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‘Clear Wine’ goes Dutch with multicultural neighbours
By Kate Huber
Posted: March 29, 2006
“Islam is primitive; I’ll just say it; it is simply a backward culture.”
supported Fortuyn’s statements and his party witnessed a dramatic
progress. Fortuyn was assassinated by an animal rights activist in May
2002.
Today, in a country known for its tolerance of gays, soft drugs,
euthanasia and abortion, the Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders,
wants to finish what the assassination of Fortuyn ended. Last week
their political agenda for the coming elections, known as ‘Clear Wine,’
called for the dissolution of the first article of the Dutch constitution.
equally. “Discrimination based on religion, lifestyle or political
However, the Party for Freedom finds that the “dominant Judeo-
Christian culture” must be protected and promoted. If Wilders has his
way, it would be forbidden for the next five years for non-Western
immigrants to come to the Netherlands or to build a new mosque. Five
hundred mosques in the Netherlands is enough, according to Wilders.
Since the end of the 19th century, Dutch public schools may have been
religiously affiliated, but ‘Clear Wine’ wants to stop the building of any
more Islamic schools for the next five years. Wilders says that the
Islamic cannot compete with the other primary and secondary schools
on standardized tests and, until their students catch up, they should not
be allowed to proliferate.
Just two months ago the Minister of Integration, Rita Verdonk, told
journalists at a VVD conservative party meeting that a policy should be
introduced prohibiting any language but Dutch to be spoken on the
streets throughout the Netherlands. Verdonk says this policy would
show foreigners who have “chosen” to live in the Netherlands “what is
expected of them.” As an ex-VVD party member, Wilders seems to
agree. ‘Clear Wine’ also forbids foreign imams from preaching
altogether and Dutch imams from preaching in any language but Dutch.
But with no officially recognized imam theology department at Dutch
universities, the message seems clear: The Netherlands is a Judeo-
Christian culture and, though ‘others’ may live here, they must
assimilate.
Wilders is currently the only member of his party to have a seat in the
150-seat Dutch parliament, but the Party for Freedom hopes to gain a
total of 15 seats in the next election. Although no one expects
another dramatic rise like that of Pim Fortuyn, Wilders may reach his
goal. Others also share Wilders anti-Islamic and immigrant sentiments.
After a young Dutch Muslim from Moroccan heritage murdered film-
maker and critic Theo van Gogh, in November 2004, a man who also
declared his anti-Islamic and anti-immigrant feelings, both Wilders and
VVD parliament member Hirsi Ali had to go into hiding after being
threatened for their anti-Islamic statements. In November 2005,
Rotterdam’s alderman, Marco Pastors, had to resign as a result of
numerous speeches containing anti-Islamic assertions. But what has
made the normally so pragmatic Dutch suddenly so afraid of their
multicultural neighbours? While Moroccan slippers seem to have
replaced wooden shoes and new spices pepper Dutch meat and
potatoes, there is still a solid separation between the Dutch and ethnic
minorities.
After a century in which it was unthinkable for Catholics and Protestants
to commune, the Christian segregation in Dutch society seems easily
to have been replaced with a Christian and Muslim separation. The so-
called ‘guest workers’ brought into the Netherlands from Morocco and
Turkey in the 1970s, haven’t left. Instead they have settled here and a
new, second generation struggles to find its cultural identity between
the values of their parents and liberal freedoms in the Netherlands.
As Islamic grocers proliferate next to telephone calling centres offering
cheap rates to North Africa and the Middle East in neighbourhoods
where women wear head-scarves, blond haired, blue eyed Dutch
people live beside – but not with – their Middle Eastern neighbours.
Even children seem to play within their ethno-social boundaries. The
three-tier high school system has begun to look a lot like segregated
schooling, as ethnic minorities fall into the lower education, now known
as “black schools,” and Dutch students excel on to universities.
Yet standardized testing and simple-yet-apart lives are typically Dutch.
A diploma determines ability, and rarely do strangers say hello.
However, Muslim minorities throughout Europe have formed
transnational communities that don’t integrate or assimilate into the
highly nationalistic, “dominant” cultures. Alongside these communities,
Dutch people have continued to be Dutch.
As questions arise of an Islamic political party, unemployment among
ethnic minorities grows, and inflow of immigrants continues, what
used to be typically Dutch suddenly seems archaic. Times are
changing and a fear of that change only accentuates the already
stressful strain of conflicting cultural identities.
### ### ###
Kate Huber has been a sailor and a wilderness emergency medical
technician for three years. She is an American and reads literary
philosophy and journalism at Leiden University.
