Islamophobia in Dutch P/CVE policies since the War on Terror

Over the last two decades, Muslim communities have been confronted with prejudice and hostility as an effect of the War on Terror and the narrative that Islam is synonymous with terrorism and violence. Instead of viewing radicalisation as a process involving deep-rooted societal issues such as discrimination and social exclusion, a disproportionate focus is put on the ideological push factor that is Islam to understand and combat radicalisation. This article examines the degree to which Islamophobia has been present in Dutch policies on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) through discourse analysis. Previous research examined the effects of elements of Islamophobia being present in governmental discourse on the Muslim communities, but there showed to be a gap in the research on how this anti-Muslim sentiment is reflected and can be recognized in governmental texts. Ten Terrorist Threat Assessment Reports that were published in the early stages of the War on Terror...Show moreOver the last two decades, Muslim communities have been confronted with prejudice and hostility as an effect of the War on Terror and the narrative that Islam is synonymous with terrorism and violence. Instead of viewing radicalisation as a process involving deep-rooted societal issues such as discrimination and social exclusion, a disproportionate focus is put on the ideological push factor that is Islam to understand and combat radicalisation. This article examines the degree to which Islamophobia has been present in Dutch policies on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (P/CVE) through discourse analysis. Previous research examined the effects of elements of Islamophobia being present in governmental discourse on the Muslim communities, but there showed to be a gap in the research on how this anti-Muslim sentiment is reflected and can be recognized in governmental texts. Ten Terrorist Threat Assessment Reports that were published in the early stages of the War on Terror were compared with the ten most recent reports based on the framework of elements of a closed and open view of Islam as established by the Runnymede Trust in 1997. The analysis reveals that elements of Islamophobia have been present ever since the War on Terror in the form of constructing Muslims as the enemy and overgeneralising various factions within Islam, but have seen an increase in recent years, leading current reports to reinforce Islamophobic sentiment. This research allows for elements of Islamophobia in government texts to be recognized and confronted.Show less

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Islamophobia in Dutch P/CVE policies since the War on Terror