Belgian Antichrist?

Is a socialist Eutopia a particular Belgian idea? Paul Belien thinks so. I don't know... isn't a man who wears such a collar and tie perhaps the end of the line for a bureaucratic empire, a self-revealing bad joke... or is he truly the Godfather of "global governance", grand molly coddler of globalization's many left-Islamic resentments?

There is something nasty about the look, like he could be the accountant or inside man for the more flamboyantly evil Jew in a James Bond film. It seems to me that both James Bond and his villains are fantastic projections of a modern reality on which the other characters in the films are more plausibly based. In related news:

‘This guy clearly does not have anything better to do... What does he think we do? Does he think we sit on our hands waiting to read emails from a ten-year-old who has just discovered Conservatism, on a £200,000 salary in some farmhouse with a wife who works for Google?
[...]
Other figures in the party say that when they first received the bulletins, they thought they were a spoof from the BBC’s political spin doctor satire The Thick Of It, which features a Hilton-style PR guru called Stewart Pearson who ‘hangs’ at Tory HQ dressed in jeans and T-shirt and talks impenetrable gobbledegook.
[...]
One emailed bulletin that has particularly irritated some Tory frontbenchers urges them to discuss ‘cool examples of the post-bureaucratic approach’ by directly contacting American gurus such as Richard Thaler, the co-creator of the fashionable ‘nudge’ theory which suggests that people can be persuaded to change their behaviour without heavy state intervention.

Mr Hilton then uses the example of ‘binge-drinking in Montana’ to explain his theory.

‘The authorities in Montana managed to cut binge drinking amongst students – something that the Labour Government has tried and failed to do,’ he writes.

‘How? They simply put up advertising that stated, “80 per cent of Montana college students drink fewer than four beers per week.” This led to an immediate fall in drinking because of the power of social norms.’

Right... and will we soon be wearing van Rompuy ties?

Violence And Vandalism At Brussels Peace Protest

Belgian member of Parliamant Richard Miller can personally attest that Sunday's high-profile pro-Hamas "peace" protest staged in Brussels degenerated into violence: he was hospitalized after being hit in the head by a piece of gravel thrown by one of his anti-Israel allies.

Translated from the Belgian news site 7sur7:

"Everything was going well during the demonstration when suddenly, there were incidents during the dispersal of the procession in front of the railway station", explained M. Miller. "That's when I was hit by the cobblestone. I was groggy and found myself bloodied", he said while waiting to be evacuated by ambulance. He participated in the protest at the request of the president of his party so as to represent the MR [Reformist Movement], he added.

It was not reported whether the parliamentarian's assailant was one of the 143 vandals arrested during the "peace" protest for destruction and mayhem caused along the Albert II boulevard, and elsewhere. Three policemen were also wounded by day's end, one with a broken foot. A dozen cars were vandalized and several store and restaurant windows smashed. Police are now wading through the surveillance footage filmed that day by security cameras, matching suspects to actions.

Organizers announced that between 50,000 and 60,000 people participated in the protest march; police give a much lower figure, of 30,000.

Pro-Hamas Demos Turn Ugly Throughout Belgium; Pro-Israel Rallies Don't

One side burns flags, the other waves them. In Belgium, however, the flag-burning side are escalating the flames of rage beyond mere symbolic acts... What follows are a series of translated articles from the Belgian media over the last week on the bad fruit falling from the pro-Hamas tree.

Things are getting so bad that it has resulted in the government having to raise the threat level scale normally used for measuring terrorism:

The [Foreign Affairs Crisis Center] decided to raise the level of alert due to the impact that Israel's actions in Gaza are having in Belgium. "The participation in the organized protests increases with each day. We recognize that the situation is becoming more explosive", notes Peter Mertens. He therefore decided to increase attention and keep a closer eye on Israeli and palestinian interests in Belgium.

Concretely, this means that "the police presence would be redirected and added to, as necessary." A meeting will be held [last Tuesday] with the Anvers and Brussels police to determine which groups might require additional security precautions.

Mr. Mertens specifies that the threat level has nothing to do with risks from terrorism, and is more the case of a threat against public order.

