“Page after page I thought, that's the way it is”: Academic knowledge and the making of the 'islam debate' in the Netherlands

In this 'Current Debate' article, we discuss the entanglement of academic discourse and public debates on Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands. Academic output is a crucial but complex constituent of that debate. Many academics write policy reports, or take part in the debate through the media, and, whether they like it or not, their regular work is often co-opted by one of the discursive communities that take part in the debate. Research on Islam and Muslims is thus entangled with predominating knowledge regimes and policy priorities. We discuss several Dutch publications of the last three decades, and three recent books in particular, in order to show this entanglement.