Islam in the Netherlands

This Master’s thesis examined identity and belonging in second-generation Bosnians born in the Netherlands. Currently, there is a nativist perspective prevalent in the Netherlands. This nativist perspective considers people who were ‘first there’ a native of a country. This perspective is translated in the binary used to differentiate between natives and non-natives, namely ‘autochthone’ for a person without a migrant background and ‘allochthone’ for a person with a migrant background. While it is never explicitly mentioned, natives are assumed to be white, Christian citizens without a migration background. A striking question that could follow out of this is: where does this place white migrants with a variety of religious beliefs? An example is Bosnians in the Netherlands. Bosnians are a multi-ethnic, multi-religious group, consisting of Muslim Bosniak, Catholic Bosnian Croats, and Orthodox Bosnians Serbs. During the violent war in Bosnia-Herzegovina that lasted from 1992 until 1995, many Bosnians fled the country and ended up staying in the Netherlands. Today, there is a Bosnian community in the Netherlands with a growing second-generation. While they are considered to be a successful group because of high education levels and low unemployment levels, how does this group experience the Netherlands themselves?

This thesis investigated self-reported identity, belonging, and possible factors that influence identity and belonging. This led to three research questions: How are identity and sense of belonging conceptualized in second-generation Bosnian migrants in the Netherlands? What factors influence identity and sense of belonging for second-generation Bosnian migrants? How do identity and belonging differ between the ethno-religious groups in second-generation Bosnian migrants? To answer these questions, 15 Bosnians born in the Netherlands were interviewed. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with five Bosnian Serbs, five Bosniaks, and five Bosnian Croats. Questions asked about identity, home, sense of belonging, and possible transnational relations that impact identity and belonging.

As for sense of belonging, findings showed that all second-generation Bosnians experience a feeling of being ‘in-between borders’ or in ‘no-man’s-land.’ Both countries feel like home, but neither country feels like home at the same time. As for identity, findings showed that Bosnians use different labels to identify themselves. Possibilities are Bosnian Dutch, Dutch Bosnian, (Bosnian) Serb Dutch, (Bosnian) Croat Dutch, (Bosnian) Serb, (Bosnian) Croat, and Dutch. The majority of second-generation Bosnians used a label that was a combination of a Bosnian and Dutch identity. Even the people who used an identity label that contained one country, all of the interviewees expressed being a product of both countries. So, both countries matter inbelonging and identity formation. However, it often is a feeling of being in-between identities and in-between countries. There are differences found between the three ethno-religious groups. Compared to the Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats, Bosniaks did not use ‘Dutch’ as their identity label. Bosniaks either identified as Bosnian or Bosnian Dutch. Bosniaks also shared that religion is an essential factor to explain feelings of non-belonging in the Netherlands. Thus, while all second-generation Bosnians experience feelings of not belonging in both countries, being Muslim is a crucial factor in this feeling of non-belonging for Bosniaks in the Netherlands. Out of these findings, it can be concluded that the nativist perspective plays a role in the conceptualization of identity and belonging in second-generation Bosnians in the Netherlands. Being a white Christian Dutch citizen with a Bosnian background results in feelings of non-belonging, but this particularly seems the case for white Muslim Dutch citizens with a Bosnian background. The possible explanation for these findings is that the stigmatization and criminalization of Muslims in the Netherlands lead to being treated as a non-native Dutch citizen and therefore to feeling like a non-native Dutch citizen. So, considering Dutch citizens with a migrant background and particularly Muslim Dutch citizens with a migrant background as non-natives result in feelings of being in ‘no-man’s-land.’

This chapter, published in the edited volume 'Muslims in Interwar Europe: A Transcultural Historical Perspective' edited by Bekim Agai, Umar Ryad and Mehdi Sajid (2016), discusses Muslim organisations in the Netherlands, with a particular focus on the Perkoempoelan Islam.

This article is an inquiry into how the transnational networks of Salafism in Europe and the Middle East are structured by looking at two case studies: one about a Lebanese-Palestinian preacher in Sweden and one about a Dutch preacher in the Netherlands and the UK. By presenting these case studies we explain the predominance of informality in these networks, and highlight the different ways in which they link European Salafi preachers to the Middle East, yielding different types of social capital. Our findings are based on ethnographic fieldwork in Lebanon, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK between 2007 and 2012.

On Tuesday, April 21, 2015 Grand Mufti Shawqi Allam of Egypt spoke in the Academy Building in Utrecht in the Netherlands. The Grand Mufti is not called 'grand' for nothing, he represents the highest Islamic authority in Egypt. But he is not independent, because when he was introduced to the public, not only his title was mentioned, his relationship with Egypt was mentioned too: he is the Grand Mufti of the Republic of Egypt. For us was standing a representative of a ‘church’ as well as of a state. The Mufti and his institute are not independent.

