Dutch Muslim Research Articles

Traces of Islam in Minority Lands: The Historical Journey of Muslim Civilization in the Netherlands

<em>This article explores the history and dynamics of the Dutch Muslim minority community in relation to the broader context of Islam. The introduction of Islam into the Netherlands can be traced back to various historical events and waves of migration. Initially, Arab traders played a pivotal role in introducing Islam to the region through their commercial activities. Subsequently, the Ottoman Turks contributed to the spread of Islam in the Netherlands, particularly during periods of trade and diplomacy. However, one of the most significant chapters in this narrative unfolded after World War II, when a new wave of immigrants sought asylum and refuge in the Netherlands. These immigrants brought with them their diverse cultural backgrounds and religious beliefs, including Islam. This era marked a transformative period in Dutch society, shaping its multicultural landscape and religious composition. It's noteworthy that the Netherlands is recognized as one of the most secular countries in Europe. This secular ethos is enshrined in the country's governance and policies, which prioritize individual freedom of religion and belief. Unlike some other nations, the Dutch state upholds the principle of religious freedom, allowing its citizens to choose their faith without coercion or compulsion. In conducting this study, the literature research method was employed. This approach involves a comprehensive review and analysis of various scholarly works, publications, and primary sources available in libraries. The researcher leverages a wide array of resources, such as books, academic journals, newspapers, and archival materials, to gain insights into the historical context and contemporary dynamics of Islam and its practitioners within the Dutch context.</em>

Multiplex and messy, not essentialist and patriarchal: How Muslims connect religiosity differently to transgender people’s rights than women’s or homosexual people’s rights

ABSTRACT Previous quantitative studies argue that European Muslims oppose gender egalitarianism due to patriarchal religious interpretations. However, this overlooks the diversity in the gendered meanings Muslim people attach to their religion, and that these might be impacted by exclusionary narratives that ‘Islam opposes core Western values’. This study uniquely compares how religiosity and exclusions shape support for women’s equality and tolerance of homosexual people (‘core Western values’) versus tolerance of transgender people (not central in exclusionary narratives on ‘Western values’). Regression analyses on MI-ID data covering 518 Dutch Muslims show, first, that women decouple their religiosity from gender values, while men connect their religiosity differently to varying gender values. For instance, among men, Quran reading decreases support for women’s equality, is unrelated to tolerance of homosexual people, and increases tolerance of transgender people. Additionally, Muslim people who perceive greater group discrimination were found to attach more patriarchal interpretations to their religion concerning women’s rights, not connect their religiosity differently to homosexuality, but hold more egalitarian interpretations concerning transgender people. Altogether, rather than a patriarchal monolith, Islamic religiosity also engenders empathy of other marginalized groups and egalitarian values – especially when those values are not portrayed as ‘core Western values unbefitting of Islam’.

“It is for God to judge”1: Understanding Why and When Islamic Religiosity Inhibits Homotolerance

ABSTRACT In Western Europe, Muslims’ cultural attitudes take center stage in debates in media and politics. In these debates, the claim that Muslims’ religious interpretations cause them to be intolerant of homosexual people is often repeated. While previous public opinion studies have time and again shown that Muslims are indeed on average more homonegative than other people, the present study theoretically explores and empirically tests whether those differences are because of Islamic religiosity. This assumption is often made but has yet to be empirically addressed. Using unique data on young Muslim adults in the Netherlands and more direct measurements of religious interpretations on homosexuality, we find that Islamic religiosity as such hardly fuels intolerance of homosexual people. In fact, our results show that even believing that Islam forbids homosexuality does not necessarily fuel Muslims’ intolerance of homosexual people. Rather, what is pivotal, is whether such beliefs are coupled with a willingness to judge, rather than leaving judgment to Allah. We conclude that only among young adult Dutch Muslims who believe it is up to them to judge homosexuality, do homonegative interpretations of Islam feed into intolerance of homosexual people.

