Social Conditions in the Netherlands with Regards to Its Muslim Society

C. Social Conditions in the Netherlands with Regards to Its Muslim Society

The existence of Islam in the Netherlands is a relatively new phenomenon despite its initial introduction a few centuries ago. Islam first appeared in the 16 th century, due to the Netherlands’s occupation of Indonesia (a predominantly Muslim country). The first Indonesian people who arrived in the Netherlands in 1602 were a group of Muslims of Aceh, who came as guests. Thereafter, there is no information that other Indonesian people visited the Netherlands until the 19 th century. 615

At the end of the 19 th century, the colonial government made a new policy for Indonesia called

de ethische politiek or the ethical policy to express their regret after occupying the archipelago for hundreds of years, and gave a favor to the Indonesians. The Dutch government started to erect schools in Indonesia and gave an opportunity to members of the royal family to visit the Netherlands to study. As a result, many members of the royal family arrived to the Netherlands to study. Generally, it could

be said that, as a royal family, their religious background was not strong compared to santri (a pious Muslim and student of a pesantren/Islamic boarding school). There were only few Indonesian students knowledgeable about Islam at that time. Therefore, they had no strong intention to establish a Muslim organization in the Netherlands. 616

In 1930, a group of Muslims from Indonesia established an organization which used ‘Islam’ in its name, “Perkoempulan Islam” or Islamic Group. This group was supported and legalized by the Dutch government and became the first group that used Islam in its name in the Netherlands. They succeeded to establish a cemetery for Muslims. From this, it can be said that the first Muslim organization in the Netherlands came from Indonesia. This is no surprise since Indonesia was occupied by the Netherlands at that time. 617

In 1947, a group of Muslims from the Ahmadiyya branch of Rabwah came to The Hague to spread Islam. Ahmadiyya spread Islam by oral and literary tradition. They held a discussion with society in the Netherlands, while they also published some books about Islam in the Ahmadiyya version. The Ahmadiyya branch of Rabwah is generally known for their idea that the last prophet is Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. It is different from other Muslim or orthodox Muslim views that acknowledge Muhammad as the last prophet. However, this group can be said to be the earliest group of Muslims who spread Islam in the Netherlands. Finally, and more importantly, in 1953 a number of embassies of Islamic countries in the Netherlands supported the Ahmadiyya group to build a mosque, Mobarak Mosque, in The Hague. This mosque is famous as it is the first mosque in the Netherlands. Moreover, this group translated al- Qur’ān, (the Holy Qur’ān), into the Dutch language in 1955. 618

The largest number of Muslims in the Netherlands is formed by guest workers from North Africa and Turkey, who came to the Netherlands in the beginning of the 1960s. The estimated number of Muslims in 1971 was about 50,000; it doubled in 1975 to about 100,000, and in 1994 it had increased to 628,000. 619 At the start of 2009, the population of Muslims in the Netherlands was estimated at 907,000. This population was equivalent to 6% of the Dutch population. 620 With the rising population of Muslims in the Netherlands, there was also an increase in the number of mosques to a bit over 475 mosques in 2007. 621 However, there are only a few mosques in the Netherlands that are managed by Indonesian

615 Harry A. Poeze, In het land van de overheerser, vol 1, (Dordrecht: Foris Publications, 1986), p. 2-3. 616 Muhammad Hisyam, Young Muslim Association in Europe, (The Hague: PPME/YMAE, 1996), p. 10-11. 617 Harry A. Poeze, In het land, p. 289. 618 N.J.G. Kaptein, “Islam in Present-Day Dutch Society” in W.A.L. Stokhof and N.J.G. Kaptein, Beberapa Kajian

Indonesia dan Islam, (Jakarta: Seri INIS no. 6, 1990), p. 201. 619 Jan Rath, Thijl Sunier and Astrid Meyer, “Islam in the Netherlands: The Establishment of Islamic Institutions in a De- Pillarizing Society”, Journal of Economic and Social Geography, vol. 88 (4), (the Netherlands: 1997), p. 389. 620 Sadik Harchaoui and Team, The Position of Muslims in The Netherlands: Facts and Figures, (Utrecht: FORUM Institute for Multicultural Affairs, 2010), p. 8. 621 Sadik Harchaoui and Team, The Position of Muslims, p. 37.

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Muslims. Most of them are built and managed by the Turkish, Moroccan, or Pakistani Muslims or Muslims of the Surinamese community, respectively. A lot of the Muslim immigrants came to work in the Netherlands as unskilled workers from various Mediterranean countries. After several years, they brought their families from their homelands and thus form the majority of Muslims in the Netherlands.

The increases in the number of workers which arrived in the Netherlands and henceforth brought along their families indicate that they had a better work prospects in the Netherlands that in their own countries. However, there is another reason why migrant workers were not going back to their home countries. It is stated that workers from Turkey and Morocco had a dilemma: in their own countries, the economic situation had become worse, and many of them feared a return to bleaker conditions. Therefore, they brought their families to permanently reside in the Netherlands to live more prosperous lives. 622

Recently, this can also be said of Indonesian workers who work in the Netherlands. Although they live as low-wage workers, they keep working and survive in the Netherlands because they earn more money than if they were working in Indonesia. In the context of Muslims in the Netherlands, there is no big problem related to economic matters. Muslims can survive well economically in the Netherlands. However, there is another problem for them related to religious practices and the implementation of Islamic principles. The situation in the Netherlands, as a non-Muslim country, is challenging for some Muslims in regards to their religious, socio-cultural, economical, organizational, legal, and political duties. As a minority in a non-Muslim country, it is not enough to be just good Muslims; if they do not have the intention and desire to transfer their religion to future generations, the Muslim community will disappear and be affected by other communities in the Netherlands. 623

This is caused by the fact that Islam has just arrived in the Netherlands, a long time after Christianity. The position of Islam as compared to Christianity is rather weak, since Christianity has been the dominant religion in the Netherlands for many centuries and has had a great influence on Dutch society. Therefore, Christianity has historical roots in the shaping of Dutch society. It can be seen in the implementation of religious holidays in the Netherlands. The Dutch Constitution warrants religious freedom. Theoretically, all religions in Dutch society are considered equal and the Government remains neutral in religious affairs. 624 Subsequently, tolerance of minority practices lies in the principle of European liberal democracies that allows and protects minorities and their social practices. 625 However, the implementation of this principle in practice differs from its theoretical terms.

