The Politics of Multiculturalism and Muslim Minorities in the Netherlands
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THE DUTCH, THE UN-DUTCH, AND THE SEMI-DUTCH: THE POLITICS OF MULTICULTURALISM AND MUSLIM MINORITIES IN THE NETHERLANDS A Ph.D. Dissertation by EDİP ASAF BEKAROĞLU Department of Political Science Bilkent University Ankara April 2010 To my parents THE DUTCH, THE UN-DUTCH, AND THE SEMI-DUTCH: THE POLITICS OF MULTICULTURALISM AND MUSLIM MINORITIES IN THE NETHERLANDS The Institute of Economics and Social Sciences of Bilkent University By EDİP ASAF BEKAROĞLU In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE BİLKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA April 2010 I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science. --------------------------------- Assistant Professor Dilek Cindoğlu Supervisor I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science. --------------------------------- Professor Ergun Özbudun Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science. --------------------------------- Associate Professor Alev Çınar Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science. --------------------------------- Assistant Professor İlker Aytürk Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science. --------------------------------- Assistant Professor Nedim Karakayalı Examining Committee Member Approval of the Institute of Economics and Social Sciences --------------------------------- Professor Erdal Erel Director ABSTRACT THE DUTCH, THE UN-DUTCH, AND THE SEMI-DUTCH: THE POLITICS OF MULTICULTURALISM AND MUSLIM MINORITIES IN THE NETHERLANDS Bekaroğlu, Edip Asaf Ph.D., Department of Political Science Supervisor: Assistant Professor Dilek Cindoğlu April, 2010 The history of Muslim existence in Europe has also been a history of crises. The crisis is partially of the liberal democracy. Indeed, in Europe, the limits of toleration, the limits of freedom of speech, and the limits of religious freedom are being discussed especially regarding the new Muslim presence. Moreover, after the Madrid bombings on 11 March 2004, the murder of Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam on 2 November 2004, and the London bombings on 7 July 2005, many analysts, observers, intellectuals and opinion formers not only concluded that multiculturalism had failed but also accused it of being responsible for the bombings and the murder. Even those who do not directly blame multiculturalism tend to believe that multiculturalism needs to be reconsidered, and may be replaced by “integration,” which is very frequently used interchangeably with “assimilation.” The Dutch case is one of the best cases to study the above discourses. Although the Netherlands is still a liberal frontrunner when it comes to issues like homosexuality, soft-drugs, prostitution and euthanasia, it is also considered as one of iii the sharpest u-turns from hospitable and tolerant policies towards immigrants. With this u-turn, not only the entrance of new immigrants and refugees from non-Western countries is complicated, but also the focus turned towards the integration of the second and third generation immigrants, especially the Muslims. Not surprisingly, some positive and negative examples of integration have come into prominence, and some good and bad Muslim subjectivities have been formed. After analyzing primary and secondary sources on Muslim integration and 44 in-depth interviews conducted in the Netherlands in 2008, this dissertation has four major conclusions. First of all, the history of a negative portrayal of Muslims in the Netherlands is much older than the post-September 11th discourse of the “war on terror.” Secondly, while the religious people in general are found “irritating” as soon as they carry their religious reasoning into the public sphere, Muslim people, for their new demands, increasing populations and public appearances in the big cities, are found more irritating than the conservative Christians. Thirdly, the retreat from multicultural policies has simultaneously taken place with the increasing Muslim determination to make use of community level rights and the growing visibility of Muslims in the public spheres of major Dutch cities. And finally, the debates about everyday-life practices aimed at either forming some acceptable models of Muslim subjectivity that coexist with Western liberal democracy or denigrating some other models that are perceived (or presented) as threats to liberal democracy. iv ÖZET