The Netherlands often self-identifies as a tolerant country, being the first to allow homosexuals to get married. However, since 9/11, intolerance and discriminatory behavior towards Muslims, also called Islamophobia, has become more prominent in the West (Allen & Nielsen, 2002). In the Netherlands, one out of two students has been shown to hold negative perceptions toward Muslims (Velasco Gonzáles et al., 2008). In other words, while Dutch people identify themselves as tolerant, still, Islamophobia seems to remain prominent there. So where does this Islamophobia stem from? And, most importantly, where should we focus when trying to create anti-Islamophobia interventions and campaigns?

Although studies showed Islamophobia to exist in the Netherlands, little research has been done on the ways Islamophobia manifests itself through generational differences in this country, which themes lead to it, and whether this differs between certain groups. It is important to investigate in which groups Islamophobia is most prominent and how it manifests itself there in order to target anti-islamophobia campaigns more effectively.

Earlier studies have shown that age and generation affect prejudice, as, for example, different generations can have (had) different amounts of contact opportunities with an outgroup, while such contact reduces prejudice (Miklikowska, 2017; Raabe & Beelmann, 2011). Regarding Islamophobia, that is mainly because negative discourses on Muslims presented by the media contribute to Islamophobia (Bakali, 2016; Iqbal, 2020; Poole & Richardson, 2006), while contact with Muslims allows people to alter such negative discourses in their minds, leading to less negative views of Muslims and Islam (Raabe and Beelmann, 2011). The Muslim population in the Netherlands is relatively young (CBS, 2020). Therefore the older generation is probably less likely to have come in contact with Muslims, less likely to alter their negative views of Islam/Muslims created by the negative media, and more likely to show Islamophobia.

Therefore, we studied the effects of age and generational differences on Islamophobia among women (ages 20-25 versus 54-57) in the Netherlands. We used the Islamophobia framework by Iqbal (2020) and Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) to investigate the similarities and differences between the generations in some of the themes of Islamophobia Iqbal represents, such as prejudice and (symbolic and security) threat perceptions.

After conducting semi-structured interviews on both groups, with three participants each, we identified that both generations perceive contrasts between the culture and values of the Netherlands versus Islam. This “symbolic threat” allows them to see Muslims as “other” and justify discrimination in order to “protect” their own values. However, the older generation explicitly sees such differences in the value of “gender equality”, while the younger generation barely talks about this value as a difference. Meaning that the older generation might feel more threatened by Islam than the younger generation, giving rise to more Islamophobia.

Moreover, both generations showed an implicit influence of “fear of terrorism” on their perceptions of Muslims. However, we also saw that this “security threat” stemmed from different terroristic events. Attacks/national trauma that happened during someone’s adolescence/early adulthood became part of each generation’s collective memory (Schuman & Scott, 1989; Hirschberger, 2018), which explains why the attacks of Paris were recalled in the younger participant group, but not 9/11, and why Paris was not mentioned by older generation participants, but 9/11 was. Such different collective memories influence people’s fear (of terrorist attacks) in different ways, which leads to Islamophobia based on different aspects.

Indeed, the younger generation indicated more contact (opportunities) with Muslims than the older generation, which could explain why the younger generations might be less affected by negative discourses on Muslims/Islam by the media, such as that Islam/Muslims do not support gender equality. This might affect younger generations to be less Islamophobic than the older generation.

Differences between certain generational groups exist. Generation should be taken into account when studying Islamophobia and be incorporated into frameworks of it. Security and symbolic threat perceptions are important to Islamophobic tendencies amongst women in the Netherlands. The differences between these generations and the effects of contact should be incorporated into future Islamophobia prevention strategies. This shall improve their effectiveness by focusing on the aspects that are important for each target audience. Indeed, the age of Islamophobia is something we should tackle.

Bibliography

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