No doubt incidents like the one taking place on Friday, January 2nd, led to this decision to ratchet up security precautions throughout the nation. At an anti-Israel demonstration of a thousand people on the steps of the Brussels Stock Exchange Friday afternoon, young protestors launched a volley of stones that damaged six cars. A store window was also smashed after the protest. No arrests were made.

The Belgian city of Charleroi, previously given its 15 minutes of infamy through the shocking 2004 suicide bombing of Charleroi resident Muriel Degauque in Iraq, saw the results of this increase in security in action, as the forces of law and order succesfully prevented several dozen masked youths from engaging in vandalism at the tail-end of an anti-Israel protest:

A pro-palestinian protest gave way to several outbursts Saturday afternoon, in the neighborhood of Ville-Haute, in Charleroi ...
Several hundred protestors first gathered together while displaying banners at la place Charles II. A delegation submitted a statement of protest to burgomeister Jean-Jacques Viseur.
This part of the protest went without incident.
However, as the protest dispersed, several dozen youths, several with their faces masked, hurtled down the nearby rue de la Montagne, threatening to smash windows, but were prevented from doing so.
The police had taken the precaution to equip themselves with water pumps but these ended up not being necessary.... Local police made several arrests likely to lead to a hearing by the deputy public prosecutor in court.

Last Monday, January 5th, unknown persons started a fire in front of a Brussels synagogue, blackening the front door. Investigators were not certain about how the fire started, but discounted the possibility of it being a molotov cocktail. The spokesperson for the police suggested, through a tactless analogy, that it might simply be a case of practical jokers taking advantage of the situation in Gaza to throw a little "oil on the fire"...

2 molotov coctails were, however, found among the 93 protestors arrested at a spontaneous, unauthorized "peace" protest in Antwerp two days before, on Saturday January 3rd. They had text-messaged each other about the protest, but made no provisions with authorities to seek the proper permits for their public demonstration; the police, in consultation with Anvers mayor Patrick Janssens, told the gathered crowd to leave, arresting those who would not disperse as directed.

This protest ended better than the one which took place in Antwerp on Wednesday December 31st. Anti-Israeli protestors descended upon Antwerp's Jewish community, which had been heavily defended by a strong police presence. (Watch the following (Flemish-language?) tv news account of the incident, as of the 1:00 mark...)

A protest undertaken on January 9th with the participation of a left-wing Belgian political party turned into a bit of a mess thanks to the undisciplined exuberance of the "anti-violence" protestors in attendance. Almost a thousand people had assembled on that late Friday afternoon at the place du Marché in Liège, where the crowd's spontaneous pro-jihad chants drowned out the official speakers' standard anti-war rhetoric:

The protest went on through a certain confusion, as the organizers' speeches were rendered inaudible by the more virulent cries coming from a core group of young protestors. In-between the "Israel assassin", "Zionist terrorist", "Bush, Olmert, assassins", one could also hear praising the glory of hamas, hezbollah and jihad. ...

The Ecolo party had announced its participation in the protest... the green party announced that they had proposed a resolution demanding that Europe put pressure on Israel for an immediate cease-fire, a proposition that will be tabled in the Chamber's foreign relations commission this coming January 13th.

Police in Brussels are very concerned about a scheduled protest this coming Sunday, January 11th. Over 100 organizations, including Belgian political parties such as the environmentalist Ecolo party, the center-left cdH (Humanist Democratic Centre) and the Socialist Party, are participating in an event expected to draw several thousand protestors. Expectations from the organizers are that the numbers will in fact top those of their previous protest in Brussels on Wednesday December 31st. Because of the bad publicity resulting from their previous efforts, thoughtful guidelines are being established by the organizers:

The League of Belgian Muslims (LMB) has asked the participants to not burn flags during the protest, and to not shout "certain slogans".
...
Policing measures will be very important. Sensitive areas such as synagogues and certain embassies will be secured...