Understanding the Political and Religious Implications of Turkish Civil Religion in The Netherlands: A Critical Discourse Analysis of ISN Friday Sermons

Civil religion encompasses the implicit religious values of a nation manifested through public rituals, symbols, and ceremonies at significant locations and on special occasions. The emergence of new religious symbolisms reflects the evolving structure of religious authority. The Islamic Foundation Netherlands (Islamitische Stichting Nederland (ISN)), the largest mosque umbrella organization in the Netherlands, holds significant influence in shaping the religious beliefs and ethical standards of the Turkish–Dutch Muslim community. Furthermore, the ISN possesses the ability to construct and authenticate discourses that redefine the conceptualization of the ‘self’ and the ‘other.’ In early 2017, following increased criticism of sermons written by the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs (PRA/Diyanet) in the Netherlands, the ISN, as the Dutch branch of Diyanet, started composing its own Friday sermons in both Turkish and Dutch. This article aims to examine the discursive features of the Friday sermons delivered between 1 January 2017 and 1 January 2023 and explore their connection to civil religion. The study employs Fairclough’s three-dimensional critical discourse analysis (CDA) framework and Wodak’s discourse–historical approach (DHA) to analyze the Friday sermons. The findings reveal that the civil religious discourses advanced by the ISN possess both unifying and divisive potential. However, the collected empirical evidence suggests that state-sponsored civil religion, emphasizing Turkish nationalism and Islamism, dominates the liberal and pluralistic form of civil religion.

A comparative study on the perceptions of Dutch and British Muslim leadership regarding social-political challenges

PurposeThis paper aims to analyze and compare attitudes and perceptions of Muslim leadership toward society and politics based on their personal experiences in England and the Netherlands.Design/methodology/approachThis study provides valuable insights into how Muslim leadership experiences socio-political realities from own perspectives. The comparative analysis of Muslim leadership in England and the Netherlands highlights the unique qualities of each community, while also demonstrating shared communal awareness regarding political participation and concerns regarding the rise of Islamophobia and populism.FindingsThe study reveals significant differences between Dutch and British Muslim leadership regarding attitudes toward politics. While the Dutch political system enables minorities to have political parties, British leaders prefer peaceful resistance, internal cooperation and voting power for influence. Muslim communities in both countries face similar challenges, such as access to politics, rising Islamophobia and populism. However, there are variations in leadership maturity and attitudes toward communal unification and political participation.Research limitations/implicationsEspecially Dutch Muslims were much more open toward cooperation once approached. The biggest challenge was to get into the Muslim communities in England. Even though British Muslims showed a much greater aptitude toward their civic duties, British Muslims were much more careful and wished that interviews were written down instead of being recorded. But once the author was part of the community, community leaders were more accepting and tolerant towards the author's presence. From that point on, to be recommended (snowballing) became easier.Practical implicationsThis research shows clearly how different ethnic Muslim communities differ across two different countries. Even though both countries have their own advantages and disadvantages, understanding how civic responsibilities and the progressive development of minority attitudes can be best approached is important to policymakers.Social implicationsOne major social implication is the way minorities perceive social and political equality and how these minority expectations can be met. Research shows that there is much fear and anxiety to growing sentiments of populism and right-wing appraisals. For a better integration and inclusion, a sound assessment of social and religious expectations is crucial.Originality/valueAs far as the author knows, there are no qualitative research studies that compare Muslim minority conditions in the Netherlands and England. This research makes this even more interesting for how to create policy that contributes to a European understanding of Muslim existence in Europe and a common European identity. This is crucial for a more stable and stronger European future.

