Book Chapter

The Struggle to Stay on the Middle Ground: The Radicalization of Muslims in Sweden

Thurfjell, David

2010

Overview

This chapter explores how the Netherlands the dominant political praxis of secularism leads to a tendency of stimulating and integrating a particular version of Islam while excluding a more assertive version of Islam that is labelled as radical. It examines the first track briefly because it is only an adjustment of an already existing development of politicization and confrontation. The focuses on Dutch values are part of a trend that emerged in the Netherlands and throughout Europe during the 1990s. Stolcke focuses on the new rhetoric of exclusion and inclusion based upon cultural essentialism shows how in the process of building nation-states, national belonging and identity are interpreted as a cultural singularity. The rhetoric of culture produces a homogenized and idealized vision of the national moral community and the exclusion of migrants. The visibility of religion in society and the public sphere is not seen in the same way for Muslims as for Christians.

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• ISBN: 9781138260665, 9781409402879, 1138260665, 1409402878