In the middle of all this flag-burning, stone-throwing, and pro-jihad chanting, Belgium's Jewish community organized a demonstration in support of Israel. The CCOJB ("Comité de Coordination des Organisations Juives de Belgique", the "Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium") held a pro-Israel rally in front of Iran's embassy in Brussels. From the CCOJB's official site:

1,000 people were in attendance to denounce the responsability of Iran in supporting the terrorist organization Hamas. CCOJB President Joel Rubinfeld and federal deputy Denis Ducarme delivered speeches offering their support for the populations [Israeli and Palestinian] in the region who are taken hostage by Hamas and its backers in Iran.

Need we even ask, if police found any molotov cocktails among these protestors..? Was there even a remote chance that they would burn flags, riot, and storm the embassy in a fit of violent rage..?

"By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs from thistles?
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit..."
__Matthew 7:16-18

Youth Rampaging Aboard Belgian Busses

It's an express trip to Bedlam aboard the Belgian busses these days, as each week the news contain stories of small bands of out-of-control youth raging without any sense of self-restraint, or seemingly any thought for tomorrow. Last week saw a terrifying rampage of feral youths demolishing a passenger-filled bus, with hammers [my loose translation, for this and the rest of the newspaper reports following]:

An articulated bus was targeted Tuesday [July 1st] night around 7:30 pm in Liege by 20 youths who broke the windows with hammer blows. The arrival of police made the attackers flee, but three minors were arrested.
About 70 people -- including many children -- were aboard the bus. At a stop on Moulin street, in Bressoux, the youths, aged 14 to 17 years, demolished the windows with hammers, also vandalized the seats and caused other damages. No one was wounded. ...
Other incidents have taken place on this bus a few weeks ago. These also resulted in serious damages. Following those incidents, some busses had to be escorted by police.

A French-language video report of the riot, showing the scope of the damage, can be seen here.

An update the following day attests to the consequences for such actions:

The two arrested youths, Omar, 15 years old, and Nasser, 17, were both known to police. ... Omar, who had already undergone 30 hours of community service back on June 20th, is to be placed in a detention center. If there's no room then Omar will be placed on a waiting list and, as soon as an opening presents itself, will be placed in that institution. Nasser was charged with 30 hours of community service work.

Crime doesn't pay!

From within the readers comments on these ongoing bus battles, "Robert Antoine" observes a contrast of attitudes, comparing where the youths have come from to their current home in Belgium...:

A few years ago I was in Tangiers, visiting a friend from work who had returned to his country to open up a restaurant. He took me to visit Tangiers, there the police are respected, many of them aren't even armed, I saw youth who were showing themselves too insistent towards some tourists, ONE LOOK from police and HOP, they all leave. Why? Because over there, there are punishments, not "holidays" like in Belgogaucho! My friend told me, this isn't Belgium, they know what they're risking...

I wonder if this is how they handle such things down in Morocco; several Belgian bus routes are to be cancelled until further notice, because it is just not safe to ride those routes any more:

After Saturday's devastation of a bus on route 69 from Soumagne, the unions forming a common front and the directorship of the TEC Liège-Verviers [Belgian transit commission for the Liège to Verviers region] have decided, in common accord, to provisionally reroute bus lines 68, 69 and 268 as of the third of July, therefore avoiding the [express/non-stop route through Wégimont? Not sure of the sense of the text here... "la desserte de Wégimont"].

This had been the fourth bus vandalized coming from the region. In a meeting between the TEC and the police, it was decided to no longer provide service to Wégimont from Liège. ... "We regret severing these lines because many people will be inconvenienced by that, but we are at the end [of our rope]", said a union spokesman.

Belgian Off-Duty Police Attacked By Mob Of 30 Youths

If they see you, they attack you; little self-control on display in this story of Belgian police officers who were enjoying a day off, when all of a sudden they are pounced upon by no less than 30 young thugs.

Loosely translated from the Belgian paper La Derniere Heure: 5 police officers from Brussels were assaulted by 30 youths, in the Bruparck parking lot in Heysel, on Sunday morning.

The officers were not on duty and were coming back from an evening together. As they entered the parking lot, they were recognized by a group of youths that were hanging around and who had already had problems with the police.

The youths beat up four of the officers so severely that they will be unable to return to work for some time. One of the police officers suffered a broken elbow. The young thugs also damaged the officers' cars. ...

