There were more than 100 ‘incidents’ at mosques in the Netherlands between 2005 and 2010 – far more than in other countries. The incidents are detailed in a new Dutch book about Islamophobia and discrimination. Those responsible for the trouble mostly go unpunished and Muslims often file no criminal reports.
In the 1990s, the Netherlands was known for being extremely tolerant of foreign religions, says Frank Bovenkerk, emeritus professor at the University of Amsterdam (UVA).
“... until surveys suddenly showed considerable animosity towards Islam was developing. The researchers thought: ‘This kind of split with the past isn’t possible’. But it in fact was.”
Then came the 9/11 attacks in the United States and the murder of Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh by an Islamic extremist in 2004. Dr Bovenkerk blames Dutch politicians for fanning the flames of hostility towards Muslims: “After Van Gogh’s murder, the then deputy prime minister, Gerrit Zalm, said that we were “now at war”.
Things went differently in the United States as Dr Bovenkerk points out:
“The first thing president Bush did after 9/11 was to visit a mosque because he knew that he mustn’t jeopardise his relationship with Muslim Americans. They were really careful about that there. But in the Netherlands, we went along much more easily with politicians such as Pim Fortuyn and later Geert Wilders, who exploited the aversion to Islam for political gain.”
Incidents
Ineke van der Valk has written a book about Islamophobia and discrimination in the Netherlands. She lists 117 incidents at Dutch mosques between 2005 and 2010. The number in the US was just 42 during the same period.
The incidents include arson, the daubing of slogans on walls, vandalism and much more.
“A suspect letter containing powder, telephone threats, hanging a dead sheep on the building, with ‘No Mosque’ daubed on the body. Or a pig’s head. Or sheep’s or pig’s blood daubed on the wall ...”
These incidents happened surprisingly often in small places. Ms Van der Valk thinks immigrants are much more accepted in large towns because immigration has been going on there for much longer.
The people responsible have seldom been found. They’ve not been identified in 99 of the 117 cases. “That makes you think it’s time the police and justice authorities did more about it,” she says.
Internet
Then there’s the Islamophobia on the internet. Ronald Eissens from the MDI registration centre for discrimination on the internet : “In 2011, there were 290 reports of Islamopohobic comments, nearly one-fifth of the total reports of discrimination.”
He says that discrimination is becoming increasingly more mainstream on the Dutch-language internet. “It’s moving from the dark alleys into the full light of day, on the popular web forums, which are read by everyone.”
Values
What can be done about the situation? Ineke van der Valk: “You’ve got to get to grips with the social problems which play a role in why people turn to discrimination. People who are victims of crimes perpetrated by Muslims are quicker to discriminate.”
You also have to push the openness of society and prize the values of diversity. She thinks Norway set a good example in the way it dealt with Anders Breivik’s attacks.
“I think we could do well to learn from that because politicians here are far too inclined to look the other way and hope that the Islamophobia craze will just go away. We’ve got to stand up for what we believe in much more, for what we think is important, for democracy and the rule of law.”
(mw/rk)
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Wilders en de islamitische extremisten zowel winst roem en bekendheid ten koste van de maatschappij zijn ze deel van uitmaken. Nederlanders zijn steeds meer gezien als bekrompen en intolerant. Zo ook de gematigde moslims. Ook is bijzonder nauwkeurig. Europese moslims worden snel steeds meer seculiere, en de meeste Nederlanders nog steeds tolerant liberalen.
At least no one blew up a plane,train or bus or crashed into the twin towers.
One day, people are going to wake up and see that the cloaked, oppressive master lurking on their doorstep is a government infected with the Islamic parasite. Word like "Islamophobia" seek to hide the truth - that it is not naive fear of change which guides peoples' hearts, but a desire for justice and liberty in countries which have been at the forefront of philosophical thinking for the past few hundred years.
Geert Wilders will be looked back on in several decades as the hero who was ignored for being a single voice of reason in a time of silent crisis; our own ignorance. The Dutch don't fear Islam, but rather despise the barbarism it represents. I just hope those of you who defend the faith can live with yourselves when those Muslim votes start to count up and Europe falls under the dark cloud of Sharia Law.
1.5 million Dutch people came to Canada. They now have been replaced in the last 40 years by double the number of Muslims. Since taxes have gone up, old people have to work till 67 because the country is running out of money, because it is costing the NL 9 trillion uero's per year to keep the Muslims that don't work eat free, free house and free on all else like health care. This country will be a state of Marocco soon.
What is noteworthy is that the Dutch do not even pretend to be a nation of tolerance anymore, with the virulent hatred of Muslims now comparable to the pathological intolerance against Jews and Gypsies in the past centuries.
I live in the US and I hope I never get to go to the Netherlands. The country seems to be jam packed with hateful people.
Please Do not Come to The Netherlands. You will not be missed and we can survive without your.
