https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6415-4699
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Abstract
In this article, we examine how religious minorities in the densely populated Netherlands manage burial norms in the face of scarcity of land. Using legal pluralism, we explore how local and national authorities; funeral agents; and three religious minority communities deal with the spatial and temporal dimensions of death and burial, both inside and outside the Dutch conurbation The Randstad, in a context where the Dutch tradition of consociationalism lingers on. Based on fieldwork and legal analysis, our findings show that religious burial norms have peripheral existence, both within Dutch law where they are treated as exceptions, and geographically, as religious cemeteries still remain situated outside The Randstad. Furthermore, tensions can emerge not only between communities, but also within them, as exemplified by challenges faced by non-believers. In a context of migration, Dutch cemeteries become spaces where multiple normative orders concerning emotion, (non)belief, religion, society and the state intersect. This turns the space for the dead into a place where some members of minority groups can find the rest they are longing for, while others cannot.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Rami Bou Diab for his important role in facilitating access to respondents and the 2 anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)
Notes
1 De Bijlmer is a district in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, known for being particularly multicultural. In the film Dood in de Bijlmer (Dealing with Death) (2020), a Dutch undertaker wants to establish a new multicultural funeral home where people are free to practice their own dead and funeral rituals.
2 See for more: https://nos.nl/l/2459244.
3 In migration and refugee studies on border and migration governance there exists a large body of literature that addresses deaths of migrants ‘on the way’ (e.g. McMahon and Sigona Citation2021). We do not deal with this literature as our focus is on migrants who reside in the Netherlands and who usually have formal citizenship.
4 See also von Benda-Beckmann and von Benda-Beckmann (Citation2014) who see spaces as abstract categories and places as the concretised nexus between persons, relationships, and objects (2014, 46).
5 In Germany, shroud burial is possible in 5 states (out of 16) if municipal cemetery authorities have granted exceptions to allow for burial practices that conform to different religious norms (Balkan Citation2015a, 126).
6 Academic literature on death and burial practices among Syriac-Orthodox communities in the diaspora is scarce (email communication with prof. Murre-van den Berg, 17 January 2023). The information provided here is based on Samuel and Barsom (Citation2011); an interview (23 March 2022) in Glane and email correspondence (10 February 2023) with the undertaker of Glane cemetery; and the following website: https://dss-syriacpatriarchate.org/church-rites/burial-of-the-dead/?lang=en.
7 The formal name is: Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East.
8 See: https://syriacpatriarchate.org/2018/06/official-inauguration-of-the-new-patriarchal-residence-atchaneh/, accessed 19 January 2023.
9 See for more: https://morephrem.com/.
10 This and other interview fragments draw from an interview with the undertaker on 23 March 2022 in Glane.
12 Law on Funeral Services (Wet op de Lijkbezorging): https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0005009/2022-01-01; Decree on Funeral Services (Besluit op de Lijkbezorging): https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0009080/2020-01-01.
13 For example, Surinamese Muslims in the Netherlands bury with a coffin while this is uncommon among Moroccan and Turkish Muslims (interview with undertaker Almere, 22 March 2022. See also Dessing (Citation2001).
14 See Kadrouch-Outmany (Citation2014) for a detailed explanation of Islamic burial norms as laid out in Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).
15 This and other interview fragments draw from an interview with the undertaker on 22 March 2022 in Almere.
16 It was ratified by The Netherlands on 24 November 1975 and it went into force on 25 December 1975 (https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list?module=signatures-by-treaty&treatynum=080#, accessed 6 December 2022).
17 Permission to use the land for Islamic burials was given by Almere Board in 2005. It took two years to prepare the cemetery for burial (interview with Islamic undertaker Almere, 22 March 2022, Almere).
19 The original plan was to have six hundred graves, but currently, the cemetery accommodates nearly 1000 graves (interview with Islamic undertaker Almere, 22 March 2022, Almere).
20 See for more the video on: https://npokennis.nl/story/295/hoe-regel-je-een-islamitische-uitvaart-in-nederland?languageFromSerie=nl.
21 Between 14 March (when all flights to Morocco were suspended) and 10 June 2020 between 300 and 350 Moroccan-Dutch were buried in the Netherlands (Kadrouch-Outmany Citation2020, 7).
22 Kamerstuk 35077 Initiatiefnota ‘naar een moderne uitvaartwet,’ 12 november 2018.
23 On the initiative of former MP Monica den Boer (D66). The aim is to offer more possibilities for burial along two pillars offering fourteen proposals. Burial or cremation after 20 hours instead of 36 hours is one of the proposals as well as the publication of a manual on cultural diversity in the Netherlands.
24 Kamerstukken II, 2018-19, 34077, 13.
25 Officially: the minister of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations.
26 Kamerstukken II, 2019-20, 30696/25295, 48.
28 A similar solution was implemented at the Jewish Beth Haim cemetery in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel (near Amsterdam) when it neared full capacity in 1923. Since Jewish law also prohibits exhumation of the deceased, an older section of the cemetery was covered with earth to create additional space for new graves. At that time, it was anticipated that further expansion of Beth Haim would be necessary by 1963. Due to the loss of many of the parishioners during World War II, the cemetery still has sufficient space to accommodate new burials for the next eighty years (https://www.bethhaim.nl/geschiedenis/).
29 In 1998, the Pakistan welfare social society obtained a section of the Zuiderbegraafplaats in Rotterdam, a public graveyard, for the exclusive use of its members. The negotiations of this mosque organistion in Rotterdam with the graveyard keeper may offer an example of the organisational developments to be expected in the field of burial practices (Dessing Citation2001, 180).
30 The National Organisation of Cemeteries (Landelijke Organisatie van Begraafplaatsen, LOB) handles over 75 percent of burials in the Netherlands. In Rotterdam, there are three LBO-affiliated cemeteries with Islamic plots ensuring indefinite grave rest, along with two in Utrecht, one in The Hague, and none in Amsterdam. https://www.begraafplaats.nl/begraafplaatsen/, accessed 28 September 2023.
31 Interview with the interim-director of Spior, 20 October 2023, Rotterdam.
32 Ibid. See also https://www.spior.nl/ibo/.
33 ‘The corpse’s disposal should take place in conformity with the wish, or the presumed wish, of the deceased (…)’ (art. 18, 1 Law on Funeral Services).
34 Interview, 21 April 2022, online.
35 Interview, 19 May 2022, city in The Randstad.
36 Interview, 16 April 2022, city in The Randstad, and interview, 22 April 2022, online.
37 Interview, 16 February 2022, Almere.
38 Interview, 18 August 2022, city in The Randstad.
39 Interview, 10 December 2021, online.
40 Email correspondence, 9 February 2022.
41 https://www.npostart.nl/eenvandaag/11-02-2020/AT_2123892, Een Vandaag, 11 February 2020 (episode 35).
42 See endnote 33.
43 Informal conversation, 29 April 2022, city in The Randstad.
44 See endnote 40.
45 There is an exception: at the time of burial the cemetery turns into a space where the attendance of Muslim women is often considered reprehensible.