One of the problems making urban violence worse in Belgium are the juvenile detention centers; they are full, and often young offenders are released shortly after they are caught, due to lack of space.

Yesterday we covered a similar story out of France, where off-duty police officers were attacked by a smaller gang of feral youths. Just how common an occurance has this become?

Belgian Battleground

Police collided with two gangs hell-bent on violent warfare on the streets of the Belgian municipality of Anderlecht, the Western-most municipality of Brussels, capital of the EU. The story of the Anderlecht riots is from late May of this year, and it’s still generating occasional headlines in the Belgian press.

What follows is a series of loose translations of French-language media accounts covering developing angles to the story.

The initial report, as carried in the Belgian news source 7sur7:

The situation started deteriorating around 8:30 pm. The police were between a group of "youths of foreign origin" [later specified later in their reporting as "youths of north-african origin"] and "fans of the Anderlecht soccer team".


Charges by police officers mounted on horseback managed to keep the two hostile groups far apart from each other. The "youths of foreign origin" started throwing stones at the police, wounding at least one of them. A bus shelter was destroyed, several cars were damaged and store windows shattered.

The article says that, on Thursday, an (unspecified) blog carried a call for violence, inciting the "youths of foreign origin" to take on the "white supporters" of the Anderlecht team. This call to battle was set off by a fight that took place the Sunday before, on May 18, following an Anderlecht soccer game.

A later account adds that police made no less than 193 arrests that Friday night. Four of the individuals arrested were carrying baseball bats, which the article describes as "prohibited weapons". 14 police officers were injured throughout that evening. All were hospitalized, two with serious wounds.

A French-language news video showing the scale of the urban warfare, here:

The next day, Gaëtan Van Goidsenhoven, mayor ["burgomaster"] of Anderlecht passed an ordinance prohibiting a gathering of more than 5 persons within the territory of the municipality.

The following Friday (May 30), police arrested another 100 persons "pre-emptively" in Anderlecht. Most of them were minors, and were not from the local community. Some had already been arrested during the violence of the week before, and evidently released in the interim.

Some of the individuals arrested were carrying bladed weapons. Police also found two molotov cocktails among the arrested.

The police later issued a requisition order aimed at local media, asking that press and television sources give them images and video taken during the violent night, whether or not it had been aired or published. The General Association of professional Belgian journalists (AGJPB) have asked Belgian media to not cooperate with this demand.

According to the association, this requisition "illustrates the lack of respect for the function of media to inform in total independence." Giving over the material "would place journalists in an auxiliary position to the police and would put [the journalists] in danger -- whether they are before the camera or editors -- as soon as they would cover events on the ground."

The AGJBP further states that "the judicial preoccupation with identifying persons involved in the Anderlecht riots does not weigh sufficiently in regards to the interests at stake in relation to freedom of the press."

They add that "nothing is stopping the authorities from gaining information from the images that the media have already themselves broadcast or published."

Heavy police presence on weekends since the initial clash have kept things tense, but calm. Tensions are not being helped by waves of false rumors, claiming that attacks have happened or are about to happen, rumors designed to spark off new riots.

This past weekend, over 350 people participated in a "Mothers March" through the streets of Anderlecht. The marchers walked behind a banner which said "Let's talk for respect and tolerance".

One of the organizers said: "It's important to talk with everybody. The residents have a role to play to keep similar incidents from happening again. We must make an attempt for each to express themselves in words and not in stones. There is no malaise in particular in Anderlecht. But once in a while we recognize difficulties here as in all the large cities where several cultures co-exist."

Deputy Mayor Fabrice Cumps, participating in the march, said "We want to show today what unites us rather than what divides us. The future of Anderlecht and of Brussels more generally is this multiculturalism. We must live together in respect."

(Some googling reveals that I'm hardly posting a "scoop" with this story. It was news to me when I came across it in my recent French media readings, however, so I'm hoping that for some of our readers this is news for you, as well.)

UPDATE: Esther at the European blog Islam in Europe has some further details on the Anderlecht riots and their aftermath, translated into English from Dutch news sources.
Also, the Brussels Journal provides yet more background on the Belgian riots.
As well, it's fitting that I humbly link back to an earlier Covenant Zone post on an additional problem on top of all the others connected with this story: Belgian prisons have little room for these hundreds of arrested juvenile delinquents.