Get real about islam! It is one of the most detrimental ideologies mankind has ever been able to produce. Wherever it appears, it brings intolerance, inequality and stagnation. Not to mention inbreeding! There is a direct link between islamization and the frequence of first-cousin marriage (Korotayev A. V., 2000, Parallel Cousin (FBD) Marriage, Islamization, and Arabization, Ethnology 39/4, 395–407.)? In Saudi-Arabia, 50% of all marriages are on a first-cousin basis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cousin_marriage#Middle_East). Isn't this alone reason enough to be "phobic" about Islam? Seriously, the word "islamophobia" is an insult to the human species. If you had cancer, how would it make you feel if the doctor told you you're just "cancerophobic", and that you don't need to be cured. You just need to read more about cancer in order to understand it, that it is not evil, in fact just as much part of you as your other body parts.
@ Guiseppe There's also a link between inbreeding and fundamentalist Christianity. Look at parts of the US. So if you assert that inbreeding and religion in general both affect the world negatively, then I agree. If you're asserting that one race or religion is somehow better than another, then you're full of it.
BTW, if all the tests confirm that you don't have cancer, but you spend your whole life worrying about it, then yes, you're a cancerphobe.
Ted: I don't know where you get your information about the US, but you're clearly misinformed. In no state in America are first or second cousins permitted to marry. Second, while fundamentalist Christians may be silly and even stupid in some instances, it's ridiculous to equate them with the dangers of radical Islam.
You're right! I don't like fundamentalist Christianity either. Especially not the subtypes that "breed in". There were 5000 Amish around 1900. Now there are as many as 250.000, basically all of them being descendents of the 500 Alsatian anabaptists that fled to the US in the 17th century. But your comparison with Islam is obviously flawed. The Amish are a small peripheral sect within mainstrain Christianity. Saudi-Arabia, with a 50% inbreeding rate, is the heart of the Islamic world.
Lets us not forget that the first genocide against Muslims was in Spain; After 800 years of their presence this huge Spanish Muslim population after reconquest went through the rituals of Spanish Inquisition where many were killed; baptized by force; and expelled. These were indigenous Spanish Muslims - sort of what has happened to Bosnian Muslims in the 1990s and the Albanians ( we forget that Muslims also were present in Sicily and Italy in the 10th century until their expulsion and mass slaughter). So lets talk about who is really tolerant. What about the history of the New World. The aboriginals nations that disappeared; the colonialism; and the slave trade that took millions of Africans through the waters to the islands for total subjugation and humiliation that no nation has suffered in the history of humankind. This slavery was based on colour; the slave was a property and never would expected to be free; he/she were subjucted to torture, rape, and were nothing more then cattle.
Lets talk about the greed of colonialism that led to First World War and Second World War that wipped out millions across Europe and so you talk about Islam as being intolerant, etc. It is just that Europeans and Christianity has been at war with Islam!!
Nice try, Riz! But aren't you forgetting about the massacres of those millions of non-Muslims that was required to Islamize the enormous area between Spain and India in the first place? It was Islam that destroyed the originally Christian Maghreb and the Eastern Roman Empire by brutal force. Christians never had a tradition of spreading their faith by violence before they were confronted with jihad. In fact, the late Medieval crusades only started as a response to the Islamic holy war, it is - in other words - the exact mirror image of jihad.
As to slavery, this ancient practice was common all over the world, and certainly not a Western invention. In fact, it is purely thanks to innovations in Western thought, i.e. European humanism, enlightenment and the resulting defining of basic human rights, that slavery now has become illegal in most countries. Not everywhere, however. It still exists in parts of the Islamic world. We all know that Muhammad never opposed slavery. In fact, he had slaves himself. Wherever Islam manifested itself, non-Muslims were degraded to second-class citizens being forced to pay a religious apartheid-tax, the jizya. If they weren't killed in the first place, that is.
In Sudan, non-Muslims are still being held by their Muslim masters. Check this CNN-report: http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/07/slavery-still-alive-in-sudan/. Non-muslims from the South were being taken hostage, branded, and forced to convert to Islam by the Arabic or Arabized aggressors from the North untill a couple of years ago. Arabs don't actively oppose slavery because this would bring them in disagreement with the example set by there Late Iron Age prophet.
You further talk about colonialism. But the West has left basically all of its former colonies, most of the time peacefully. Arabs have never apologized for their crimes against humanity, that is the violent Arabization of huge parts of the world in the name of a discriminating, violent and inhuman religion called Islam. When will the Arabs pull back from the Maghreb, Egypt, Sudan, Northern Iraq, etc.? When will they apologize for forcing their language, culture and religion upon millions of people who never asked for it?
Well said Giuseppe
Wilders and the Islamic extremists both gain fame and notoriety at the expense of the societies they are part of. Dutch people are increasingly seen as bigoted and intolerant. So too the moderate Muslims. Neither is particularly accurate. European Muslims are rapidly becoming more secular, and most Dutch people still are tolerant liberals.
For some reason, people see the actions of the Catholic church as separate from the Catholic population in general. How is this possible? Perhaps we should create little city-states for each of these groups of extremists. There they can decay and fall further behind the rest of the world without having too much impact on it. Unfortunately for Wilders and his ilk, nobody would ever visit the "Ultra-Nationalist Vatican" because they don't have any art.