The Theology and Ethics of Vaccination Receptivity among Dutch Muslims

Muslim tradition has given significant attention to plagues and pandemics based on scriptural texts and theological-ethical norms. Yet, the outbreak of COVID-19 evoked varied reactions among Muslims due to enormous innovations in healthcare and media coverage. COVID-19 vaccination strategies demonstrate how Dutch Muslim attitudes are influenced by factors beyond Islamic theology of pandemics. Other reasons may be behind the unwillingness of some Muslims to vaccinate. These could be traced to certain readings and (mis)interpretations of relevant theological texts, shared cultural schemas among like-minded people, fear of vaccination, lack of clarity, online misinformation, language barriers and political mistrust in local authorities and global health measures. These conclusions are backed up by fieldwork research among Dutch Muslim detainees as an example of what might be called a “local vaccination culture.” It demonstrates that the vaccination decisions are pragmatic and less religiously informed. However, the role imams, religious leaders and representative organs play in this process should not be underestimated. As counter-narratives of antivaccinations arguments, theological incentives have a significant impact on Muslim attitudes towards restrictive measures and vaccination policies.

Meedoen ondanks of dankzij religie?

A key principle in Dutch society is that everyone should and can participate equally. However, Muslim citizens do not participate as much in society as other Dutch citizens. This paper explores when Dutch Muslims’ religious practices increase or decrease the likelihood to participate in formal and informal citizen initiatives by exploring the role of experienced discrimination and political trust as moderators on the individual level. Using MI-ID survey data, logistic regression analyses test hypotheses based on socialization and social identity theory. Results show that the individual context is key. Practicing collective religiosity is positively related to participation in an informal citizens’ initiative, and this effect is stronger when more discrimination is perceived. We moreover find that experiencing more political trust brings about a negative association between practicing individual religiosity and participation in an informal citizens’ initiative. With respect to formal citizens’ initiatives, we conclude that those who more often practice individual religiosity are more likely to participate, and that this association is stronger when more political trust and discrimination is perceived. As such, we conclude that insights in these conditions on the individual level offer insight in mixed findings in previous research.

Where are you really from? Understanding misrecognition from the experiences of French and Dutch Muslim women students

We investigate experiences of misrecognition through comparative focus groups with headscarf-wearing Muslim women students in France (N = 46) and in the Netherlands (N = 32). In both countries, women reported experiencing misrecognition across four interrelated dimensions: (1) totalising misrecognition, having their Muslim identity highlighted at the expense of other group affiliations; (2) membership misrecognition, having their national belonging denied; (3) content misrecognition, having negative characteristics associated with their religious identity, and (4) invisibility, having their voices unheard in society and/or their identities excluded from (public) professions. Participants conceptualised misrecognition as a product of deficient intergroup (Muslims vs. non-Muslims) contact and as being worse in France. French women felt relatively more invisible in the public sphere than their Dutch counterparts and perceived politicians across the political spectrum as an important source of misrecognition. These findings suggest that misrecognition is present in Europe, and potentially worse in France, raising the question about what measures might be taken to counter this form of group-based exclusion.

Introduction to Special Issue: Islam and/in Education in The Netherlands

This article provides information on the current Dutch educational system, paying special attention to the position of Islam in formal, non-formal and informal education. It briefly sketches the history of the so-called “pillarised educational system”, a system in which the 19th century Dutch Christian education system evolved into a compartmentalised system with the pillars of Catholic, Protestant and humanistic education. At the end of the 20th century, a fourth pillar of Islamic education was founded by Dutch Muslim parents. Convinced that religious upbringing in the family and participation in mosque youth clubs constituted only the beginning of the process of becoming a good Muslim, Moroccan and Turkish parents supported the foundation of formal Islamic education in Dutch Islamic schools. This article describes developments in formal, non-formal and informal Islamic education in the light of children’s rights to religious education and parents’ rights to religious upbringing. Religious identity development, including religious literacy training, is presented as an important aspect of educating children to be(come) good Muslims—a process in which parents at home, imams and volunteers at the mosque, as well as teachers at school, play an important role.

Who Should I Trust and Follow?