Young Belgian Criminals Freed Because Prisons Are Full

Belgian juvenile detention centers are so full the police are being forced to regularly release teenage criminals soon after they are arrested, the Belgian papers report today, after 15 young thugs were released over the weekend, no matter the severity of their crimes.

My partial translation of the account carried by the major French Belgian paper Le Soir:

The public prosecutor of Brussels had to release no less than 15 minors (9 Saturday and 6 on Sunday), over the weekend, due to lack of space in detention centers. It is a "dramatic" situation, according to Brussels' francophone magistrate.

"Some cases are sufficiently serious that they require a place in detention centers", the prosecutor's spokesperson said. "But if we cannot find a solution to the placement within 24 hours, we are obligated to let them go. It's a recurring problem, but it is once again painfully illustrated this weekend.
There is no room anywhere: not at Everberg, nor at Fraipont, nor at Braine-le-Château. It's really dramatic and it's a serious problem that the French community needs to address urgently.
...
The latest serious act was committed Saturday night. A 16-year old youth grabbed a 79-year old's purse in Rhode-Saint-Genèse. In falling, she fractured her writst, her shoulder and her hip. The pursesnatcher, well known to police, was arrested and put in custody.

After his preliminary hearing by the judge, he was seemingly freed.

Two other juvenile delinquents were released last week, shortly after being arrested for having dropped a block of concrete from an overpass, onto the driver's compartment of a passing truck. Translated from the Belgian media source 7Sur7:

The two 14-year old adolescents who had thrown a concrete block weighing 30 kg [approx 60 pounds] from the top of the E411 bridge at Vedrin (in Namur), onto the windshield of a truck that was driving along the autoroute, were freed Thursday due to lack of space in detention centers.
...
By a miracle, the driver of the 18-wheeler was not injured.

Belgium's Al Qaida Fan Club

Brussels youth attack police, are tracked down, and are found surfing an al-qaida website when police arrive to arrest them.

Translated from Belgian news site Derniere Heure [exclamation points in original]:

A bus shelter that no longer shelters anything, thousands of shards of glass on the ground... these are the remains of an ambush set Friday night on the Brussels-Capitale-Ixelles police... youth from the neighborhood of Versailles, in Brussels, made Molotov cocktails. They planted them in several key areas, near apartment buildings, and when they were ready to receive the police, they simulated a fight...

Around 4:30 pm, according to Brussels police headquarters, dispatch was informed that a fight had seemingly broken out between several youths on Versailles avenue. A patrol rides to the scene and on arrival is assaulted by the youth who do not hesitate to hurl fiery projectiles towards the car.

Reinforcements were naturally called for. Numerous police cars are quickly at the scene. Meanwhile, the youths have multiplied themselves! There were more than thirty teens armed with axes and Molotov cocktails looking to hurt the forces of law and order.

Finally, the fiery youth disappeared, leaving behind them a sorry spectacle. The homemade explosives had completely destroyed the bus shelter. Several glass bottles containing gasoline corked with newspaper were found on scene. During a search of the area, investigators discovered a 10-liter can of gasoline! The police also captured a panoply of prohibited weapons, such as brass knuckles and axes.

We don't dare imagine the fate they had in mind for the police!

Thanks to the clues uncovered [at the scene], investigators quickly identified some of the perpetrators. And then, surprise... When [the youth] had returned home, they busied themselves in surfing an al-qaida website!

Four youths were arrested. Ali, 18 years old, was quickly released. On the other hand, Ismael, M., 17 years old (known to police for one [prior]incident), Ali B., 18 years old (known for 8 incidents), and Yassine D., 16 years old (known for 5 incidents), were retained at headquarters.

[Hat tip to Francois deSouche]

Terror Threat Hangs Over Belgian Christmas

More translated news on the possible Belgian Christmas Terror Plot. Here I summarize a long article at Le Soir, "Christmas Under Heavy Surveillance In Brussels":

Newly sworn in Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt announced to the national press late last week that the government possessed “information leading us to believe that a terrorist attack might be in the planning stages in the nation of Belgium”.

