Amsterdam

MERGING MUSLIM COMMUNITIES with European societies is a trying task. This is particularly noticed in the Netherlands, where legalized vices and laissez-faire attitudes grapple with finding the right formula to successfully integrate its own Islamic population. Several initiatives have been tried over the last quarter century but with little success.

Approximately 1 million of Holland’s 16 million inhabitants are immigrants from Muslim societies. Islam is now Holland’s fourth largest religion and ready to eclipse the nation’s long-established Calvinist and Dutch Reform faiths. A cursory introduction to Dutch history and cultural attitudes won’t change a traditionally trained imam’s basic outlook, especially if he was schooled in an Islamic country. Such patchwork expediency fails to address a systemic problem.