"Perhaps we should create little city-states" for extremists??? Are you completely blind? We already have vast areas controlled by Islamic "extremism". Islam is inherently extremist. Look at Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Somalia, Afghanistan, Oman, Maldives, Iran, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, each with a reported Muslim population of 99 - 100%. Do you think this happened and is being maintained by asking nicely?
In case you're still puzzled, I'll repost Guiseppe's link from above:
http://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/07/slavery-still-alive-in-sudan/
Was all that off the top of your head? Places where there's been a conflict recently? Among those on your list are some of the more secular countries in the Muslim world, but which have suffered under western supported dictators. You cannot dismiss whole societies which have assholes in their government because we all fall in that category.
Once again, don't bother posting any propagandist hate websites because I won't click on them. Nor should you. It's hurting your brain.
"Propagandist hate website???" It's a report from CNN's Africa correspondent, David Mckenzie, winner of an Amnesty International Media Award. and other media awards.
The hypocrisy of the politically correct police of the west is apparent in the disparity of scrutiny of it’s own institutions vs. Islam. Robust debate about Roman Catholic cover-ups has not led to throwing rocks at the Vatican's assets. Perhaps this attempt to treat Islam with kid gloves is causing a reaction.
In the Netherlands, bold personal attacks by Muslim fundamentalists on gays, women, and Jews in public are causing increasing concern. This is a worldwide phenomenon. Noticing it is not a “phobia” or a “craze”.
The real phobia is shown in the suppression of open debate about Islam. Muslim reactions to such debate are consistently shrill and/or violent (remember Salman Rushdie?).
The Netherlands Muslim population density is about 7 times that of the US, where this population tends to keep a lower profile. Many Muslims immigrants to the Netherlands are economic refugees, embracing the Islamic totalitarianism of their homelands, not escaping it.
I find the discriminatory reactions in the Netherlands to be remarkably restrained, limiting themselves to minor property damage to a public Islamic institution roughly twice a month.
ps
Wilders has never advocated violence or property damage. It is equally possible that his efforts are a healthy outlet, preventing violence.
is there anything positive to be said about islam??
Countries that have populations with Islam coincide with political instability, violation of human rights, suppression and eradication of religious minorities, poor governance, over population, war, deforestation, pollution, desertification, civil war and the list is never ending. When will liberals open their eyes and face the facts?
Dear RNW,
thank you for the article, however, could clearly racist and inciting comments such as the one by "Remember Constantinople" (talking of a one-track mind. What a name...) please be removed? The first brick of the road back to sanity has to be laid somewhere.
"Remember Constantinople" is correct in his/her assessment. There wasn't any racist attack on his part. Islam is a religion and not a race. You incite others when you want to ban "free speech".
Please remember that Hiram is using high levels of psychotropic medication and cannot be held responsible for any of the seemingly racist and irresponsible statements he makes. Please understand and take them with a grain of salt. His doctors will appreciate that.
Is it so safe to assume that the Dutch developed negative attitudes toward Islam because of "politicians' rhetoric"?
I developed negative attitudes toward Islam based on very painful personal experiences, not on any "rhetoric" from a Geert Wilders-type politician or because of 9/11 or the killing of Van Gogh (although those incidents certainly didn't help.)I know other people who feel the same way.
Grow up and realize that "Islamophobia" is often a rational reaction to the behavior, speech, and attitudes of Muslims, not the result of "racism" or "xenophobia."
Islam is a religion that should be forbidden by law in any developed country.
Anyone who defends it needs to see a shrink. I congratulate Geert Wilders for his bravery. As it seems that we, in our own country can't express our dislike towards the level of intolerance and cruelty displayed by the followers of this religion. Female genital mutilation, the stoning of women to death,the automatic death sentence for homosexuals regardless of their age are only some of the practices that this barbaric religion follows. I say the European governments should gather now as we speak and put in place some legislation that stops this madness before we too in Europe loose our freedom...
It doesn't say why the Dutch "developed" animosity towards Islam.Maybe it was because the tolerant Dutch were suddenly confronted with a very intolerant religion.
Dear Anonymous,
Thank you for your response. You may have failed to spot the fourth paragraph: 9/11, and the murder of film director and writer Theo van Gogh by a radical Muslim are mentioned as two reasons why the Netherlands lost its generally tolerant attitude towards Islam. Add to that the rise of populist politician Geert Wilders, who never misses an opportunity to say something negative about Islam.
And please post using a name next time.
Rob Kievit
RNW
Rob Kievit it is difficult to say something positive about the followers of Islam when so many crimes against humanity has been committed in it's name. There is nothing positive to say about a religion that treats women as chattle. Geert Wilders would be wrong to praise Islam for the crimes of it's follwers who openly declare their crimes as a holy war against non-believers.
Rob Kievit. It is clearly difficult to say something positive about Hiram when he is special needs and, as such, shouldn't be held responsible for the remarks of a responsible adult. So sad. So sad.
Religion is just a narcotic;in the last resort every man/woman is his/her own doctor of divinity.
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