This article discusses the way in which nominally liberal, secular political parties in the Netherlands refer to religion when describing Dutch national identity with particular emphasis on controversies surrounding the 2017 parliamentary elections. Focussing on the currently ruling liberal party VVD and the populist right-wing party PVV, appeals on ‘judeo-christian roots’ and the importance of christian symbols are analyzed against the backdrop of larger currents of religious-secular developments in (inter)national political discourse. The author suggest using the term ‘postsecular nationalism’ to describe this development. The article ends with speculation on the impact of postsecular nationalism for policy-makers.

The policy document Integration, commitment and citizenship concludes that the Islam ‘worries parts of the Dutch society’ because of beliefs that according to them are incompatible with the democratic constitutional state. In this article we look at the relationship between Islam en citizenship from within the Indonesian Muslim community in the Netherlands. This article is based on research on positioning and self-definition of Indonesian Muslims in the Netherlands. Indonesian Muslims are in general well integrated in Dutch society. They work or study in the Netherlands and they are active in social life. Newcomers respect the pluriform and democratic legal order they already know from Indonesia. At the same time Indonesian Muslims are remarkably silent in the public debate on Islam. On the one hand this derives from their individualistic and inward interpretation of Islam, on the other hand it derives from their Indonesian national character and it partially comes from the changed political climate in the Netherlands.