Dutch tolerance rests on a coercive demand for fixed public norms

Evidence

The Dutch condemnation of murders of a politician and an artist who had offended some Muslims is a reflection of a deeply rooted Dutch commitment to diversity in private practices, but a corresponding demand that groups accept certain broad but definite norms of public conduct. On the Muslim side, all informants regarded the publication of caricatures of Muhammad in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten as a gratuitous swipe at the Muslim community and one that, again, revealed the real sentiment of a significant portion of the European populace. As a result, the tension between Dutch and Muslim peoples is palpable. — Michael A. Reynolds and Thomas D. Grant, The Future of Europe and Its Muslims, 17

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the two-tier structure in the reader’s immodesty-panic article: freedom in private practice paired with strict policing of public appearance.
• SEED: Angle: ‘Tolerance with a dress code’ — how liberal states privatize difference while still mandating a public conduct standard, and what that standard silently encodes.