PETER VAN DER VEERChurch was still politically strong enough that bishops could threaten to refuse Catholics
the sacrament if they voted for the Socialist Party.^4 The Dutch Catholic Church province
was at the time a key supplier of missionaries, and Protestants were also deeply involved
in missionary activities, especially in the Dutch colonies. This declined following the de-
colonization of the 1950s but was followed by the rise of pillarized organizations of devel-
opment aid, with a secularized missionary spirit. This commitment to international
charity is still present today, and the distribution of aid plays a central role in Dutch
foreign policy.
The 1950s saw the rise of the Dutch welfare state, with a range of provisions for social
security and for the elderly. The Dutch were now taken care of from cradle to grave, but
no longer through religious or other ideological organizations. People became increas-
ingly independent of the social arrangements of their communities thanks to generalized
state provisions. This coincided with the huge impact of the youth rebellion of the 1960s,
in which students rebelled against their professors, the state, and religious authority and
valorized drug use. The anarchist Provo movement and the riots surrounding the mar-
riage of Princess Beatrix in 1965 were the clearest signals that Dutch society was changing.
The most important change in my view, however, was a growing emphasis on enjoyment.
Enjoyment became the hallmark of consumer societies everywhere in the West, but for
the Dutch the transition from deeply ingrained frugality to boundless consumption seems
to have been particularly stark. Holland is among the ten wealthiest countries in the
world, and the Dutch take more foreign vacations than anyone else in the world. Holland
itself has become a major tourist destination for young people (backpackers and the like),
fueled by its international reputation for liberal policies toward drugs and sexual behavior.
Pornography is ubiquitous, even on commercial television. Soccer games have developed
into large, riotous rituals, in which the police must control periodic outbursts of hooligan-
ism. Divorce rates shot up after the 1960s, and the law accepts gay marriage. This feast,
which began in the 1970s, was threatened in the late 1990s by only two things: Muslim
immigration and globalization.
For the Dutch, Muslims stand for theft of enjoyment. Their strict sexual morals re-
mind the Dutch too much of what they have themselves so recently left behind. There is
indeed very little difference between strict Christian ideas about sexuality and enjoyment
and strict Muslim ideas about these matters. Dutch orthodox Christians (both Catholic
and Protestant) and orthodox Muslims refer to very similar textual traditions to authorize
their views. In a society where consumption and especially the public performance of
sexual identity have become so important, the strict clothing habits of observant Muslims
are an eyesore. Dutch universities have now issued dress codes in which theniqaab(veil)
and theburkhaare prohibited for students. In an interesting move, in 2004 the (Protes-
tant) Free University of Amsterdam not only banned these forms of Islamic dress but
also excessively sexy clothing that reveals belly-buttons or underwear. The wearing of
headscarves by Muslim girls, in particular, is regarded as a total rejection of the Dutch
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