In the spotlight : a blessing and a curse for immigrant women in the Netherlands

Within a short period of time, the Netherlands transformed itself from a relatively tolerant country to a nation that called for cultural assimilation, tough measures and neo-patriotism. The discursive genre of `new realism' played a crucial role in this retreat from multiculturalism, and that had a dual effect for immigrant women. Whereas formerly they were virtually ignored by both the integration and the emancipation policy, since the triumph of new realism they are in the centre of both policy lines and there is now more policy attention for their needs and interests. Yet in the public debate the culture card is drawn frequently and immigrant women are portrayed as either victims or accomplices of their oppressive cultures. Policy makers and practitioners in the field, however, succeeded in avoiding cultural stereotyping by developing cultural-sensitive measures, while naming them in culture-blind terms

Pillarization and Islam: Church-state traditions and Muslim claims for recognition in the Netherlands

Public policy responses to Muslim immigration in the Netherlands are often presented as crucially shaped by ‘pillarization’. This article takes issue with this perception by challenging two related assumptions. On the one hand, that the Dutch church-state model is essentially about pillarization and, on the other, the idea that strategies of pillarization were applied to accommodate Muslim immigrant groups. The latter claim comprises three main hypotheses: first, that there actually exists an Islamic pillar in the Netherlands; second, that the forming of an Islamic pillar was a policy objective; and third, that pillarization shaped institutional and discursive opportunities for the institutionalization of Islam. On the basis of a reconstruction of public policy over 35 years, the article concludes that pillarization did not play this crucial role in shaping the development of Islam in the Netherlands

Dutch 'Multiculturalism' Beyond the Pillarisation Myth

This article is about the state of multiculturalist politics in the netherlands. It assesses the popular claim that a paradigmatic change has occurred in the netherlands due to events such as 9/11 and the murders of pim fortuyn and theo van gogh. The article argues that although changes are significant, both in discourse and in practice, they must be viewed as part of a process of rethinking the relation between newcomers and the state that goes back as far as the end of the 1980s. Long-standing claims about the exemplary form of multiculturalism in the netherlands were always ambiguous at least, or even hard to sustain. The article criticises the persistent idea that dutch accommodating integration policies since the end of the 1970s are an extension of the historical tradition of ‘pillarisation’. Only by going beyond this myth can we understand why recent changes are much less of a break with the past, and why multiculturalism was never accepted or practised as fully as has often been suggested in more stereotypical depictions of dutch integration policy

Improving relations with Islam through religious and values education

In a world disposed towards division and the inevitable conflicts that go with it, misunderstanding and misrepresentation are rife. When these things occur in relation to religious and/or values differences, a sound and effective religious and/or values education will respond with a content and pedagogy aimed at enhancing knowledge, understanding and proper representation. In the case of Islam, misunderstanding and misrepresentation are persistent, both within and beyond the Muslim world, increasingly putting at risk the fabric and security of our civilization. The task before religious and values education of dealing with this reality in a constructive and beneficial way is therefore particularly urgent. These areas of the curriculum cannot however carry the burden for such education alone. Especially if the dominant epistemology (or knowledge emphasis) in the school or system is indisposed to dealing with these sorts of content, even the best laid religious or values education programme will struggle to achieve its goals for want of support and effective pedagogy. Ensuring that an appropriate epistemology and attached pedagogy are in place is therefore our first consideration