De moeizame acceptatie van moslims in Nederland

In dit artikel gaat het om een conflict. Het is niet zozeer een conflict tussen personen, maar tussen levenswijzen. Eerst gaan we in op vooroordelen en bespreken we de gangbare Amerikaanse verklaring van vooroordelen en groepsconflicten. Dit noemen we het standaardmodel. Vervolgens geven we aan waarom dit model niet zomaar kan worden toegepast op de politieke verhoudingen in West-Europa en wat de aard is van de groepsconflicten die zich in de huidige West-Europese landen aftekenen. Summary: The reluctant acceptance of Muslims in the Netherlands Our concern is a specific form of conflict – not clashes between individuals or groups, but between competing ways of life. We begin by laying out the standard model of prejudice and group conflict, grounded in the American experience. Partly because it is so closely tied to the American experience, the standard model conceals as much as it reveals about the contemporary politics of Western European democracies. In a sample of Dutch respondents (N = 2007) we show that there are two dimensions underlying the reaction to five evaluative statements about Muslims in the Netherlands: prejudice towards Muslims and the rejection of cultural practices of Muslims, specifically those regarding women and children. Our results show that taking exception to Muslim immigrants’ treatment of women and children is a major impetus, in and of itself, to support for a strict immigration policy. But respondents taking exception to these cultural practices without rejecting Muslim immigrants are among the least prejudiced and most educated in Dutch society. This suggests that the new politics of multiculturalism, by superimposing issues of identity on top of issues of intolerance, has introduced a new, and paradoxical conflict of values. Rather than simply reflecting a failure to honor the values of a liberal, democratic society, a significant portion of opposition to immigration now arises precisely from a commitment to those values, tolerance and equality very much among them