A country famed for religious tolerance now leads European Islamophobia
Evidence
Although Islamophobia is growing all over Europe, it surprises many to know that a leading voice of European Islamophobia actually hails from Holland, a place renowned for its tolerance, art, and scholarship. In the seventeenth century, Andalusian Muslim scholar Ahmed ibn Qasim Al-Hajari described lengthy discussions on religion with pluralistic Dutch scholars in Amsterdam. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, The Netherlands was home to both Jews and Muslims, and was described as a place of “unlimited freedoms to all sorts of religions” in a Europe still finding its identity. … Yet today, one of the most high-profile politicians in the country is an anti-Muslim zealot named Geert Wilders. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 517
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the pattern from other chapters where historically tolerant/secular nations (e.g., France) produce virulent Islamophobia — reinforces the reader’s cross-country synthesis. — connects to: Austria issued Europe’s first outright ban on Islamic worship structures — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 635; European Islamophobia has moved from the far right into the political mainstream. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 480; Islamophobia remains Europe’s one tolerated and even encouraged racist ideology — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 486 (+7 more)
- SEED: A stark before-and-after arc — seventeenth-century pluralist Amsterdam versus Wilders’ Party for Freedom — could anchor a piece on how national self-image gets inverted.
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 517
Related
- Islamophobia remains Europe’s one tolerated and even encouraged racist ideology (similarity 0.83)
- European Islamophobia has moved from the far right into the political mainstream. (similarity 0.80)
- European hostility toward Muslims exceeds even hostility toward other immigrants (similarity 0.79)
- Western hostility to Islam shifted from theological to political rationales across the centuries (similarity 0.79)
- Islamophobia rests on a false notion of European ethnic purity (similarity 0.79)
- Islamophobic fringe politicians have become mainstream coalition power-brokers (similarity 0.79)
- European study of Islam originated in fear, not curiosity. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Islamophobia has become the dominant prejudice in Western societies
#expands(0.55) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 15 - Islam became the convenient enemy to mobilize Europe’s territorial ambitions
#expands(0.50) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 60 - European Islamophobia frames Muslim migration as soldiers in a renewed crusade.
#expands(0.50)