Allochtonen Weblog Roundup

Allochtonen Weblog collects news about the immigrant community in the Netherlands. Here’s a few interesting stories they’ve had this week.


Muslim schools should put more emphasis on western culture

Verwey-Jonker Institute has investigated the Othman Mosque in Rotterdam and has come to the conclusion that Muslim schools must put more emphasis on western culture in their studies in order to prepare their students for life in the Western world. Othman Mosque’s school attracted attention in 2004 and 2005 when teachers struck students. The city of Rotterdam then decided to investigate the teaching methods at the school. The two teachers were dismissed by the mosque and according to the researchers the current teachers are friendly and mild. The school gives lessons on weekends by volunteer teachers.

The books used by the students do not mention Holland at all and the education stresses especially the connection with Morocco and Islam. An investigation into two other Muslim schools in Rotterdam is continuing.


Picnics in museums

The Dutch parliament debated this week how to bring in more kids and immigrants to museums.

Annette Nijs, VVD parliament member, has suggested opening up places for picnics in museums in order to bring in more immigrants. According to Nijs immigrants like to picnic and being able to do so in a museum would tempt them to come visit.

A majority thought that national museums should offer free entrance, though there were people who thought differently. “If you pay 7 euro for a move and 20 for a soccer match, you should also have money to visit a museum”, says Van der Laan. It would be weird to have tourists pay for entering a museum while the Dutch don’t have to, she added

(Note: to the best of my knowledge, it is common in places like Egypt for tourists to pay and locals to enter free.)


Let immigrant youth guard the fair

Carnival organizer Frans Stuy is calling to employ immigrant youth as guards in order to prevent problems. The fair in Roosendaal was cut short this week after severe problems with rioting Moroccan kids.

According to Sty he had already done this in Amsterdam and as it turns out, immigrant youth don’t make as much trouble when faced with their own friends. Stuy claims the kids cause problems since they have no money to enter.

Immigrants are the biggest customers of the fairs in the great cities and in cities such as Roosendaal about 30% of the customers are immigrants.