Presentation by the Dutch-Iranian author Kader Abdolah, who came to the Netherlands as an asylum seeker from Iran, learned Dutch and is today one of the most successful Dutch authors. Abdolah speaks about Literature as Resistance. Introduction by Jeroen Dewulf.

Moskeeën werden net als alle andere instanties in Nederland geconfronteerd met de coronapandemie. Nederland telt tussen 405 en 455 moskeeën die elk plek bieden aan tientallen tot duizenden bezoekers. Onder normale omstandigheden worden deze moskeeën vijf keer per dag bezocht.  Sommige gebeden worden door veel moslims in de moskee verricht, zoals het vrijdagmiddaggebed, de tarawīh-gebeden in de nachten van maand Ramadan en de gebeden op de dagen van het Offerfeest en Suikerfeest. Moskeebezoek is daarmee enerzijds een essentieel onderdeel van de religieuze beleving van Nederlandse moslims. Anderzijds kan de moskee daardoor een potentiële brandhaard zijn voor een corona-uitbraak. Zo zijn er in het afgelopen jaar verscheidene mediaberichten verschenen over coronauitbraken in verschillende moskeeën. Het is echter tot op heden niet duidelijk of deze bekendgemaakte voorvallen incidenten waren, of dat meer corona-uitbraken hebben plaatsgevonden.

The Salafi movement presents itself as a moral guardian of Muslims in a world that, according to many, is filled with moral crisis, temptations and anti-Islam tendencies. Salafis claim that it is essential to return to the community of the pious forefathers seen as the most outstanding community of all times with the highest absolute moral standard. In this article I will show how individual participants engage with this idea of a moral community of believers yet remain vulnerable to the ambiguities and ruptures inherent in everyday life and within the Salafi movement. By exploring how Salafis passionately try to search for the ‘correct’ knowledge and strive to maintain a unity between knowledge, conviction and behavior, and the role of friendships therein, I argue that Salafism does not remain separate from the troubles of everyday but that these issues enter into and exist in Salafi thought and practice, not by being resolved but by being transformed into personal struggles. These ambiguities and ruptures may cause problems but also provide an incentive for Salafis to continuously work at the self-improvement of one’s piety, authenticity, and sisterhood and brotherhood.

In dit artikel ga ik in op de vraag of en zo ja in welke mate moslims een bijdrage kunnen leveren aan de opbouw van de samenleving. Het lijkt een stupide vraag maar in het maatschappelijke debat doet de vraag wel opgeld. Leest u mijn visie hierop in dit artikel. Dit is de volledige referentie:

(2007) Ruiter, J.J. de. Islam als bouwende kracht in Europa: een haalbare kaart, in: H. van der Ven (red.),  Geloof en verlichting. Oordelen over religie. Damon: Budel, 107-119.

In this article, I examine the discursive as well as embodied and sensorial forms of persuasion that undergird the formation of religious authority, Islamic authority in the Netherlands more specifically. I argue that particular momentary occasions can play important roles in facilitating the mobilization of these discursive and non-discursive forms of persuasion. Based on a close reading of an event I participated in during my fieldwork among young Muslims in the Netherlands, the analysis focuses on such a key moment of persuasion, paradoxically characterised by a preacher’s apparently failed attempt at conversion. Despite this failure, this preacher can be seen to have succeeded in offering his young Muslim audience a model of how to be a Muslim and of how to represent Islam to non-Muslims. Apart from contributing to anthropological debates on Islamic authority in Europe and religious persuasion more generally, I discuss an important new type of Islamic leaders – referred to here as ‘travelling preachers’ – and the new kinds of youth-centred settings of religious learning in which they operate.

A critical analysis of the the attempts to create multicultural societies in Europe. Although the French, German and British models to do so were conceptually different, they all failed.

Europe’s Current Debate on Multiculturalism, in : Sören Asmus/Christian Schulze (edd.) : "Wir haben doch alle denselben Gott" Eintracht, Zwietracht und Vielfalt der Religionen - FS Friedrich Huber, Wuppertal/Neukirchen, p.224-44

Individuals are often confronted with intergroup threats, yet many of these threats emanate from distant groups that most individuals are unlikely to encounter in their local environment. An important yet unanswered question is whether reactions to those threats, such as intolerance towards the threatening group, carry over to other groups that individuals actually do encounter in their local environment (e.g., immigrants). The main goal of our studies was to experimentally identify this carry-over effect of intergroup threat. Specifically, we hypothesized that (by definition relatively abstract) symbolic threats (e.g., threats to the ingroup's worldview) have an especially strong carry-over potential because those threats can be easily attributed to other outgroups. We tested these predictions in one correlational and two experimental studies. The results of all three studies confirmed our hypothesis that particularly distant symbolic threats were predictive of intolerance towards local outgroups.