According to Van der Valk (2012), the exact meaning of ”Islamophobia” was often discussed nationwide and worldwide. The term was mainly used in the world of social movements and it was not until the mid-nineties, that it became gradually used in politics and science. The term ”Islamophobia” was first introduced by the British independent race equality think tank Runnymede Trust as a concept in 1991 in its pioneering report ”Islamophobia: a challenge for us all” and defined as ”unfounded hostility towards Muslims, and therefore fear or dislike of all or most Muslims”. After this publication, Islamophobia was more and more generally recognised and many scientists discussed this phenomenon in several reports, mostly referring to the Runnymede Trust. The Cambridge Dictionary defines ”Islamophobia” as follows: unreasonable dislike or fear of, and prejudice against, Muslims or Islam (2017).
1.1 Motivation for this research
1.1.1 Reported anti-Muslim incidents
Islamophobia is an important issue in Dutch society and has increased remarkably the last couple of years. In 2016, the Dutch police found that the ADV (Antidiscriminatievoorzieningen) and internet anti-discrimination hotlines such as Meldpunt Internet Discriminatie (MiND) and Meldpunt Discriminatie Internet (MDI), registered more discrimination incidents and statements of discrimination in 2015 than the year before by Muslims in the Netherlands because of their religion. People who have experienced discrimination or witnessed an incident can report this at an ADV. Since the implementation of the Wet Gemeentelijke Antidiscriminatievoorzieningen (Law Municipal Antidiscrimination Facilities) in 2009, all Dutch municipalities should provide access to its citizens to an ADV. The internet anti-discrimination hotlines MiND and MDI were two different organizations with almost the same name, treating similar cases. As of 2017, MDI handed down all of their tasks to MiND, resulting in the existence of only one internet anti-discrimination hotline.
In 2014, the police registered 206 anti-Muslim incidents and in 2015 the number of incidents were 439. The ADV’s received 165 reports in 2014 and 240 in 2015 (Politie Nederland, 2016). In January 2015, hotline ”Meldpunt Meld Islamofobie!” was founded right after the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris (2015) and registered 158 anti-Muslim incidents. The hotline states that the number of violence related incidents against Muslims and mosques strongly increased after the terrorist attack in Paris.
1.1.2. European Agency for Fundamental Rights
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) is an independent, decentralised agency of the EU and supports to ensure that the fundamental rights of EU-citizens are protected. The FRA researched the experiences of Muslim immigrants and their EU-born children, revealing that Muslims in Europe have been facing more discrimination in the last ten years. Compared to the European average, Dutch Muslims experience discrimination more often (”Second European Union Minorities and Discrimination Survey, Muslims ‘Selected findings September 2017).
1.1.3. Political parties
Some of the political parties represented in the Dutch parliament often criticise the Islam and their political agenda contains action points about the Islam. The most extreme party in the field of anti-Islamic thoughts is the Partij voor de Vrijheid (PVV). In November 2006, the PVV participated in the Dutch general selection for the first time ever. The PVV is known as populist, with both conservative, liberal, ”right-wing” and ”left-wing” point of views. The party believes that ”Dutch society is Islamizing” and particularly opposes’ to this so-called issue (Documentatiecentrum Nederlandse Politieke Partijen, 2017). The first goal on its election programme is ”De-Islamization of the Netherlands” and consists of eight measures to achieve this. The political leader of the PVV, Geert Wilders is famous throughout the world for his provocative anti-Islam statements and actions.
FvD, SGP
1.1.4 Anti-Islamic organization Pegida
It is crucial that this social challenge is researched and mapped to prevent further growth and decrease the number of (violence related) incidents as a result of Islamophobia.
1.2 Problem definition
At this moment, there are no specific laws concerning Islamophobia thus there is no accurate policy handling this issue. However, there are laws with reference to discrimination in general. For example, Article 1 of ”The Constitution of the Kingdom of the Netherlands” is as follows: ”All persons in the Netherlands shall be treated equally in equal circumstances. Discrimination on the grounds of religion, belief, political opinion, race or sex or on any other grounds whatsoever shall not be permitted” (Rijksoverheid, 2008). Obviously, this law can be applied to cases concerning Islamophobia, but it does not solve the actual problem. Therefore, this research will analyse the current approach of the Dutch parliament to combat the spread of Islamophobia in the Netherlands.
In comparison, Canada’s anti-Islamophobia legislation, which was adopted early 2017, will be discussed in this research. How does Canada deal with Islamophobia and could the Dutch Parliament learn from the Canadian experience?
1.3 Research questions
This research is based on the following research question:
”What efforts could be made by the Dutch parliament to combat the spread of Islamophobia in the Netherlands?”
In order to answer this question, four sub questions were formulated. Firstly, the manifestation of Islamophobia in the Netherlands will be discussed, secondly how the Dutch parliament has dealt with Islamophobia so far will be described. Then, the proposed measures in the parliament to prevent Islamophobia will be explained and finally, the anti-Islamophobia legislation in Canada will be explained.
Sub questions are:
1. How is Islamophobia manifested in the Netherlands?
2. How has the Dutch parliament dealt with the spread of Islamophobia so far?
3. What measures to prevent Islamophobia have been proposed in the Dutch parliament and what are the outcomes?
4. What kind of legislation does Canada institute to combat the spread of Islamophobia?
1.4 Relevance/objective
The purpose of this research is to discover what the Dutch parliament could undertake to combat the spread of Islamophobia in the Netherlands. Socially, it is interesting to research Islamophobia in the Netherlands because it is a major social issue mainly affecting the Muslim community in the Netherlands. ‘.
