Dutch Cabinet gets its first Muslim member

A long way from Turkey
Albayrak, 38, came from Turkey with her six siblings when she was 18 months old. Her parents moved to the Netherlands to work and intended to return to Turkey after their children were educated. They never did.

She joined the Labor Party while a university student, earned a degree in international law and was elected to parliament in 1998. In last November’s elections, she was placed second on the list of candidates after the party leader.

Aboutaleb, 45, left Morocco at age 15 with his mother and brothers to join his father, who had come to the Netherlands several years earlier. He studied telecommunications and worked as a news broadcaster, but always had political ambitions.

“The frame of reference I left behind was a small house without electricity or running water; a cow, a donkey and a few rocks,” he says.

The Van Gogh incident
Aboutaleb gained attention in 2004 after the Van Gogh slaying. The Amsterdam-born assailant, Mohammed Bouyeri, believed the filmmaker had insulted Islam in his work. Bouyeri pegged a five-page diatribe into Van Gogh’s chest with a knife threatening other Dutch leaders, including Aboutaleb, who now has 24-hour police protection.

The day after the murder, Aboutaleb spoke at a mosque about the need for Muslims to become part of Dutch society. “Anyone who doesn’t share these values would be wise to draw their conclusions and leave,” he said.

Swift outreach by Aboutaleb and Amsterdam’s Jewish mayor, Job Cohen, to the city’s Muslims was credited with keeping a lid on ethnic tensions, which flared in other Dutch cities.

“A lot of people who have trouble finding a job, who have difficulty adapting to this society, think they’re not accepted. And sometimes that is the case,” said Amsterdam councilman Lodewijk Asscher. “To them, it’s a very important message that Ahmed Aboutaleb has made it to the national government.”

Talk of a clash of cultures
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States and deadly bombings in London and Madrid, studies have focused on an intensifying clash between Europeans and a flood of immigrants who hold fast to their own cultures. But some say a new reality is emerging, even though many Europeans do not realize it.

Moroccan-born Khalid Boutachekourt, 33, advises corporations on employment practices. He sees people of his age and background moving up as businesses reach out to a new client base of immigrants.

“Diversity at the management level is increasing, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “You see people advance rapidly. They have the advantage of being the first in an establishment that needs new faces and new voices.”

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