Hazlet youth embarks on a journey of discovery

By SOMDATTA SENGUPTA

Published Jan 17, 2008

Vincent Solomeno, 22, of Hazlet, is on a mission in Europe. He wants to study how the Dutch people deal with issues of diversity and immigration in their country.

“During the 1960s, [the Netherlands] had a lot of guest workers come in from Indonesia, Morocco and Turkey as there was a shortage of labor in Europe after the two world wars,” Solomeno said. “A majority of these guest workers were Muslim, and the Dutch thought, in due course of time, these migrant populations would return to their native countries. Of course that did not happen, and what they are dealing with now is immigration and how to manage it.”

That is his area of study as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Amsterdam, Solomeno said. He is currently pursuing his masters in European Studies at the International School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the university. His program of study started last August and will end in June this year.

Solomeno completed his bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Scranton, PA. Prior to that, he graduated from the Marine Academy of Science and Technology, Sandy Hook. Solomeno said he wants to teach when he is done with his education.

As a student, Solomeno said his background in political science has taught him that an individual can achieve greater goals through public service. “It has the potential to bring about important changes in people’s lives,” he said. That is why he finds the current immigration debate in the Netherlands so intriguing, he said.

“The Dutch people believe that religion should not be brought out into the public square. They have been through that debate long ago in their political history. But now, faced with a growing minority of Muslims who want to practice their religion, they are looking at that issue again,” he said. “It’s like what we, in the United States, are going through with immigration issues stemming from south of our border. Only we are a much younger country compared to the Netherlands.”

Since beginning his research on this subject, Solomeno said he has spoken to several young people who have been impacted by this debate.

“Young Muslims have taken polarized approaches to this issue. Some don’t want to be identified as different from the general crowd because they are Dutch citizens, born and brought up in the Netherlands,” he said. “The others have turned to their religion and have integrated that with their identity.”

Observing a society struggling with the issues of civic identity and faith, Solomeno said there is much to learn from the ways people try to deal with the unknown, the “what ifs” of an integrated, smaller global community.

“In the Netherlands, the people don’t practice religion as much as we do in the United States,” Solomeno said. By faith, he is a Lutheran, he said. “Most of the churches there are more like museums. Religion is marginalized from the public sphere. They are very, very secular.”

In that context, having a debate over religious versus civic and national identities makes a very interesting subject for study, Solomeno said. “What you see is that after 20 or 30 years of secularism, the veterans of the country, who are the revolutionaries who preached and established secularism, are faced with an issue that in their minds is over and done,” he said. “Yet, that same issue cannot be ignored for the next generation because the ethnic composition has changed and multiplied.”

Also, the world has changed. In a post 9/11 era, many western countries view Islam as a threat, Solomeno said. It is also incomprehensible to the Western sensibility to consider women as second-class citizens as many practicing Muslims do, he said.

“Now many Europeans are figuring out how to deal with civil rights when it’s in conflict with religious rights. How to reconcile the change in their demographics with who they are. The question is how will the next generation chose?” Solomeno said.

So far, the Dutch experience has been an eye opener for the Hazlet youth. Solomeno said his research has taught him new ways to approach public dialogue and policy making. “The difference between the United States and Europe on this issue of ethnic identity is that, we, as a country, are formed as a melting pot,” he said. “We have accepted religion as part of the political argument but the Dutch are obsessed with keeping things secular.”

Personally, Solomeno said he believes majority of Muslims are peace-loving people. “They are very gentle and kind. We need to understand that the radicalization of Islam has only been done by a few who want to terrorize the world,” he said. “It’s the same with every religion, even Christianity. There are so many interpretations of the Bible and they are not homogenous.”