HOLLANDALI, YARI-HOLLANDALI VE HOLLANDALI OLMAYAN: HOLLANDA’DA ÇOKKÜLTÜRCÜLÜK VE MÜSLÜMAN AZINLIKLARA YÖNELİK POLİTİKALAR Bekaroğlu, Edip Asaf Doktora, Siyaset Bilimi Tez Yöneticisi: Yard. Doç. Dr. Dilek Cindoğlu Nisan, 2010 Avrupa’da Müslümanların tarihi aynı zamanda krizlerin de tarihidir. Bu bir ölçüde liberal demokrasinin de krizidir. Gerçekten de son zamanlarda liberal demokrasilerde, farklılıklara tahammülün, ifade özgürlüğünün ve dini özgürlüğün sınırları Müslümanların Avrupa’daki varlıkları üzerinden tartışılmaktadır. Dahası, 11 Mart 2004’teki Madrid bombalamaları, Theo van Gogh’un 2 Kasım 2004’te Amsterdam’da öldürülmesi ve 7 Temmuz 2005 tarihli Londra bombalamalarının ardından birçok analist, gözlemci, entelektüel ve kamuoyu oluşturan kimseler tarafından sadece çokkültürcülüğün sonu ilan edilmemiş, ayrıca bombalamalardan ve cinayetten de kısmen çokkültürcülük sorumlu tutulmuştur. Çokkültürcülüğü direk olarak suçlamayanlar bile bir revizyon ihtiyacından söz etmişler ve terimin zaman zaman “asimilasyon” ile eş anlamlı olarak kullanılan “entegrasyon” ile yer değiştirmesi gerektiğini söylemişlerdir. Bu söylemleri incelemek için en iyi örneklerden biri de Hollanda’dır. Homoseksüellik, uyuşturucu, fuhuş ve ötenazi gibi konularda halen bir liberal öncü v olan Hollanda, çoğunluğunu Müslümanların oluşturduğu göçmenlere dönük toleranslı politikalardan en keskin u-dönüşünün yaşandığı ülkelerden biri olarak kabul edilir. Bu u-dönüşü ile birlikte sadece Batılı olmayan ülkelerden gelen göçmenlerin girişleri zorlaştırılmamış, aynı zamanda ikinci ve üçüncü nesil göçmenlerin– özellikle de Müslümanların– entegrasyonuna dönük politikalara ağırlık verilmiştir. Bu süreçte, entegrasyonun olumlu ve olumsuz bazı örnekleri öne çıkmış ve “iyi” ve “kötü” Müslüman olmaya dair prototipler belirmiştir. Birinci ve ikinci el kaynaklar ve 2008 yılında Hollanda’da yapılan 43 derinlemesine mülakat incelendikten sonra bu çalışmada dört ana sonuca ulaşıldı. Birinci olarak, Müslümanların olumsuz bir şekilde tasvirinin tarihi 11 Eylül sonrasındaki “teröre karşı savaş” söyleminden daha eskiye dayanıyor. İkinci olarak, (mensubu oldukları din ne olursa olsun) dindar insanlar dini argümanlarını kamusal alana taşıdıkları anda genel olarak “rahatsız edici” bulunuyorlar. Müslümanlar ise yeni talepleri, çoğalan nüfusları ve büyük şehirlerde gün geçtikçe artan görünürlükleri ile muhafazakâr Hıristiyanlara göre daha rahatsız edici bulunuyorlar. Üçüncü olarak, çokkültürcü politikalardan el çekmek hemen hemen Müslümanların cemaat bazında hakları talep etmeleri ile aynı zamanlara denk düşüyor. Ve son olarak, gündelik hayata dair bazı pratiklere dönük söylemler Batılı liberal demokrasilerde var olmaya uygun Müslüman öznellikleri oluşturmak ve liberal demokrasiye tehdit olarak algılanan diğer bazı modelleri de kötülemeyi amaçlamaktadır. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Perhaps, the hardest part of dissertation writing is the necessity of answering “when will you finish it?” question very frequently. A PhD candidate must have a steely willpower to answer this question several times in a day. Here I would like to express my gratitude to those who asked me this question, and those who helped me to finish this dissertation. It is for sure that without the both group, which sometimes intermingled, I might have finalized this dissertation much later than April 2010. I had one unofficial and three official supervisors, and I must thank all of them. Let me start with the unofficial one. I am grateful to Associate Professor Nuray Mert, who, in the first place, made me consider writing a dissertation about this topic, which I studied with great interest. Nuray Mert had also shared her ideas and very rich archives with me whenever I knocked her door. My first official supervisor was Professor Ümit Cizre, who helped me very much to write the proposal of this dissertation and to structure this research. Unfortunately, her long leave left no choice but change my supervisor. When I practically started writing the chapters of this dissertation, Associate Professor Alev Çınar accepted supervising me. She has involved whole the writing process even after she moved to another university. Alev Çınar’s comments contributed to a great deal to transform this study into a methodologically and theoretically sound piece of work. And finally, Assistant Professor Dilek Cindoğlu was kind enough to accept to be my official supervisor even if I was close to complete the dissertation. Previously, I also worked with Dilek vii