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Will the West reject Islam?2006-03-03
Is the Netherlands swinging to the right? Dutch Immigration Minister says 'No' Immigrant protest vote The publication of derogatory cartoons of Prophet Muhammad has brought attention once again on to the religious and cultural tensions growing in the Netherlands. After the murder of Theo van Gogh, a libertarian Dutch filmmaker and controversial critic of Islam in 2004, opposition to immigrants rose rapidly in this traditionally tolerant country. The fact that Van Gogh's killer was Muslim led to a backlash against the Muslim community. Van Gogh's murder was seen by some in Dutch society as an effort by "extremism" to silence freedom of expression. When Muslims protested, sometimes violently, over the blasphemous cartoons in late January, the existing distrust and negative image of Muslims was only exacerbated. Multicultural failure? Both incidents led Dutch pundits to argue that multiculturalism had failed and tolerance, which the Netherlands had prided itself on, had been taken advantage of by an intolerant immigrant population. Roel Storm, a retired teacher in eastern Amsterdam, who attended a ceremony marking the one-year anniversary of Van Gogh's death last November, believes the integration of immigrants has become nearly impossible. "Moroccans live with Moroccans, Turks with Turks and other Dutch with other Dutch. They live separately. This is the root of the problem," Storm said. "Actually, I think there are too many Turks and Moroccans. It is high time to stop the influx of immigrants now." Cartoons Since a Danish paper printed 12 cartoons of Prophet Muhammad last year, there have been no major demonstrations by Muslims in the Netherlands, unlike elsewhere in the world. However, that has not prevented some groups from escalating the issue. Geert Wilders, a right-wing Dutch politician known for his anti-immigration and anti-Islam stance, republished the cartoons on his website, naturally offending many Muslims. On 9 February, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is a Somali-born Dutch politician and was a friend of Van Gogh's, told the international media that she believes in "the right to offend". Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister, meanwhile, said his government was attempting to de-escalate the debate and that Hirsi Ali's comments were not helping this move. The Muslim community First generation immigrants constitute about 10% of the Dutch population of 16 million. If second-generation Dutch are included, the immigrant population rises to 19%, which is about three million. Half of them are described as non-Western immigrants. The Muslim population is currently nearing one million people. The largest group comes from former Dutch colonies, such as Indonesia (about 400,000) and the Surinam Republic (about 320,000). Another big group is formed by those who were invited by the Dutch government to fill a labour shortage - Turkish (350,000) and Moroccans (300,000) - in the 1960s and 1970s. But participation in the labour market by Moroccan and Turkish immigrants is 10% lower than for the indigenous Dutch. Job applicants who have Arabic-sounding family names are said to be avoided by a lot of employers. Fear is one factor, despite the catchphrase by Job Cohen, the mayor of Amsterdam: "Be afraid of having fear toward your neighbours. We don't want to divide society." According to Bernard Welten, Amsterdam's police commissioner, following Van Gogh's murder and the attacks on the London transport system in July last year, the possibility of similar acts "is imminent" and the danger is "growing high". Muslim voices Ali Abd al-Hag, a Pakistani-Dutch Muslim who came to the Netherlands 30 years ago from South Africa, believes there is little empathy for Muslims who are killed. "People make a fuss after one white Dutchman has been murdered. I [want] to remind people that the Netherlands and other Western nations are killing many Muslims in the world," he said. "The Dutch do not care how many Muslims are killed." Florist Ali Shauket, a Muslim immigrant from Pakistan, has been living in Amsterdam since 1987. "Situations have changed recently, politics in this nation are moving more and more to the right." Immigration tightened Some of those changes include the government's tightening of immigration policies and a more aggressive stance regarding cultural assimilation. In late January, Rita Verdonk, the immigration and integration minister, caused a stir by saying that everyone should speak Dutch in public places. As of 15 March, people from outside the European Union who seek residence in the Netherlands will be required to take a Dutch language test over the telephone. Among the 14,000 people who are expected to take the test, the majority are those who want to join family members already living in the country. Dutch ministers are also calling for a partial public ban of the burqa, which they say is "a symbol of repression of women" for security reasons. The burqa is worn in some Muslim countries and covers the body and face. Only a handful of Muslim women wear the burqa in the Netherlands, but many regard this move as further pressure on Muslims in general. Building consensus Yassin Hartog, an integration consultant based in Amsterdam, says the Dutch "polder model" - the Netherlands' tradition of running a society on consensus - may help. "It will take many, many years but as a result of debate after debate among politicians, academics and people from different groups with different values, consensus will be eventually reached. Then people can decide what they agree on to live in a civilised society." Hartog believes that both sides - the Muslim population and the indigenous Dutch - should understand their respective cultures more and come closer to each other. "The cartoon incident could become an opportunity for this step," he said. Dutch government minister Rita Verdonk has issued negative decisions in two much publicised immigration cases. Footballer Salomon Kalo, who hails from Ivory Coast, may not now follow an accelerated procedure to become a naturalized Dutch citizen, and Kosovan school student Taïda Pasic will not be allowed to remain in the country for the next two months to take her final exams. Formally speaking, these are issues which the cabinet, in this case the immigration minister, has the power to decide on. Ms Verdonk is the responsible minister, and the law empowers her to take such decisions on the basis the information at her disposal. However, in the Dutch political capital, The Hague, voices can be heard saying that Ms Verdonk is playing a political game with Mr Kalou and Ms Pasic, and that her timing is remarkably good. The timing has everything to do with the