Islam in the Netherlands: Denominational Pillar or ‘Fifth Column’?

Religion has always been a constitutive factor of national politics in the Netherlands, despite the relatively rapid post-war deconfessionalisation, the break-down of the pillar system, the strong commitment to the separation of religion and state, and not least the Dutch self-image of being a secular and above all libertarian country. The arrival of labour migrants and their families with a Muslim background from the 1960s onwards, has thrown this self-image into stark relief and determined to a large extent how Dutch policies towards Islam and Muslims evolved over the years. In the development of Islam as a policy category in the Netherlands, I distinguish three stages with concomitants public discourses and images, modes of governance, and characteristics of the Islamic landscape. These stages should not be taken as contexts unto itself, but as subsequent steps in a long-term unfolding process.