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Transformations of the Secular and the ‘Muslim Question’. Revisiting the Historical Coincidence of Depillarisation and the Institutionalisation of Islam in The Netherlands
In: Journal of Muslims in EuropeAbstract
This article revisits the ‘historical coincidence’ of the process of ‘depillarisation’ and the institutionalisation of Islam in the Netherlands. It critically considers the established Dutch narrative of pillarisation, i.e. the organisation of the social body along confessional or sectarian lines, and the way in which this historical formation of Dutch secularism is mobilised within contemporary discussions about multiculturalism. This article further explores how depillarisation accounts figure within ‘the Muslim question’ in the Netherlands. While acknowledging that depillarisation is a multidimensional concept, it engages the argument that, on a structural level, Muslim claims of recognition and institutionalisation vis-à-vis the Dutch state were crucial for the process of depillarisation. The article thus reverses the suggestion that Muslims arrived ‘too late’ in an already depillarized society, and draws attention to the constitutive role of Muslims in the ongoing process of nation-building and secularism in the Netherlands.
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Asad, Talal, Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003).
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Vink, Maarten, “Dutch ‘Multiculturalism’ Beyond the Pillarisation Myth”, Political Studies Review, vol. 5, (2007), p. 337.
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See notably: Vink, “Beyond the Pillarisation Myth”; Duyvendak, J.W. & P. Scholten, “Questioning the Dutch multicultural model of immigrant integration”, Migrations Société (special issue ‘Beyond models of integration: France, the Netherlands and the Crisis of National Models’, ed. C. Bertossi & J.W. Duyvendak) (2009); Maussen, Marcel, “Pillarization and Islam: Church-state traditions and Muslim claims for recognition in the Netherlands”, Comparative European Politics, vol. 10, 3 (2012), pp. 337-353.
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Sunier, Thijl, “Verzuilen of niet? Dat is de vraag,” Tijdschrift voor Migratie- en Etnische Studies, 16:1 (2000), pp. 54-58.
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Lijphart, Arend, Verzuiling, pacificatie en kentering in de Nederlandse politiek (Amsterdam: De Bussy, 1968).
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Hoogenboom, Marcel, Een miskende democratie. Een andere visie op verzuiling en politieke samenwerking in Nederland (Politiek Bestuurlijke Studiën 18) (Leiden: DSWO Press, 1996).
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Dekker, Paul & Peter Ester, “Depillarization, Deconfessionalization and De-ideologization: Empirical Trends in Dutch Society 1958-1992”, Review of Religious Research, 37:4, (1996), pp. 325-341.
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Lijphart, Arend, “From the Politics of Accommodation to Adversarial Politics in the Netherlands—A Reassessment”, West European Politics, 12:1 (1989).
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van der Veer, Peter, “Pim Fortuyn, Theo van Gogh, and the Politics of Tolerance in the Netherlands”, Public Culture, 18, 1 (2006), pp. 111-124.
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Lechner, Frank J., “Secularization in the Netherlands?”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, vol. 35, no. 3 (1996), pp. 252-264.
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Dobbelaere, Karel, “Towards an Integrated perspective of the Processes Related to the Descriptive Concept of Secularization”, Sociology of Religion, 60:3, (1999), pp. 229-247.
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Dekker & Ester, “Depillarization, Deconfessionalization and De-ideologization”, p. 331.
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Rath et al., “The Politics of Recognizing Religious Diversity in Europe”, p. 58.
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Sunier, Thijl, “Naar een nieuwe schoolstrijd?”, BMGN (Low Countries Historical Review) 4 (2004), p. 553.
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Sengers, Erik, “Dutch and Catholic. The Catholic Church and Dutch Catholics in the Dutch nation state since 1795”, Religious Newcomers and the Nation State: Political Culture and Organized Religion in France and the Netherlands, Eric Sengers & Thijl Sunier (eds.) (Delft: Eburon, 2010). p. 80.
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Knippenberg, Hans, “Assimilating Jews in Dutch nation-building: the missing pillar”, Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, 93: 2 (2002), pp. 191–207; Frishman, Judith & Hetty Berg (eds.), Dutch Jewry in a Cultural Maelstrom 1880-1940 (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2008).
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Frishman & Berg, Dutch Jewry in a Cultural Maelstrom, pp. 9-10.
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Fetzer, Joel & Christopher Soker, Muslims and the State in Britain, France and Germany. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).
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Rath et al., “The Politics of Recognizing Religious Diversity in Europe”, p. 59.
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Scott, Joan Wallach, The Politics of the Veil (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007).
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See e.g. Amir-Moazami, Schirin, “Dialogue as a governmental technique: managing gendered Islam in Germany”, Feminist Review, 98 (2011), pp. 9-27.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 369 | 79 | 18 |
| Full Text Views | 259 | 12 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 235 | 29 | 4 |
Transformations of the Secular and the ‘Muslim Question’. Revisiting the Historical Coincidence of Depillarisation and the Institutionalisation of Islam in The Netherlands
In: Journal of Muslims in EuropeAbstract
This article revisits the ‘historical coincidence’ of the process of ‘depillarisation’ and the institutionalisation of Islam in the Netherlands. It critically considers the established Dutch narrative of pillarisation, i.e. the organisation of the social body along confessional or sectarian lines, and the way in which this historical formation of Dutch secularism is mobilised within contemporary discussions about multiculturalism. This article further explores how depillarisation accounts figure within ‘the Muslim question’ in the Netherlands. While acknowledging that depillarisation is a multidimensional concept, it engages the argument that, on a structural level, Muslim claims of recognition and institutionalisation vis-à-vis the Dutch state were crucial for the process of depillarisation. The article thus reverses the suggestion that Muslims arrived ‘too late’ in an already depillarized society, and draws attention to the constitutive role of Muslims in the ongoing process of nation-building and secularism in the Netherlands.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 369 | 79 | 18 |
| Full Text Views | 259 | 12 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 235 | 29 | 4 |