Abstract In this article, I argue that Islamic authority is being made between online and offline environments used by young Muslims, between religious experts and ‘laymen’. Youngsters try to find their way and mosques try to direct and inform Muslims about and through online sources and strengthen their online presence. This article analyses four online discussions between young Dutch Muslims of Moroccan descent on the forum Marokko.nl. These discussions about Islamic ideologies, imams and mosques show how the participants try to convince each other of their points of view. I intend to contribute to the ongoing debates on the relationship between religion and cyberspace, and particularly on how the construct of religious authority is mediated and negotiated among youngsters by zooming into and analysing some excerpts from their online discussions.

The role of mosque education in the integration of Turkish–Dutch youth: perspectives of Muslim parents, imams, mosque teachers and key stakeholders

ABSTRACT This study addresses the perceived role of mosque education in the integration of Turkish–Dutch Muslim children in the Netherlands. It is based on interviews with imams, mosque teachers, parents of mosque students, chairs of migrant organizations, policymakers and experts (N = 75). Most respondents (N = 49) view mosque education as potentially aiding the integration of the children, often depending on whether mosques adopt this as a policy and train imams and mosque teachers accordingly. Mosque education is perceived by many as contributing to integration by teaching the children values of respect and tolerance, offering positive identity affirmation to children’s stigmatized Islamic identity and countering youth radicalization by providing messages of moderation. While sixteen participants see mosque education as irrelevant for integration, ten participants voice concerns about the potential of mosque education to cause value confusion, alienate students from the Dutch society and indoctrinate them with Turkish state propaganda. Implications are discussed.

Do religious identity and media messages join forces? Young Dutch Muslims’ identification management strategies in the Netherlands

This study investigates, using an experimental study, the consequences of negative and positive media messages on young Muslims by gaining insight into who, and under which circumstances, engages in certain collective or individual identity-management strategies. Based on Social Identity Theory (SIT) and previous literature, we expect that negative and more positive media messages moderate the relationship between the degree of identification with the religious group and the application of identity-management strategies. Factor analyses illustrate the presence of at least three types of strategies: collective-fight strategies (meaning one is willing to fight for the group), collective flight-strategies (that entail no change of the status quo) and individual strategies (strategies that solely benefit the individual). Contributions are made empirically and theoretically. Empirically, we measure and group all proposed identity-management strategies based on our findings among the same research population. Theoretically, we hypothesise about how both negative and positive media messages condition the role of religious saliency for Muslims’ identity-management strategies. Results from a survey-embedded experiment among Dutch Moroccan and Turkish Muslims show that high identifiers are more likely to apply fight strategies, and less likely to apply individual strategies (in line with SIT). Regardless of tone, exposure to messages mentioning Muslims make the application of fight strategies more likely among high identifiers. Meanwhile lower identifiers feel a reduced need for change when exposed to more positive messages. These insights in the (mutual) role of religious identification and media messages shed new light on how media messages can bring about group distances, intergroup conflicts and intragroup cohesion and provide a stepping-stone for future research to further insight in the systemic and long-term implications thereof.

Making Space, Claiming Place

In the Netherlands, two new political parties have emerged within the last decade against the rising influence of right-wing populism. DENK and NIDA, founded mainly by Dutch Muslims with a migration background, have increasingly countered right-wing rhetoric in Dutch politics (verrechtsing) in which Islam is problematized. The role of media is fundamental in understanding these parties and their success in politics, as they are known for the ways they use social media as a venue for political and social engagement, and their critical attitude towards mainstream media. In this article, I explore the relationship between DENK and NIDA and mainstream media and analyze some of the ways DENK and NIDA use social media platforms to foster resistance towards dominant narratives on Islam and Muslims in Dutch society. This analysis shows that social media function as “third spaces” where these parties can “talk back” and discuss issues that concern Muslims, breaking free from places where their voices are marginalized.

