Dutch officials visit Dearborn to learn about improving Muslim relations

Michigan has a large Muslim community and officials from The Netherlands are learning from their experience. They want to discover ways to help their own Muslim immigrants to be better accepted. - - Donna Poisl

Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News

Dearborn -- Dutch officials visited the city Wednesday to discern why Muslims are more accepted in the United States than in The Netherlands.

Dutch society is plagued with problems of high unemployment and low integration and participation in the society by Moroccan and some Turkish immigrants. There also are ongoing culture wars between Muslims and the Dutch, including the assassination of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 and the production of a film "Fitna," which Muslims criticized as highly intolerant. Amid the social and religious tensions, the Dutch are trying to negotiate the difficulties sometimes caused by free speech and seeking to reassert their long tradition of tolerance and freedom.

Dutch Cabinet Minister Francis Timmermans and an entourage of officials met with 35 local Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders at the Islamic Center of America, the largest mosque in the country.
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