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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 14-Dec-04
Netherlands will deport Muslims who can't pass an integration exam

Web Log - December, 2004

Netherlands will deport Muslims who can't pass an integration exam

The startling changes in Holland are continuing, as the Dutch government announced a plan to require 750,000 non-citizens to pass a citizenship exam, or risk a fine or deportation.

This is the latest in a number of rapid changes to Holland that have been occurring since the November 2 murder of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a Muslim extremist. Since then, arson attacks have burned over a dozen mosques and Muslim schools, and Pim Fortuyn, the harshly anti-immigrant politician who was assassinated two years ago, was voted the "Greatest Dutchman of all time."

Although the planned law is framed as an educational measure, it's mainly targeted at Muslim immigrants who arrived from Turkey and Morocco in the 1960s and 1970s as "guest workers." These guest workers formed communities of their own and were educated in their own languages and their own culture. This was done on purpose, following the Dutch model of a multicultural society in which any group could express their own opinions and ideas, and practice their own religion.

The Dutch always avoided talking about these guest workers, and politicians turned a blind eye to serious problems, according to a BBC World Service analysis yesterday, and tacitly assumed that the guest workers would eventually return to their own countries. Of course, this has always been an unrealistic assumption, especially for second and third generation workers, even when they grew up in Holland without learning to speak Dutch!

Attitudes began to change after 9/11, and anti-immigration attitudes were galvanized by Fortuyn. The changes were put on hold after Foruyn's assassination by an animal rights activist, but were revived with great vigor after the recent Van Gogh assassination by a Muslim extremist.

The new planned law is intended to reverse Holland's multicultural approach, and adopt an approach that France has been trying for years - integration instead of multiculturalism. The purpose of the integration exam is force guest worker families to learn the Dutch language and culture, and become integrated within Dutch communities. Needless to say, that's just another form of denial; this has as much chance of succeeding as pigs have of flying.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, this is interesting because it's beginning to show what path Europe is taking. Generational Dynamics tells us what the final destination is, but doesn't tell us what path will be taken to reach the destination. In this case, it tells us that there will be a new West European war, just as there have been wars as regular as clockwork throughout the last millennium or more. But how is it going to unfold?

As we approach "clash of civilizations" world war, Europe itself is becoming increasingly divided along the fault line between Muslims on the one hand and Christians and Jews on the other. This division has become apparent in Germany with the success of Neo-Nazis and Communists in regional elections, and in France with the headscarf ban.

The rapidity with which the Netherlands is changing gives us a glimpse of how fault lines are being exposed, as we approach the next European war. (14-Dec-04) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 14-Dec-04 Netherlands will deport Muslims who can't pass an integration exam

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 14-Dec-04
Netherlands will deport Muslims who can't pass an integration exam