Dutch Muslims Face Greater Challenges

 

By Serena Parker

On the morning of November 2, Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh was shot on his bicycle going to work. As he stumbled away toward a nearby building, his alleged¹ assailant, Mohammed Bouyeri, shot him again before slitting² his throat and impaling³ a letter in his chest with a butcher knife. Mr. van Gogh's offense⁴? He directed a provocative⁵ short film "Submission⁶" that is highly critical of Islam's treatment of women.

The heinous⁷ crime has left the Netherlands deeply shaken and brought anti-Muslim anger boiling to the surface. It has also raised serious questions about how well Muslim immigrants are assimilating into Dutch society.

Currently, Muslims make up about five percent of the Netherland's 16 million people. Most are Moroccan or Turks, many of whom came as guest workers in the 1960's and never went home. Their children, like Mr. Bouyeri, have full Dutch citizenship⁸.

According to Joanna Apap, director of the Justice and Home Affairs Unit at the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels, the migrants initially⁹ were welcomed into a Dutch society whose economy was booming. That changed after the oil crises in the 1970's and the economic downturn of the following decade. As people became more aware and sometimes resentful of Muslims' different religion and behavior, they began to draw a distinction between native and non-native Dutch.

Ms. Apap says, "The 'native' Dutch meant that there were two parents of Dutch descent. Therefore, anyone who has only one parent of Dutch descent, even if they were born there and lived there their whole life, they were not considered fully¹⁰ Dutch. And I think that was the start of a lot of problems in the Netherlands over the last 14 years."

"It's certainly true that Muslim communities in Europe do feel discriminated¹¹ against," says Mirjam Dittrich, a policy analyst¹² for the European Policy Center in Brussels, who directs the project on Islam and Muslims in Europe. She says both Europeans and Muslims must do more to get along.

"We also need the help of the members of the Muslim communities themselves," she says. "They have to strongly speak out against terrorism. They have to through community work at the grass roots level make sure that their neighbors understand their values, understand that Islam is a peaceful religion and give a moderate voice to Islam. So I think work has to be done on both sides."

According to Ms. Dittrich, any changes in Dutch or EU integration¹³ policies need to distinguish radicals¹⁴ from the larger Muslim communities in Europe and from Islam as well. A harsh crackdown on the broader Muslim community will only alienate¹⁵ Muslims and contribute to radicalizing still more young Muslim men.

Julia Hall, a Western European specialist with Human Rights Watch, says Europeans could make Muslims feel more at home by changing citizenship requirements.

Ms. Hall says, "Most citizenship laws are very, very difficult with respect to the requirements, and this constantly keeps migrant communities marginalized. If they can't gain access to citizenship, if they can't become a so-called 'full member' of the national community, it really sends a message to these migrant communities that they are not fully enfranchised¹⁶."

Another way of enfranchising¹⁷ Europe's Muslims is encouraging their political participation¹⁸. Currently very few Muslim politicians are at the national level of government.

But let's not read too much into the van Gogh murder, says Danny Sriskandarajah, a senior analyst at the Institute for Public Policy Research in London. Yes, it was a brutal¹⁹ crime and should be punished and never repeated, but it hardly speaks for all Muslim immigrants.

"From my understanding, in the past when there have been new and different groups of minorities who have established themselves in European societies, there has been a tendency to say that they haven't integrated very well and that they never will," says Mr. Sriskandarajah. "We saw that happen 60, 70 years ago with Jewish migrants to the UK. We've seen it happen with Turkish migrants to Germany. There's a sort of repetitiveness to this that every time some new group turns up, the attitude is 'Well, they haven't done enough to integrate.' So I think we need to be very careful not to fall into that trap."

According to Mr. Sriskandarajah, public policy can facilitate integration, but it cannot legislate²⁰ it. He is confident Europe in time will successfully integrate its Muslims just as it has other minorities in the past.

For focus, I'm Serena Parker.

注释：
Dutch 荷兰的
filmmaker 电影摄制者
stumble 绊倒，蹒跚
assailant 攻击者
impale 刺穿
butcher knife 屠刀
provocative 煽动性的
heinous 可憎的
assimilate 吸收
Moroccan 摩洛哥人
resentful 愤慨的，怨恨的
integration 综合
crackdown 镇压
alienate 疏远
marginalize 使处于社会边缘
enfranchise 给予选举权，给予自治权
brutal 残忍的
confident 自信的

1 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

2 slitting   

n.纵裂（缝）v.切开，撕开( slit的现在分词 )；在…上开狭长口子

参考例句：

• She is slitting a man's throat. 她正在割一个男人的喉咙。 来自辞典例句
• Different side of slitting direction will improve slitting edge and quality. 应用不同靠刀方向修边分条可帮助顺利排料，并获得更好的分条品质。 来自互联网

3 impaling   

钉在尖桩上( impale的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The detective sat down facing John, his eyes impaling the young man. 侦探面对约翰坐下，犀利的目光逼视着这个年轻人。

4 offense   

n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪

参考例句：

• I hope you will not take any offense at my words. 对我讲的话请别见怪。
• His words gave great offense to everybody present.他的发言冲犯了在场的所有人。

5 provocative   

adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的

参考例句：

• She wore a very provocative dress.她穿了一件非常性感的裙子。
• His provocative words only fueled the argument further.他的挑衅性讲话只能使争论进一步激化。

6 submission   

n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出

参考例句：

• The defeated general showed his submission by giving up his sword.战败将军缴剑表示投降。
• No enemy can frighten us into submission.任何敌人的恐吓都不能使我们屈服。

7 heinous   

adj.可憎的，十恶不赦的

参考例句：

• They admitted to the most heinous crimes.他们承认了极其恶劣的罪行。
• I do not want to meet that heinous person.我不想见那个十恶不赦的人。

8 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

9 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

10 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

11 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

12 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

13 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

14 radicals   

n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 )；根基；基本原理；[数学]根数

参考例句：

• Some militant leaders want to merge with white radicals. 一些好斗的领导人要和白人中的激进派联合。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The worry is that the radicals will grow more intransigent. 现在人们担忧激进分子会变得更加不妥协。 来自辞典例句

15 alienate   

vt.使疏远，离间；转让(财产等)

参考例句：

• His attempts to alienate the two friends failed because they had complete faith.他离间那两个朋友的企图失败了，因为他们彼此完全信任。
• We'd better not alienate ourselves from the colleagues.我们最好还是不要与同事们疏远。

16 enfranchised   

v.给予选举权( enfranchise的过去式和过去分词 )；（从奴隶制中）解放

参考例句：

• The slaves were enfranchised. 奴隶们被释放了。 来自互联网
• In Britain women were enfranchised in 1918. 1918年英国妇女获得议会选举权。 来自互联网

17 enfranchising   

v.给予选举权( enfranchise的现在分词 )；（从奴隶制中）解放

参考例句：

18 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

19 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

20 legislate   

vt.制定法律；n.法规，律例；立法

参考例句：

• Therefore,it is very urgent to legislate for the right of privacy.因此，为隐私权立法刻不容缓。
• It's impossible to legislate for every contingency.为每一偶发事件都立法是不可能的。