The Netherlands to Abandon Multiculturalism

[Mercury]

The Dutch government says it will abandon the long-standing model of multiculturalism that has encouraged Muslim immigrants to create a parallel society within the Netherlands.

A new integration bill (covering letter and 15-page action plan), which Dutch Interior Minister Piet Hein Donner presented to parliament on June 16, reads: "The government shares the social dissatisfaction over the multicultural society model and plans to shift priority to the values of the Dutch people. In the new integration system, the values of the Dutch society play a central role. With this change, the government steps away from the model of a multicultural society."

The letter continues: "A more obligatory integration is justified because the government also demands that from its own citizens. It is necessary because otherwise the society gradually grows apart and eventually no one feels at home anymore in the Netherlands. The integration will not be tailored to different groups."

The new integration policy will place more demands on immigrants. For example, immigrants will be required to learn the Dutch language, and the government will take a tougher approach to immigrants to ignore Dutch values or disobey Dutch law.

The government will also stop offering special subsidies for Muslim immigrants because, according to Donner, "it is not the government's job to integrate immigrants." The government will introduce new legislation that outlaws forced marriages and will also impose tougher measures against Muslim immigrants who lower their chances of employment by the way they dress. More specifically, the government will impose a ban on face-covering Islamic burqas as of January 1, 2013.

If necessary, the government will introduce extra measures to allow the removal of residence permits from immigrants who fail their integration course.

The measures are being imposed by the new center-right government of Conservatives (VVD) and Christian Democrats (CDA), with parliamentary support from the anti-Islam Freedom Party (PVV), whose leader, Geert Wilders, is currently on trial in Amsterdam for "inciting hatred" against Muslims.

As expected, Muslim organizations in Holland have been quick to criticize the proposals. The Moroccan-Dutch organization Samenwerkingsverband van Marokkaanse Nederlanders, which advises the government on integration matters, argues that Muslim immigrants need extra support to find a job. The umbrella Muslim group Contactorgaan Moslims en Overheid says that although it agrees that immigrants should be better integrated into Dutch society, it is opposed to a ban on burqas.

But polls show that a majority of Dutch voters support the government's skepticism about multiculturalism. According to a Maurice de Hond poll published by the center-right newspaper Trouw on June 19, 74 percent of Dutch voters say immigrants should conform to Dutch values. Moreover, 83 percent of those polled support a ban on burqas in public spaces.

The proper integration of the more than one million Muslims now living in Holland has been a major political issue ever since 2002, when Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was assassinated for his views on Muslim immigration, and since 2004, when Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was stabbed to death for producing a movie that criticized Islam.

Muslim immigration to the Netherlands can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s, when a blue collar labor shortage prompted the Dutch government to conclude recruitment agreements with countries like Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey. In the 1980s and 1990s, Muslims also arrived in the Netherlands as asylum seekers and refugees, mainly from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia.

There are now an estimated 1.2 million Muslims in the Netherlands, which is equivalent to about 6 percent of the country's overall population. Moroccans and Turks comprise nearly two-thirds of all Muslims in the Netherlands. Most Muslims live in the four major cities of the country: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht.

As their numbers grow, Muslim immigrants have become increasingly more assertive in carving out a role for Islam within Dutch society. For example, a documentary aired by the television program Netwerk in June 2009 reported that Dutch law was being systematically undermined by the growth of Sharia justice in the Netherlands.

In December 2004, the Dutch Ministry of the Interior published a 60-page report titled From Dawa to Jihad. Prepared by the Dutch intelligence agency AIVD, the report says that the Netherlands is home to up to 50,000 radical Muslims whose key ideological aim is to target the Western way of life and to confront Western political, economic, and cultural domination.

Read the rest of the article here..

http://www.hudson-ny.org/2219/nether...lticulturalism

[Efim45]

This is great news! If only the same would happen in America, Canada, Britain, and the rest of Europe.

[poiuytrewq0987]

The more you restrict them, the more likely they are going to riot, revolt... and/or leave the country.

[BeerBaron]

It'll be interesting to see what kind of reaction this gets from the muslim community in all of Europe, I don't think its a stretch to say it'll ignite muzzie riots all over Europe which could negatively impact neighbors laws on immigration, blowback sucks and is very real.

[Ibericus]

Too late.

[Albion]

This is great news! If only the same would happen in America, Canada, Britain, and the rest of Europe.

I think I read about the coalition here speaking out against it and abandoning it, I don't think there's any policy behind it though.
It seems like just another hollow gesture to the general populace who are against immigration and being treated like second-class citizens, I don't think there's anything of substance to it in any of the countries where it has been said to fail sadly.

[Laudanum]

I wish they came up with something like that earlier.

[Talvi]

Too late.

Better late than never.

At least now people see that its ok to say "no" to multiculturalism, and other countries can follow the example.

[Loki]

I wish they came up with something like that earlier.

What I really don't get is why people have been so short-sighted and naive for such a long time. There is no threat to Islamic culture - it spans continents and is flourishing. As for Dutch culture ... it is very much under threat, and yes ... these measures are likely too late already. But better late than never as Talvi said.

[Groenewolf]

Better late than never.

At least now people see that its ok to say "no" to multiculturalism, and other countries can follow the example.

It might indeed lead to a more open possibility to talk and discuss these kind of things. However I fear that in practice his statement will come down to that they will no longer call it multiculturalism and start using an other name. For example his party recently proposed a change to a new law meant to ensure the well being of animals meant for meat consumption to prevent the outlawing of ritual butchering.