Huntington in Holland: The Public Debate on Muslim Immigrants in the Netherlands

Since the beginning of this century, Muslim immigrants have become the subject of a heated debate in the Netherlands. This article examines and analyses this debate which is characterised by five distinctive elements: culturalisation, Islamisation, rejection of Islam, ‘new’ nationalism and the plea for assimilation. These characteristics relate to developments with regard to Muslims in the Netherlands and the Islamic World, to the rise of charismatic right-wing politicians like Pim Fortuyn and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and to mechanisms of ‘selfing’ and ‘othering’ within the Dutch population. These mechanisms are linked to factors of perceived threat and a lack of trust in the political elite to overcome such threats.