By Kate Huber
Posted: March 29, 2006
“Islam is primitive; I’ll just say it; it is simply a backward culture.”
supported Fortuyn’s statements and his party witnessed a dramatic
progress. Fortuyn was assassinated by an animal rights activist in May
2002.
Today, in a country known for its tolerance of gays, soft drugs,
euthanasia and abortion, the Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders,
wants to finish what the assassination of Fortuyn ended. Last week
their political agenda for the coming elections, known as ‘Clear Wine,’
called for the dissolution of the first article of the Dutch constitution.
equally. “Discrimination based on religion, lifestyle or political
However, the Party for Freedom finds that the “dominant Judeo-
Christian culture” must be protected and promoted. If Wilders has his
way, it would be forbidden for the next five years for non-Western
immigrants to come to the Netherlands or to build a new mosque. Five
hundred mosques in the Netherlands is enough, according to Wilders.
Since the end of the 19th century, Dutch public schools may have been
religiously affiliated, but ‘Clear Wine’ wants to stop the building of any
more Islamic schools for the next five years. Wilders says that the
Islamic cannot compete with the other primary and secondary schools
on standardized tests and, until their students catch up, they should not
be allowed to proliferate.
Just two months ago the Minister of Integration, Rita Verdonk, told
journalists at a VVD conservative party meeting that a policy should be
introduced prohibiting any language but Dutch to be spoken on the
streets throughout the Netherlands. Verdonk says this policy would
show foreigners who have “chosen” to live in the Netherlands “what is
expected of them.” As an ex-VVD party member, Wilders seems to
agree. ‘Clear Wine’ also forbids foreign imams from preaching
altogether and Dutch imams from preaching in any language but Dutch.
But with no officially recognized imam theology department at Dutch
universities, the message seems clear: The Netherlands is a Judeo-
Christian culture and, though ‘others’ may live here, they must
assimilate.
Wilders is currently the only member of his party to have a seat in the
150-seat Dutch parliament, but the Party for Freedom hopes to gain a
total of 15 seats in the next election. Although no one expects
another dramatic rise like that of Pim Fortuyn, Wilders may reach his
goal. Others also share Wilders anti-Islamic and immigrant sentiments.
After a young Dutch Muslim from Moroccan heritage murdered film-
maker and critic Theo van Gogh, in November 2004, a man who also
declared his anti-Islamic and anti-immigrant feelings, both Wilders and
VVD parliament member Hirsi Ali had to go into hiding after being
threatened for their anti-Islamic statements. In November 2005,
Rotterdam’s alderman, Marco Pastors, had to resign as a result of
numerous speeches containing anti-Islamic assertions. But what has
made the normally so pragmatic Dutch suddenly so afraid of their
multicultural neighbours? While Moroccan slippers seem to have
replaced wooden shoes and new spices pepper Dutch meat and
potatoes, there is still a solid separation between the Dutch and ethnic
minorities.
After a century in which it was unthinkable for Catholics and Protestants
to commune, the Christian segregation in Dutch society seems easily
to have been replaced with a Christian and Muslim separation. The so-
called ‘guest workers’ brought into the Netherlands from Morocco and
Turkey in the 1970s, haven’t left. Instead they have settled here and a
new, second generation struggles to find its cultural identity between
the values of their parents and liberal freedoms in the Netherlands.
As Islamic grocers proliferate next to telephone calling centres offering
cheap rates to North Africa and the Middle East in neighbourhoods
where women wear head-scarves, blond haired, blue eyed Dutch
people live beside – but not with – their Middle Eastern neighbours.
Even children seem to play within their ethno-social boundaries. The
three-tier high school system has begun to look a lot like segregated
schooling, as ethnic minorities fall into the lower education, now known
as “black schools,” and Dutch students excel on to universities.
Yet standardized testing and simple-yet-apart lives are typically Dutch.
A diploma determines ability, and rarely do strangers say hello.
However, Muslim minorities throughout Europe have formed
transnational communities that don’t integrate or assimilate into the
highly nationalistic, “dominant” cultures. Alongside these communities,
Dutch people have continued to be Dutch.
As questions arise of an Islamic political party, unemployment among
ethnic minorities grows, and inflow of immigrants continues, what
used to be typically Dutch suddenly seems archaic. Times are
changing and a fear of that change only accentuates the already
stressful strain of conflicting cultural identities.
### ### ###
Kate Huber has been a sailor and a wilderness emergency medical
technician for three years. She is an American and reads literary
philosophy and journalism at Leiden University.