Netherlands
Executive Summary
The constitution prohibits religious discrimination and protects the freedom of individuals to profess their religion or belief. It is a crime to engage in public speech inciting religious hatred. In a January letter to parliament, Minister of Social Affairs and Employment Wouter Koolmees expressed the cabinet’s concern regarding the influence of Salafist organizations that have negative views of Dutch society, the rule of law, the participation of Muslims in society, and generally those who do not agree with them. Parliament continued to pressure the government to counter the foreign funding of mosques and Islamic institutions to stop the influence of Salafist and radical ideas. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian groups stated that a parliamentary report on foreign funding released on June 25 did not make a clear distinction between the small number of “ultra-orthodox” Muslim groups and the majority of Muslims active in mainstream society. Authorities rarely enforced the law banning full-face coverings in schools, hospitals, public transportation, and government buildings, but the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Report Islamophobia stated the “burqa ban” led to a wave of physical and verbal abuse against Muslims, and it called on parliament to reconsider the law. Local and national security officials continued to work with Jewish and Muslim communities to increase security at religious sites. Politicians from some parties made anti-Islam statements during the year that were protected by constitutional provisions on free speech. On January 22, King Willem-Alexander attended the Fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem, and on January 26, Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized on behalf of the government for doing too little to protect Dutch victims of the Holocaust. Jewish groups criticized national railway Nederlandse Spoorwegen for announcing on June 26 that it would donate five million euros ($6.13 million) to Holocaust remembrance sites as a “collective expression of recognition” of all Dutch Holocaust victims without first consulting them. The cornerstone of the National Holocaust Monument in Amsterdam was laid on September 23.
Government and nongovernmental organizations reported hundreds of anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic incidents involving nonlethal violence, threats, harassment, discrimination, hate speech, and vandalism. The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights (NIHR), an independent government advisory body, received 26 complaints of religious discrimination in 2019, mostly in the workplace, compared with 17 in 2018. Police registered 768 anti-Semitic incidents in 2019 (of which 65 percent involved slurs). Police reported 599 anti-Semitic complaints in the previous year, but those statistics did not include incidents involving slurs. Some observers attributed the rise in complaints to increased political and public attention to anti-Semitism, including urgent appeals to report incidents. The HaCarmel Kosher Restaurant in Amsterdam was the target of several anti-Semitic incidents, including vandalism. On August 26, Dutch national Hassan N. was convicted of placing a fake bomb in front of the restaurant. The Jewish community again stated it was concerned about increasing anti-Semitism. On October 22, the Dutch Protestant Church admitted the Church’s guilt for its silence and inaction during the Holocaust. Despite agreements between authorities, the Royal Netherlands Soccer Association (KNVB), soccer clubs, and the Anne Frank Foundation to discourage anti-Semitic behavior at soccer matches, anti-Semitic chanting continued. In 2019, police registered 225 incidents of other forms of religious discrimination, most of which targeted Muslims, compared with 137 incidents in 2018. The governmental Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP) found that 57 percent of Muslims experienced discrimination on the basis of religion and 68 percent because of their ethnicity. Monitoring organizations said there was a further increase in anti-Muslim hate speech online, particularly by those they considered to be extremist groups, and that many instances of workplace discrimination against Muslims were directed at women wearing headscarves.
The U.S. embassy and consulate general in Amsterdam emphasized the importance of supporting all faiths and engaging in interfaith dialogue in both formal meetings and informal conversations with government officials from multiple ministries and local governments and with parliamentarians. Embassy and consulate general representatives discussed religious freedom issues with leaders of several different faith communities and a broad range of civil society groups. The Ambassador met the owner of the HaCarmel Kosher Restaurant to discuss violent anti-Semitic acts against the restaurant, and with the Dutch Jewish Council (CJO) regarding cooperation with the Jewish community on Holocaust restitution and reparations efforts. The embassy and consulate general highlighted the need for religious tolerance and interfaith understanding and discussed issues of religious integration and violent extremism in outreach to youth, academics, and religious leaders and organizations from various faith traditions. Embassy representatives met with NGOs such as Femmes for Freedom to discuss religious freedom issues, including the ban on full face coverings.
