french headscarf ban based on dutch experience

NRC Handelsblad, Holland’s most respected rag, says that the French commission that advocated banning the headscarf was strongly influenced by what it was told during a fact-finding trip to Holland in November. The two out of three members of the delegation contacted by the paper said they were shocked by the situation and in particular by the increasing prominence of and pressure exerted by Muslim fundamentalists, ghettoisation, “black schools”, and the demographic trends which suggest that in 2010 Muslims will constitute a majority in almost all large Dutch cities. According to Costa-Lascoux and Schwartz, almost all those they interviewed (senior politicians and civil servants, equal opportunities bobos, reps of Turkish and Moroccan organisations) said without hesitation that integration policy had been a complete failure.

This is interesting because Holland in the C20th adopted a kind of neo-Ottoman model, devolving power and money to religious and political groups and letting them (and the dope smokers, and everyone else) get on which their own thing as long as they didn’t do anything ridiculous. That’s over.

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Comments

1. Geoff sez:
   February 3rd, 2004 at 15:08

   That’s bizarre. I thought the French hated the Dutch because of the drugs issue.

2. Trevor sez:
   February 3rd, 2004 at 15:19

   A couple of years back Dutch minister Annemarie Jorritsma said something along the lines of, “France is a lovely country. If only the French didn’t live there.” She also called Chirac an engerd, a nasty bit of work. Unfortunately she’s been shunted off to be mayor of somewhere no one’s ever heard of and, apart from some deep resentment re French fiscal policy, relations seem to be smoother.

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