Why the Dutch are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands: From Amsterdam to Zwarte Piet, the acclaimed guide to travel in Holland

by Ben Coates

The months leading up to the unity march in Rotterdam had been marred by a series of other events. Swastikas were displayed at a march in The Hague, and fliers for pro-ISIS marches were pasted over Anne Frank’s face on advertisements for a musical about her life. A Jewish woman who hung an Israeli flag from her balcony in Amsterdam was beaten up by three men ‘wearing Palestinian-style scarves’. One survey of Dutch Turks aged 18 to 34 found that an astonishing 80 per cent thought there was nothing wrong with waging jihad against non-believers. The findings were disputed, but were worrying nonetheless. Then, as 2015 dawned, terrorists rampaged through the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. The Dutch were naturally horrified that such a thing could happen so close by, and feared they might be next. Rotterdam’s Ahmed Aboutaleb condemned Islamic extremism so strongly and repeatedly that people began speculating whether he was positioning himself to become northern Europe’s first Muslim prime minister one day. Soon after the rally on the Stadhuis steps, he even managed to wangle an invitation to the White House to meet Barack Obama.