the Netherlands at the end of January 2008.

Cheap Comeback

Commenting on Wilders's attitude, Saida Oulhaj, a Moroccan political scientist, said,

I think it is quite strange in the first place that he makes statements about Islam, since the government cannot interfere with religious matters according to the principle of the separation of church and state. Government interference in the private domain is also not very liberal — it is rather conservative, so a change of the name of his political party would be no luxury.

Substantively, one cannot say a lot concerning his opinion about the Qur'an and Islam, but at the same time it is irrelevant. As a populist, he could have mentioned another subject for electoral reasons. Therefore, I have not considered his statements seriously. He had to conquer his place in the House of Commons after he had been thrown out of his former political party, the VVD. Wilders has chosen a cheap comeback. 

Official Reactions

Recently, Dutch Queen Beatrix held her annual Christmas speech about the social situation in the Netherlands. In her speech, she pleaded for a more tolerant country where all citizens can peacefully live together. She said,

Cruelty in word and action damages tolerance, and discussions degenerate in hardened proportions. In such an environment, people are rapidly seen as a group and preconceptions are being adopted as a truth. With that, the community sense erodes.

Wilders understood this speech as a personal attack on him and responded by saying it is a "multicultural nonsense." Additionally, he said that Queen Beatrix should be no more a part of the government and she ought to have only ceremonial tasks as a queen. He pointed out in his reaction that the prime minister should not be held responsible for the words of the queen. "This is an impossible situation," he said.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende replied to Wilders by saying, "Wilders says that he wants to defend the interests of the Netherlands, but he demolishes in the meantime that what turns the Netherlands into the Netherlands: our monarchy, our tolerance, and the solidarity with others beyond our borders."

Dutch Muslims' Troubles

Nowadays, the Netherlands has a lot of troubles in coping with its Muslim minority, and it is trying to find a way out. The main question is whether this can be managed through integration or assimilation. Wilders is trying to gain popularity among the Dutch by pointing out all the negative points within the Muslim community in the Netherlands. It is worth mentioning here that he sees the Qur'an as the source of disintegration of Muslims in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, one can wonder why there is no Muslim univocal conversation partner with the Dutch government that can oppose these thoughts of Wilders. The Netherlands has a long tradition concerning immigrants. It has been known for centuries for its trade with other nations and for its tolerance with freedom of belief. For example, the Jews could peacefully live in Amsterdam for centuries, while in other European countries they faced discrimination.

Currently in the Netherlands, there are approximately 1 million Muslims, which is 5.8 percent of the entire population. The total population in the Netherlands is 16,357,000, of which the native Dutch make up 80.6 percent (13,184,000 citizens). Nonnative Dutch constitute 19.4 percent of the population (3,172,000 citizens).

The major groups are citizens of Moroccan and Turkish origins. They make up more than 75 percent of the Muslim population (369,000 Turks and 330,000 Moroccans). Furthermore, more than 50 percent of the Turks and Moroccans in the Netherlands have the Dutch citizenship.

Muslims are keen to keep their own identity and religion wherever they go. But the fact that Muslims are being called allochtoon (Dutch for originating from another country) is not motivating them to integrate into the Dutch society. A lot of Muslims say, "No matter what we do to become Dutch, we will always stay allochtoon." This means that the nationalization of Muslims in the Netherlands has not been very successful in integrating them into the Dutch society.

Ineffective Integration

From 2001 on, there has been much discussion on the failure of integration policies. For years, the Netherlands had a very soft approach toward Muslims and their integration process. Because of some public incidents that have affected the security of Dutch citizens, politicians and the media started to criticize the integration policy. In particular, the rightist parties, to which Wilder belongs, have their clear opinion concerning this issue.

According to them, the integration policies have been too soft for years and the outcome has turned out to be black schools, black neighborhoods, riots against police officers, homosexuals being beaten by Muslim youngsters, women being treated badly, lack of freedom of speech, and so forth.

This is the image of Muslims in the Netherlands. Of course there are successful Muslims, but generally the current image is not very promising. Wilders is clearly taking advantage of this situation. But, as mentioned before, the main question of the absence of a univocal conversation partner with the Dutch government remains crucial.

Muslim Disunion

One can search for the answer in the diversity of Muslims in the Netherlands. In this country, one can hardly find a mosque that is being visited by both Moroccans and Turks. There are ethno-national differences between both groups (there are also differences within the ethnic groups themselves: Berbers and Arabs, Kurds and Turks, etc.).

Moroccans and Turks have their own mosques, butchers, associations, student unions, and other organizations. Muslim organizations started with the local mosques in the Netherlands. These mosques provide prayer rooms, teahouses, and also religion teachers from the country of origin. This is one of the reasons why the migrant councillors come to the mosques to meet the Muslims to speak to them.

Furthermore, the Dutch authorities themselves have been trying to reach the Muslim society through the mosques. In an ideal situation, the Muslims should have one representing entity. Conversely, Muslim communities in the Netherlands do not form a coherent community; they are fractured along ethnic and religious cleavages. Over years, this situation did not change, and the Dutch government is still facing a lack of leadership among Muslims.

Dutch Islam

At the end of the day, there is a big debate in the Netherlands about the place of Islam in the society. Although the position of Muslims is the result of a complicated combination of economic, social, political, and ideological factors, critics of Muslims emphasize more and more on the alleged particular character of Islam as a religion, as the example of Wilders shows.

Those critics are repeatedly trying to hold Islam responsible for the position of Muslims in the Netherlands. Fortunately, not all Dutch natives agree with Wilders and he does not have the support of the majority of voters.

Roel van Engelen, who holds an MA in history, said, "When I hear Wilders fulminating concerning Muslims and the Qur'an and when he compares a book that is a guiding principle about life for hundreds of millions of people with Hitler's fascist Mein Kampf, then I can see a type of parallelism with Nazi Germany during the 1930s."

"In the 1930s, the society under command of a large populist figure went greedily in search for a scapegoat for economic discomfort, the income differences, and other problems. But if you can see the disastrous impact of that period, it seems to me that Wilders is no part of the solution for any problem, but rather a strongly complicating factor."

One can say that there is indeed a tsunami in the Netherlands — a tsunami of ignorance and intolerance that one can only overcome by understanding and listening to the other, because the Muslim existence in the Netherlands will remain a fact.

Gulsen Devre is studying political science and 'Arabic language and culture' at the University of Amsterdam. She lives in Kanaleneiland, Utrecht. She can be reached at gulnazik@hotmail.com