Chapter 2 Methodology
This research reveals what efforts could be made by the Dutch parliament to combat the spread of Islamophobia in the Netherlands. In this section, the research methods used to provide the findings of the research will be explained. Both desk research and field research were used as well as quantitative and qualitative data. Furthermore, two interviews were conducted amongst two experts.
2.1 Secondary data
According to ReviseSociology (2017), secondary data is ”information which has been collected previously, by someone else, other than the researcher. Secondary data can either be qualitative, such as diaries, newspapers or government reports or quantitative, as with official statistics, such as league tables”.
For this research, mainly secondary data also known as desk research, were used in order to gather information and data. The research tools used for this paper included: online and academic journals, academic papers, books, reports, related blog entries, universities’ online databases and libraries.
An example of a useful report is a report from the Dutch police with statistics on discrimination in the Netherlands. Several studies on Islamophobia were consulted and referred to in this paper, one of the leading authors of this research is Ineke van der Valk. Van der Valk is a specialist in the area of Islamophobia, discrimination, racism extremism, (de)radicalization, ethnic relations and diversity in multicultural societies and the history of immigrants in the Netherlands (Ineke van der Valk, n.d.). She has been active since 2012 for Monitor Moslim Discriminatie (Monitor Muslim discrimination). Furthermore, data was retrieved from the FRA, EU’s decentralised agency. Additionally, government documents from both the Netherlands and Canada provided information for this research. These government documents include information on combatting Islamophobia and anti-Islamophobia legislation.
2.2 Primary data ‘ interviews
Primary data is ”data originated for the first time by the researcher through direct efforts and experience, specifically for the purpose of addressing his research problem. Also known as the first hand or raw data” (Key Differences, 2016).”Even though the amount of information on Islamophobia is enormous, the need for supplementary information on this topic was great. In order to gain specific information from experts, two interviews were conducted.
The first interview was conducted with Tunahun Kuzu, the party chairman of the Dutch political party DENK. Mr. Kuzu has been a member of the Dutch House of Representatives since 2012. He was first active on behalf of the Partij van de Arbeid (PvdA) and in 2014 he left PvdA, launching his own fraction groep Kuzu/ ”zt”rk that changed its name to DENK in 2017. Mr. Kuzu has been politically active for ten years and his party’s ideology is known as multiculturalist and social democratic. Mr. Kuzu is a Muslim and strives for a society where no minorities are being discriminated. The interview with Mr. Kuzu was conducted at his office at DENK’s head quarter in Rotterdam. The interview was arranged on very short notice, therefore there was no time to send the list with intended questions on forehand to the interviewee. Some of the answers arose spontaneously, depending on the answer to the previous question.
The second interview was conducted with Cemil Yilmaz, captain of the Islam-inspired party Nida which is running for the municipal elections at The Hague. Mr. Yilmaz is a social innovator and a social scientist dealing with inclusion, acceptation and social issues. He is a partner at IZI Solutions (IZI), a social enterprise that fights against racial and social inequality and works towards an equal sociality in which the diversity of each individual is respected and appreciated. Furthermore, he is an author at the Dutch left-wing opinion website Joop.nl. The list with intended questions was sent on forehand to the interviewee. Due to a tight schedule, the interview was conducted telephonically.
2.3 Ethical considerations
Considering the sensitivity and the right of the interviewees, ethical consideration is of great importance. In order to ensure the comfort of the interviewees, an informed consent is implemented. Both the interviewees agreed to being recorded during the interview on the condition that the sounds recordings remain private to the interviewer. With permission of the interviewees a transcription of the interview will be included to the research. The interview transcripts were provided to the respondents before enclosure and a copy of the dissertation will be issued to them.
2.4 Limitations
interview met extreem-rechts, niet gelukt, survey of interview doen volgende keer, time pressure
lack of resources geen psychological onderzoek kunnen doen
weinig onderzoek in NL.
Chapter 3 Literature review
2.1 Islamophobia in the Netherlands
Since 9/11, and especially since the Dutch film director Theo van Gogh was murdered in 2004, Muslims and the Islam are often portrayed negatively in the Netherlands. Expressions of Islamophobia can be found for example on the Internet, in statements from political parties and in public spaces such as mosques. The Dutch anti-discrimination policy is under a lot of pressure since this Islamophobic ideology has reached the centre of the political power. (Van der Valk, 2012)
For the sake of this purpose’
”When talking about Islamophobia, we mean anti-Muslim racism. As Anti-Semitism studies have shown, the etymological components of a word do not necessarily point to its complete meaning, nor to how it is used. Such is also the case with Islamophobia studies. Islamophobia has become a well-known term used in academia as much as in the public sphere. Criticism of Muslims or of the Islamic religion is not necessarily Islamophobic. Islamophobia is about a dominant group of people aiming at seizing, stabilising and widening their power by means of defining a scapegoat ‘ real or invented ‘ and excluding this scapegoat from the resources/rights/definition of a constructed ‘we’. Islamophobia operates by constructing a static ‘Muslim’ identity, which is attributed in negative terms and generalised for all Muslims. At the same time, Islamophobic images are fluid and vary in different contexts as Islamophobia tells us more about the Islamophobe than it tells us about the Muslims/Islam’. (Bayrakli & Hafez, 2016)
2.1.1. History
”Anti-Muslim hostility as a general phenomenon can be traced further back to the first Gulf war in 1991, the Rushdie affair in 1988, or even the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 (Modood & Ahmad, 2007;”Poynting & Mason, 2007). Across several historical episodes, the perception of individual Muslims as violent led to an association of Muslims in general with violence and threat and the perception of Muslim communities in Western countries as a ‘fifth column’ of a globally threatening aggressive Islam”. (Imhoff & Recker, 2012, pp. 811-812)
2.1.2 Current situation