Dialogue Across Borders participated on November 30 in a research seminar, “Building Trust: Conducting Research Among and With Christian Migrants,” at Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Since immigrants to the Netherlands also include Muslims and adherents of other religions, participants also spoke about these communities which links in a particular way to the work of Dialogue Across Borders.

Speakers were Dr. Anneloes van Kuijk, theme leader for International Diversity at the Catholic Documentation Centre at Radboud University, Fr. Michael Bakker, rector of the St. Irenaeus Orthodox Theological Institute in the Netherlands, Dr. Martijn de Koning, researcher on Islam at Radboud University, Dr. Leen Sterckx, advisor for qualitative research at the Netherlands Institute for Social Research, Ron Blom of the Amsterdam City Archives, and Dr. Frans Wijssen, professor of Religious Studies at Radboud University.  Dr. Hans Krabbendam, director of the Catholic Documentation Centre, described Anneloes van Kuijk as the “mother of this event,” and not without good reason because of the enormous effort she put into organizing this seminar.

The seminar discussed immigrants coming from all parts of the world to the Netherlands, including from the Caribbean, South East Asia, and the Middle East. Migrants include both Muslims, Christians, and other religious and cultural traditions.  Many came as refugees from the 1960s onwards, but we also find those who were able to settle with their own businesses or who were employed by Dutch companies.

The participants agreed that there is insufficient data on the experience of immigrants in the Netherlands. Information is very often fragmented according to different religious and cultural communities coming from different countries. Of course, immigrants keep relations with their home countries and divisions in their home countries are often taken to the countries where they migrate. The historical narratives of their communities and also personal experiences contribute to their identity. The narratives carried by immigrant communities in Europe may be very different in ways from the way their stories are understood in their countries of origin.

Anneloes Kuijk highlighted that much research about Muslims in the Netherlands has a focus on Muslims being problematic to our society. This tendency is unfair because it ignores the many Muslims who integrated well in society. What happens when researchers and authors put the spotlight on specific groups in society because we see them as problematic? What does this do to the wider faith community?

Fr. Michael Bakker is priest at the former Russian Orthodox Church in Amsterdam. His church came into public view with the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war earlier this year and their decision to place their parish under the authority of the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. This was presented in Dutch media as a “split” but this reveals a lack of understanding of church history and ecclesiastical law. It was not actually a split but rather a move to a different church jurisdiction.  Fr. Michael Bakker received Dutch officials at his church who had very little understanding of religion. Continuously religion gets into the limelight if something happens that government and secular media see as problematic. The brunt of such negative attention sadly goes to Muslims, Fr. Bakker explained. There are so many good things happening but this is hardly seen. That is not the way it should be.

Dr. Martijn de Koning spoke about the importance of personal interviews, which are highly valuable for our understanding of the experience of immigrants. However, they can contain sensitive information and, at times, Dr. de Koning has to make the difficult decision not to publish material until a later date. One of the subjects he worked on was about Dutch women who had married Muslim activists who had gone to Syria to join the Islamic State. They came back to the Netherlands and were immediately interrogated by security. He understands this, but for good qualitative research, relationships of trust are needed and this is not the focus of security.

Several other challenges related to research were noted. Most migrants come from countries where oral traditions and the oral transmission of information is practiced. Interviews thus must be carried out in a unique way because of this. The responses of members of migrant communities to electronic questionnaires are very poor and this explains their underrepresentation in various research initiatives.

Another problem concerns how to define religion or religious adherence. For many migrants this is strongly tied to their cultural background. Thus, someone may not be a strong believer but nevertheless identifies him or herself with a particular religion or denomination since that is his cultural background.

The participants agreed that the way the Dutch government and wider public often sees immigrants in a negative way can greatly impact these communities. Researchers are needed to present the wider context. Before the seminar, Dr. Matthew Anderson and I spoke with Prof. Dr. Alfons Brüning, director of the Institute of Eastern Christianity at Radboud University. Dr. Brüning appreciated that Dr. Anderson spoke about humanizing religion. We are speaking about people and communities that are characterized by a great deal of diversity. In the modern world, we need to be careful about only highlighting negative elements within religious traditions and communities.

After the seminar I went to see Prof. Dr. Andreas van Agt (b. 1931), Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1977 and 1982 and after this European Ambassador to Japan and the USA. Prof. van Agt is a long-term supporter of our work and visited us in Egypt in 2006. He welcomes the transition of Dialogue Across Borders to Dr. Matthew Anderson. During our meeting, Prof. van Agt spoke about his unique relationship with the Christian faith: “Christianity is unique treasure,” he said. “It is the belief in one God. Many elements of faith such as love one can also find in Judaism and Islam but the key for my faith is forgiveness for missteps, errors one makes in life. This forgiveness creates a brotherhood of humanity and makes us deal with people in a different way, regardless of what faith they adhere to.”
 

Cornelis Hulsman meets with Professor Andreas van Agt, the former Dutch prime minister from 1977-1982. 

Prof. van Agt became passionate when we spoke about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a subject close to his heart and the reason why he founded the Rights Forum.  His last book is Palestina in Doodsnood (Palestine in Mortal Danger, 2019). Prof. van Agt would love to see his small book translated and we would love to publish this in Dialogue Across Borders. Dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians is urgently needed but the imbalance of power between the two sides negatively impacts the Palestinians and makes effective dialogue very difficult.

Cornelis Hulsman,

Senior Advisor - Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Translation (CIDT)

December 03, 2022