upcoming local council elections to be held throughout the country next Tuesday, 7 March. With them in mind, Rita Verdonk is more than happy - on behalf of her own liberal conservative party, the VVD - to project the public image she already enjoys, namely that of the tough woman who keeps her word and is making serious work of the robust immigration policy championed by the current government of Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende. Not heartfelt In that respect, she has the support - by and large - of the three coalition government parties in parliament, but that support is not truly heartfelt. Junior government partner D66 is, in fact, openly opposed to deporting Taïda Pasic before her final school exams, and a significant part of the main government party, the Christian Democrat CDA, is also fretting about the apparent heartlessness of Ms Verdonk in the matter of the teenager from Kosovo. Then there is the case of the player with Rotterdam football club Feyenoord. Salomon Kalou hopes to get a Dutch passport as quickly as possible so he can join the Dutch team when they take part in this summer's World Cup competition in Germany. A court has already questioned an earlier 'No' from the immigration minister, and indeed asked Ms Verdonk to re-examine his case. This week, however, the minister said once again that Mr Kalou will not be allowed to deviate from the standard rules for acquiring a Dutch passport and pointed to his failure to pass a naturalisation test towards the end of 2005. In the meantime, the minister's stubborn stance on these issues has begun to cause considerable irritation in The Hague. Heading off the opposition Minister Verdonk's political line seems to be connected with her party's attempts to head off the opposition when it comes to the issues of immigration and integration. To the right of the conservative VVD there are a number of political parties and groups such as those led by former VVD member Geert Wilders, the party founded by murdered politician Pim Fortuyn, the LPF, and Leefbaar Nederland, all of which feel free to talk openly - and without providing many reasons - about 'throwing people out of the country' and 'sending them back from whence they came' in relation to practically everyone who happens not to fit their own notion of the 'national standard'. A majority within the VVD would like to see these groups have the wind taken out of their sails and, in that context, see a powerful weapon in the popular immigration minister, Rita Verdonk. Accusations of political opportunism are something they are prepared to live with. Gains It would appear that Ms Verdonk has decided that there are more political gains (i.e. council seats) to be made on the right side of the electoral spectrum than would be the case on the opposite side if she were to adopt a more visibly 'humane' approach. In this respect, there are two things worth noting. Firstly, research shows that in electoral terms, it makes little difference what kind of stance the immigration minister takes, since there are almost as many seats to be won on the left with a more humane policy as there are on the right with a tough one. Secondly, it seems rather ironic when you realise that in dealing with the now famous 'group' of some 26,000 failed asylum seekers, Ms Verdonk has, in fact, already made use of her discretionary power to grant a residence permit to almost 1000 of them anyway - more often than many of her predecessors in the post. However, that's something which the minister would rather not make too much fuss about, after all, people might just get the idea that's she's not always as tough as she makes out. The Netherlands now numbers ten times more people of non-western origin than it did 30 years ago. About half of these immigrants intend to go to the ballot box at the next municipal elections on 7 March. Most of them look set to plump for one of the left-wing opposition parties, mainly because they feel alienated by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's centre-right government. Out of a total population of 16 million, the Netherlands is home to approximately 1.7 million immigrants of non-western descent. About one million of these 'new Dutch' are eligible to vote in the upcoming municipal polls. Some because they have lived in the Netherlands for more than five years, others because they have acquired Dutch nationality as refugees. Turnout among the immigrant population was low at the 1998 and 2002 municipal elections. Several opinion polls suggest that this time their attendance will be much greater. Intensive campaign This can partly be attributed to the activities of the National Consultative Platform Body for Minorities (LOM), which periodically brings together the authorities and the various immigrant communities. The LOM has launched an intensive campaign to encourage immigrants to exercise their democratic rights in March under the slogan "Whoever votes decides; I'll vote decidedly". Especially the older, 'first-generation' immigrants are not easily persuaded to go to the ballot box, partly because of their limited command of Dutch. And even though the various minorities - Moroccans, Turkish, Surinamese, Iraqis, Afghans and South Americans - understand LOM's message, many of them respond to it the way most voters throughout the entire world would do on the eve of elections: by expressing their intention to vote without being sure for which party. Undecided, in other words. Protest vote Almost half of the immigrant population will turn out to vote on 7 March, according to an opinion poll conducted by the Institute for Multicultural Development FORUM. It also suggests that most of them will support the left-wing opposition, mainly because they feel the parties currently in government are not doing enough for low-income earners. Their discontent is also fuelled by the tough policies of Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk. Other researchers, however, don't expect a larger immigrant turnout at the upcoming municipal polls. The Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES), for instance, has expressed concern about "a decreasing preparedness among immigrants to participate in elections", which it puts down to a "low degree of social engagement among these groups". Nonetheless, FORUM insists that more and more immigrants are aware that their vote is necessary in order to change government policy. FORUM has also detected a "latent desire" among immigrant groups to integrate into Dutch society. Which is why the institute does not believe that special immigrant parties are viable. FORUM says only 15 percent of the country's one million immigrant voters would be prepared to support immigrant parties. |
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