11 September and popular geopolitics: a study of websites run for and by Dutch Moroccans

In the eyes of many, the events of 11 September have validated Huntington's prediction of a ‘clash of civilizations’ between the Islam and the West. Accordingly, the Muslims communities in the West are seen as vanguards of a hostile civilization. The essay aims at exploring the significance of such a geopolitical script in popular geopolitics. It deals with the position of Muslim communities in Western Europe. The analysis focuses on Moroccans in the Netherlands, a Muslim community resulting from recent immigration and on the new media. The empirical section examines how the events and their aftermath were presented and represented on websites run for and by young Dutch Moroccans (websites that have became key public places for this first generation of Muslims born in the Netherlands), and aims at assessing to what extent the ‘clash of civilizations’ script inform their understanding of the events.