In practice, only Christian religious holidays are acknowledged by the Government. In Dutch society, Christian religious holidays are always public holidays for all communities, whilst festivals of other religions are not celebrated publicly. A controversial conflict happened in 1984; a Muslim woman asked to have a day off without getting paid to celebrate the Breaking of the Fast at the end of Ramaḍān. Her employer refused it but she still did not come to work, and she was fired immediately. She appealed to the Court of Den Bosch. The Court ruled that she was right and principally she had a right to have a day off to celebrate her religious holiday. However, the Supreme Court refuted the case on the grounds that Christian holidays have been culturally accepted in Dutch society as a day off regardless of faith or religion. For this reason, religious holidays of Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism cannot be seen as equal to Christian holidays. Therefore, there is a distinction between Christian holidays, as it is the largest

622 M. Sahin, P. Nijkamp, T. Baycan-Levent, Multicultural Diversity and Migrant Entrepreneurship: the Case of the Netherlands, ITU A|Z, vol: 4, no: 1, 2007, p. 28. 623 M. Ali Kettani, Muslim Minorities in the World Today, (London: Mansel Publishing, 1986), p.1. See also Sujadi, “The Policies of Young Muslim Association in Europe for its Indonesian Muslims in Dutch Society: A Re-examination”, in Al-Jami’ah Journal vol. 44, No. 1, (Yogyakarta: UIN Sunan Kalijaga, 2006), p. 54-55.

624 N. J. G. Kaptein, “Islam in Present-Day”, p. 203. 625 Maleha Malik, “Accommodating Muslims in Europe: Opportunities for Minority fiqh”, in ISIM Newsletter, No.13

(Leiden: ISIM, 2003), p. 10.

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society has seen increasing tensions to immigrant groups, especially Muslims. This started after the 9/11 attacks, which presented assumed global threats and tensions of Islam towards other countries, including the Netherlands. The murder of film director and columnist Theo van Gogh in a public space on November 2, 2004 by Mohammed Bouyeri has also caused a series of arson attacks and a wave of threats to the Muslim community in the Netherlands. 627 Following the murder of Theo van Gogh,

a number of Muslim websites appeared praising the murder and making death threats against other people.

After the murder of Theo van Gogh, the Netherlands has made a significant effort to develop training for imāms (religious leaders) at public universities. After the murder, Dutch politicians proposed that imāms trained outside the Netherlands should no longer have the right to preach in Dutch mosques. The Parliament decided that mosques were only entitled to employ imāms that had been trained in the Netherlands from 2008 onwards. 628

In 2005, a survey was conducted among Turkish and Moroccan residents in the Netherlands which showed that they experienced discrimination due to their country of origin, religion and/or skin color during the preceding years. This survey reported that Moroccans experienced more serious incidents of discrimination and a wider range of incidents than Turks. Young people were reported to have more experiences as compared to older people. However, the actual level of discrimination toward the Muslim community is hard to determine. It is believed to have been more widespread in 2008 as a result of the

debate on Muslims in part because of the release of the film “Fitna.” 629 This film, released by politician Geert Wilders, is made to argue that Islam encourages acts of terrorism, anti-Semitism, violence against

women, violence and subjugation of infidels and against homosexuals. It is indicated that Islamophobia in the Netherlands increased considerably after 2000. Strengthened

by terrorist attacks, the war on terror, and the fear of terrorism, negative attitudes towards Muslims have been increasing in Dutch society. These tensions happen since there are many immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants, who have not gone back to their home country. Because of this, many Dutch people are concerned that Muslims with their traditions, attitudes and practices, will damage democracy in Dutch society. They fear that the existence of the Muslims will destroy Dutch values such as individuality and openness. They fear that the immigrants’ nationalism towards their home countries will replace the Dutch political system. The obedient role of women in Muslim cultures pertaining marriages, especially of underage girls, as have been reported in other European countries, clash with Dutch and European values. 630

It seems that the social conditions within the Netherlands are not really supportive of the position of Muslims within Dutch society. The serious problem faced by the Muslim community relates to the social interests of the majority. The process of assimilation can effectively destroy the characteristics of Islam as a minority religion if the Muslim community is badly organized. The degradation of Islamic identity because of other religions or cultures will increase. For example, as Kettani said, the phenomenon of

626 W. A. Shadid and P.S. van Koningsveld, “Institutionalism and Integration of Islam in The Netherlands”, in The Integration of Islam and Hinduism in Western Europe, (The Hague: Kok Pharos, 1991), p. 109.

627 Frank J. Buijs, “Muslims in the Netherlands: Social and Political Developments after 9/11”, in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 35, No. 3, (London: Routledge, 2009), p. 422.

628 Albrecht Fues, “Islamic Religious Education in Western Europe: Models of Integration and the German Approach”, in Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, vol. 27. no. 2 (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 221. 629 Sadik Harchaoui and Team, The Position of Muslims, p. 33. 630 Ervin Staub, “Preventing Violence and Terrorism and Promoting Positive Relations between Dutch and Muslim