Islamic Schools in the Netherlands: Expansion or Marginalization?

Abstract

In the Netherlands, the constitutional freedom of education offers the opportunity for the growing number of Muslims to establish state-funded Islamic schools. At the moment there are 46 Islamic primary schools; a number of schools are in the process of being established and there is still a need for an additional 120 such schools. Right from the start Islamic education has been a highly controversial issue. Events such as 9/11 and the murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh have fueled the discussion, which turned from open-minded and accommodating to critical and even demonstrably negative. This article focuses on Islamic schools in the Netherlands: how they have evolved, their objectives, their achievements, and the problems they have encountered - and continue to encounter. Specific attention is paid to a number of empirical studies that focus on the functioning of Islamic schools.