United Kingdom
Executive Summary
In the absence of a written constitution, the law establishes the Church of England as England’s state church and the Church of Scotland as Scotland’s national church. The law prohibits “incitement to religious hatred” as well as discrimination on the grounds of religion. The Emergency Coronavirus Bill was amended in March in response to concerns from Muslim and Jewish advocacy groups that the bill would permit cremation of COVID-19 victims “against the wishes of the deceased.” In January, the Welsh government announced plans to make relationships, sexuality, and religion a mandatory part of the curriculum for all students over the age of five by 2022. In September, Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Rehman Chishti resigned from his position as the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Religious Freedom. Conservative MP Fiona Bruce was appointed his successor in December. In July, Imam Qari Asim, the Deputy Chair of the government’s Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group, was appointed independent advisor to propose a working definition of Islamophobia. On the one-year anniversary of the March mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, the government announced that funding for the Places of Worship Scheme, which provides physical security measures to Muslim, Christian, Sikh, and Hindu places of worship, would double from the previous year to 3.2 million pounds ($4.37 million) in 2020-2021. In April, the government provided 14 million pounds ($19.13 million) via a nongovernmental organization (NGO) to provide security at Jewish institutions, including schools and synagogues. In January, the Scottish government announced 500,000 pounds ($683,000) to fund security at places of worship. In January, the government renewed its commitment to the founding principles of the 2000 Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust (Stockholm Declaration). To mark International Holocaust Memorial Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the UK government announced a one-million pound ($1.37 million) grant to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to help preserve the site of the former concentration camp. The main political parties and party members continued to face numerous accusations of religious bias. The Conservative Party faced allegations of anti-Muslim incidents, with the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) submitting a dossier of 150 cases of alleged anti-Muslim incidents by party members to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The party announced it would conduct a review into how complaints were handled and the EHRC accepted the party’s terms of reference for the investigation, but the MCB criticized the scope of the inquiry. In October, the EHRC released a report calling on the Labour Party to reform its handling of allegations of anti-Semitism within the party. In light of his negative reaction to the report, Jeremy Corbyn was suspended from both the wider Labour Party and the Parliamentary Labour Party and was forced to sit as an independent MP, a first for a former leader. While his wider-party membership was later reinstated in November, he continued to serve as an independent MP. In December, the Labour Party published a plan to implement the EHRC’s recommended reforms.
The government reported a 5 percent decline (from 8,566 to 7,203 offenses) in religiously motivated hate crimes in England and Wales in the 2019-2020 period compared to the same period one year prior. This was the first period of decline in religiously motivated hate crimes since 2012-2013. Where the perceived religion of the victim was recorded (in 91 percent of cases), 50 percent (3,089 offenses) of religious hate crime offenses targeted Muslims, and 19 percent (1,205 offenses) targeted Jews. The annual report of the NGO Community Security Trust (CST) recorded 1,668 anti-Semitic incidents during the year, an 8 percent decline from 2019, yet still the second-highest ever annual figure recorded by the organization. Among the incidents were 97 assaults and three incidents classified as “extreme violence.” (Due to privacy laws, CST did not provide details on cases of extreme violence.) There were a further 1,399 incidents of nonviolent abusive behavior. CST recorded 634 anti-Semitic online incidents, a 9 percent decline from the previous year. In September, the NGO Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks), which monitors anti-Muslim activity, released its annual report for 2018. The report disclosed 3,173 reports of anti-Muslim hate incidents in 2018, including 1,891 recorded by police. This was the highest number since the NGO’s founding in 2011. Several religiously motivated conspiracy theories surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic circulated online. According to a report by the Henry Jackson Society think tank, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories included claims that Jews used global lockdowns to “steal everything.” Both Jewish and Muslim communities were vilified by media commentators such as Katie Hopkins, who alleged that Muslims were flouting lockdown restrictions and spreading COVID-19 by continuing Friday prayers at mosques.
U.S. embassy and consulate staff engaged with government officials, political parties, and religious groups to advance religious freedom issues, with a strong emphasis on digital engagement and use of social media in response to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. In May, the Ambassador, along with the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, gave remarks at virtual iftars, which were part of the largest such series in the UK, entitled #RamadanatHome. In June, the Ambassador hosted a virtual meeting with representatives of the Jewish community, and separately, with Labour Leader MP Sir Keir Starmer, to discuss the Labour Party’s plan to confront the issue of anti-Semitism within the party. In April, the Ambassador spoke to the Chief Rabbi of the United Synagogues to extend his best wishes for Passover and to show support for the British Jewish communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, in May, the Ambassador called Dr. Ahmad al-Dubayan of the Central London Mosque to commemorate Ramadan and discuss how the Muslim community was faring, given COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on gatherings. In December, a senior embassy official delivered remarks and conducted a virtual candle lighting in honor of Diwali, in partnership with the Hindu Forum of Europe. In January, a senior embassy official represented the United States at the UK’s Holocaust Memorial Day Commemoration Ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and met with Trustees of the Holocaust Day Memorial Trust. To mark National Religious Freedom Day in January, the consulate general in Belfast hosted an interfaith dialogue. Throughout the year, the embassy’s social media messaging on international religious freedom reached approximately 400,000 persons.