Teasing islam: Islam as the other side of tolerance in contemporary dutch politics

Abstract

This article deals with the role of Islam in contemporary Dutch political discourses on tolerance. I will show how Islam is described as an ideology (and not as a religion) competing with liberal values. I argue that political disputes are not at all about Islam as a living religion, but about Islam as a culturally presumed menace to, or negative projection of, dominant Dutch imaginaries, such as tolerance and free speech, that are taken as elementary conditions for a liberal democratic state. The first part of this article deals with the staging and development of Islam in Dutch politics since the 1970s. Part two develops a theoretical understanding of the framing of Islam as the opponent of tolerance and argues that this position shows a typical modern stance.