Respect, freedom, citizenship: Muslim women’s secularities and perspectives on wellbeing

ABSTRACT The religiosity of people migrating into secular European countries has posed many questions for policymakers and scholars alike, particularly where it concerns Islam. Rather than opposing migrants’ religious identities with secular values, this article examines shifts and tensions between the ‘multiple secularities’ of Muslim women and integration policy alike, through an ethnography of wellbeing. Set in the Netherlands, it demonstrates that Muslim women of Pakistani background embrace a secularity characterised by respect and religious liberty but that despite a ‘modernisation’ of values, their religion remains the source of their secularity. Dutch integration policy, however, has shifted from a secularity accommodating religious diversity to one characterised by individual liberty (placed in opposition to religion), and, increasingly, towards the progress of a culturally homogeneous nation. By thus failing to recognise religious sources and alternative social dimensions of human wellbeing, Dutch policy risks undermining secular values generally and alienating Dutch Muslims specifically.

Likes, Comments, and Follow Requests: The Instagram User Experiences of Young Muslim Women in the Netherlands

Abstract Young Dutch Muslim women often lead complex existences: on the one hand, they may be considered “other” to European culture and expected to conform to so-called Western values; on the other hand, they can be subject to scrutiny within their cultural and religious communities. This article explores young Dutch Muslim women’s online practices by focusing on Instagram. By discussing the theories of third spaces (Bhabha, 1994; Pennington, 2018b) and composite habitus (Bourdieu, 1990; Waltorp, 2015), we investigate the following questions: How do young Dutch Muslim women use Instagram? What are the opportunities and constraints that they face when using Instagram? Through qualitative interviews, we discovered that Instagram helps young Dutch Muslim women express their identity in their own terms, but it presents negative aspects connected with privacy and surveillance. We then discuss the need not to generalize Muslim women’s experiences and instead to consider their selective use of Instagram and heterogeneity within Islam.

The Hybrid Researcher: Entering the Field, Ethnography and Research among Dutch Muslim Women from 2009 to 2019

This paper focuses on ethnography among Dutch Muslim women who chose to practice Islam (whether they were born Muslim, known as ‘Newly practicing Muslims,’ or they chose to convert, known as ‘New Muslims’), which is often considered by the native Dutch population as a religion oppressive to women. This paper is part of a larger project that seeks to understand how these Dutch Muslim women build their identity in a way that it is both Dutch and Muslim, whether or not they mix Dutch parameters in their Muslim identity, while at the same time intersplicing Islamic principles in their Dutch senses of self. This study is based on an annual ethnography conducted in the city of Amsterdam from September 2009 to October 2019, that combines insights taken from in-depth interviews with Dutch Muslimas, observations in gatherings for Quranic and Religious studies, observations in a mosque located in a block of neighborhoods with a high percentage of immigrant and Muslim populations, and one-time events occurring during special times (i.e., Ramadan, the summer, Christmas, and the Burka Ban). This paper has a special focus on the ethnography and the positionality of the author as a researcher who is both an insider and outsider in this specific field and her subjective experiences that could be methodologically relevant for other scholars and ethnographers. This paper will explore the techniques that helped the author enter the field, collect data for this ethnography and the construction of knowledge in this specific field, including the insider–outsider axis, code switching, emotions and assumptions in the field and positionality, which will all be explained in detail. This paper takes the reader on the journey of entering the field and shows them the various techniques that were used to enter the field in order to build report and trust between the researcher and the participants in this study.

