The exclusion of women from being elected for an orthodox Christian political party (SGP) is declared discriminatory by the Supreme Court. It overlooked however the importance of the freedom of religion in a pluralistic society. Furthermore, not any woman concerned was prepared to start proceedings. The party was moreover not inspired by an idea of inferiority, but by religious views on the roles of men and women. The Court ignored the importance of a representation of non-dominant social currents.

MOVISIE Netherlands centre for social development researched the role of churches in the enforcement of the Social Support Act in the municipality of Utrecht. It showed that although the municipality does not charge the churches with the execution of the law, the churches themselves present a lot of activities that might be appointed as social support activities. Moreover a part of the churches are benevolent to increase their activities if the municipality would facilitate them. At the same time city council members as well as the responsible civil servants do not know the role churches play at the enforcement of the Act, so further cooperation between the municipality and the churches is required.

Since 30 years the Netherlands’ government practises an integration policy towards ethnic minorities. From the beginning, this comprehensive approach is challenged by demands of immigrated religious communities, e.g. the erection of buildings of worship. For the government, religion is an influential circumstance, not an object of the policy-making process. Therefore religious matters deserve political attention.The mid-nineties of the twentieth century brought the Islam into the focus of national policy. The first issue concerned the appointments on a temporary basis of Turkish imams by the Turkish authorities. That evoked the need for a Dutch training-school in order to be prevented from further admissions from abroad. In the meantime, compulsory introductory courses for religious leaders with a non-EU- or EEA-nationality were introduced. Since nine-eleven, the threats of Islamic ultra-orthodox tendencies dominate the political discourse.