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April 15, 2006

Holland: Reactions To Controversial Report On Islam

We reported on April 11 on a report produced by Jan Schoonenboom of the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy, the WRR, entitled: "Dynamiek in Islamitisch Activisme - Aanknopingspunten voor Democratisering en Mensenrechten", or in English: "Dynamism in Islamic activism. Reference points for democratization and human rights. In this report, the head of the Christian Democrat Party (CDA), Maxime Jacques Marcel Verhagen was criticised for "Islam-bashing" for his statements condemning any attempt to introduce Sharia Law into the Netherlands.

Unfortunately the WRR will not be producing this report in English until July, but on 12 April, the Dutch-language was officially presented to Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ben Bot on behalf of the Dutch government. This is the group's summary of its report.

Manifestations of Islam as a significant political factor - Islamic activism - and reactions to it, lead to international tensions. Such confrontations have had a negative impact on the relations between Muslims and non-Muslims in European countries as well. This resulted in the a general notion that Islam cannot coexist with democracy and human rights. In this report the WRR examines the developments of Islamic activism since the Seventies in the Muslim World. Emphasis is placed on intellectual developments, the changing attitude of Islamic political movements and the meaning of Sharia (Islamic Law) to national law in Muslim countries. The results show that there are more starting points for democratization and human rights than often assumed.

For our Dutch readers, a complete copy of the report is available in pdf format. It is 4.8 mb in size, and stretches to 234 pages. To download the document, click HERE.

Today, the left-leaning French newspaper Le Monde had an article on this report, by their Brussels correspondent, Jean-Pierre Stroobants. I have decided to translate it for our Anglophone readership.

The Unjustified Aversion of The Dutch toward Islam

A report on Islam by the very official scientific Council for govermental policy (WRR) has stirred up a controversy in the Netherlands. An independent body charged to deliver advice on public administration, the WRR published, on Tuesday 11 April a document entitled: Dynamism in Islamic activism. Reference points for democratization and human rights

The experts here make audible a discordant voice in the debate, very strong in the nation, on the compatability of Islam and democracy. They emphasise that they mention the progress made on human rights by one part of the Muslim world, rejecting the idea of the "Clash of Civilisations" and plead for the birth, in Holland, of parties inspired by Islam. Such institutions could, according to the experts, enrich the public debate. The Council criticises certain responsibility-bearing Dutch politicians for having played on people's fears and having thus created "an unjustified aversion towards Islam." Various inquiries have shown that public opinion has become one of the most hostile in Europe towards Muslims and, in consequence, to the attitudes about people of foreign origin.

Various examinations have, over the course of recent years, turned around the right of asylum, immigration, and the deliquency and the place of the Muslim faith in the society, with all these notions mixing into the political debate where, often, only extremist views are given prominence. The assassination of film-maker Theo van Gogh, killed in 2004 by a Dutch-Moroccan Islamist, had again poisoned the climate of opinion.

An "unbalanced" study

Another other tenet of the WRR has rattled the government. The experts invite the establishment of "explicit and visible" ties, at the same time as the EU, with organisations such as the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Lebanese Hizbollah, or Palestinian Hamas. "It is counterproductive for the peace process to only see this movement as a terrorist organisation", notes the Council. Ben Bot, the foreign minister, immediately distanced himself (from the findings), underlining that the Hague considers. as do the other countries of the EU, that Hamas must officially recognise the existence of Israel and condemn policies of terrorism before a dialogue can be initiated.

The analysis of the WRR concerning the application of Sharia, Islamic law, offers another subject of controversy. Jan Schoonenboom and Wendy Asbeek Brusse, the two principal authors of the report, underscore that it is not applied to its fullest other than in a few countries. Besides, emphasise the two specialists, "the rule changes in reality and modernises itself under (its own) guardianship." They affirm that this evolution could bring about "in certain nations, an improvement in the situation of women." The Dutch political parties, on the left and on the right, have criticised such an approach, deemed "unbalanced", of this study.

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End of translation. What a load of appeasing PC nonsense. No wonder people are not happy with the report.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 15, 2006 7:34 PM

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