\u201cThey have no taste in Morocco.\u201d Home furnishing, belonging, and notions of religious (im)perfection among white Dutch and Flemish converts in Morocco

This article focuses on furnishing practices in the domestic space of the homes of white Flemish and Dutch Muslim female converts to Islam who made hijra (Islamic migration) to Morocco. Fed up with European Islamophobia and longing for a place that supports and strengthens their faith, they decided to emigrate to a Muslim country. However, remarkably, once settled in Morocco, many experience discontent with regard to a perceived “lack of true Islam” in the country. To gain insight into the positions and experiences of these women, I look at how they create a sense of belonging through furnishing practices in the domestic space of their new homes. I am interested in how various senses of belonging are expressed and come together in relation to their construction of religious belonging and place, and are renegotiated through domestic decoration practices. Building on literature on home, transnational migration, conversion, and material religion, I demonstrate that mechanisms of distinction and notions of religious (im)perfection intersect in the organization of the domestic space. Based on ethnographic accounts, I argue that my interlocutors bring a “culturalized” West-European Islam to Morocco, with tastes and sensibilities that jostle uneasily against local Moroccan religious practices but also allows them to repair some of the privileges they lost upon their conversion in their homeland. Lastly, this article shows that it is through the engagement with mundane material forms, but also with absence and empty spaces, that Islam becomes present in their domestic spaces, enhancing the cultivation of their ethical selves.

Social Media Representations of the Pilgrimage to Mecca

Abstract In this article, we compare representations of the pilgrimage to Mecca posted on Facebook and Youtube by ‘ordinary’ pilgrims from Morocco and (semi)professional bloggers of Moroccan parentage in the Netherlands. We discuss how such posts challenge representations that circulate in the mainstream media in both countries about Islam in general and the hajj in particular. For Morocco we demonstrate that this kind of digital mediation of pilgrimage contests the ways in which the state-organized hajj is framed in Morocco’s national media. For the Netherlands, we argue that bloggers deconstruct dominant images of the Muslim ‘other’ in their self-presentations as specifically Dutch Muslim pilgrims by connecting the meanings they attribute to the pilgrimage to Mecca to universal issues.

Perceived discrimination against Dutch Muslim youths in the school context and its relation with externalising behaviour

ABSTRACT The role of the source of discrimination in relation to minority Muslim youths’ psychosocial well-being has received remarkably little attention in the post-9/11 climate. We have examined one of the aspects of psychosocial well-being that is given prominent attention in the media and public discourse, namely externalising behaviour. The article reports whether perceived discrimination by four sources (school peers and teachers, peers, and adults outside the school) is related to externalising behaviour. Links between perceived discrimination sources and externalising behaviour among Dutch Muslim youths (n = 308, ages 14–18) were examined through surveys. The quantitative findings guided our qualitative analyses of interviews with 10 Muslim Dutch youths on their accounts of discrimination in the school context. When comparing different discrimination sources, only teacher discrimination was found to predict externalising behaviour significantly (explaining 15% of the variance). The qualitative follow-up illustrated the significance of teacher discrimination: Some Muslim youths felt that their teachers held back their school progress, while others reported receiving insults from teachers about their parents’ native country and their religion. We argue that students’ perceived powerlessness within the teacher-student relationship deserves further attention, as some Dutch Muslim youths reported painful experiences, with perceived teacher discrimination linked to higher levels of externalising behaviour.

“We are already 1-0 behind”: Perceptions of Dutch Muslims on Islamophobia, securitisation, and de-radicalisation

ABSTRACT This article presents the findings of an explanatory study into the perceptions of Dutch Muslims in The Hague concerning pre-emptive counter-extremism and de-radicalisation policies. Based on 15 in-depth interviews with established Muslim community figures and a theoretical survey of 102 respondents from 8 mosques, it was found that pre-emptive interventions were perceived unfavourably due to their inherent misconceptualization of the Muslim lived experience. Respondents perceived wide-ranging negative labelling, viewing policies as not just ineffectual but also detrimental in a climate of persistent Islamophobia. In reality, these Dutch Muslims were faced with tackling the challenges of radicalisation based on their existing levels of social and cultural capital. Securitisation forces some Dutch Muslims into further retreat at a time of existing issues of social exclusion and political polarisation. This research highlights the need for greater sensitivity to Muslim community norms and values in developing policy in this area.