Lieve Pellens, spokesperson for federal investigators, is quoted in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir: “It all stems from an projected escape attempt by terrorist Nizar Trabelsi, charged in June 2004 to ten years in prison. We had obtained information mentioning this attempt. An investigation had been opened and had confirmed the hypothesis whereby the prisoner’s entourage were going to make use of arms and explosives to get him out of Lantin [prison]… If the individuals following radical islam are ready to make use of explosives and heavy weapons for a jaibreak, they must be capable of preparing a [terrorist] attack.” … “the particular investigative techniques – including telephone monitoring – put in effect to stop the prison break enabled us to establish that Trebelsi’s entourage had intended on perpetrating an attempt”.

“We know a good number of them [the terrorist’s circle of friends]. Some appeared during Trabelsi’s trial in 2004."

The principal individual among the suspects is Malika, from MolenBeek, widow of Abdesatar Dahmane, one of the assassins who blew himself up while “interviewing” Afghan anti-taleban warlord Massoud, back on sept 9, 2001. Malika has since created a support network for Nizar Trabelsi and his friends. She even organizes collections for financing their escape. In June her and her new husband, Tunisian Moez Garsallaou, were found guilty in Switzerland of supporting islamist terrorist groups.

Acording to Jaak Raes, general director of the Interior’s crisis center, “In Brussels, a police presence will be placed in the subway, in Christmas villages, on the Grand-Place and everywhere that a crowd will gather. Measures similar to those taken during a European summit. Other more discreet measures will also be taken”.

The extra security is planned to remain in place until the 2^nd of January, but may be prolongued if the situation calls for it.

Red Card for Belgium Terror Threat

14 potential islamist terrorists were arrested this week in Belgium for allegedly plotting a jailbreak to free Nizar Trabelsi, former soccer player and Al-Qaida member.

From Yahoo:

In a series of overnight raids around the country, police picked up 14 suspects and seized arms and explosives. The prime minister and prosecutor's office alleged the detained were planning to use the weapons to free Nizar Trabelsi, a 37-year-old Tunisian sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2003 for planning to a drive a car bomb into the cafeteria of a Belgian air base where about 100 American military personnel are stationed.

… Security services in several European nations suspect Trabelsi, who trained with al-Qaida in Afghanistan, had links with extremists in Britain, France and elsewhere in Europe.

...

Details about the identities of the suspects were not immediately released, but the RTL-TVI television network said one of those detained was Malika El Aroud, the Moroccan-born widow of one of the suicide bombers who killed Afghan anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massood two days before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

El Aroud, a Belgian resident, was acquitted in a Brussels court of involvement in Massood's killing in 2003. In June, she was convicted in Switzerland for supporting a criminal organization by running Web sites that posted statements from al-Qaida-linked groups and showed executions.

She received a six-month prison sentence suspended for three years, which would keep her from going to jail unless she commits another punishable offense during the time.

This morning, however, we read that the 14 suspects have all been released, after a court decided there was insufficient evidence to hold them for more than 24 hours:

The government's Crisis Center said the investigation was not over. And Lieve Pellens, spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, said tightened anti-terrorism measures triggered by the arrest of the suspected Islamic militants on Friday would remain in place over the holidays.

"We think there is still a threat," Pellens said in a telephone interview.

...
Unlike some other European nations, Belgium does not have anti-terrorist laws which allow suspects to be held for longer than 24 hours without charge, Pellens said.

Both articles also provide information on the three-time loser, Nizar Trabelsi, that the islamists consider a "hero":

Trabelsi came to Europe in 1989 for a tryout with the German soccer team Fortuna Duesseldorf. He got a contract but was soon let go. Over the next few years, he bounced from team to team in the minor leagues, acquiring a cocaine habit and a lengthy criminal record.

Eventually, he made his way to al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan, where evidence presented at his trial showed he placed himself on a "list of martyrs" ready to commit suicide attacks.

Trabelsi has admitted planning to kill U.S. soldiers. He said he met al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and asked to become a suicide bomber. He was arrested in Brussels two days after the Sept. 11 attacks and police later linked him to the discovery of raw materials for a huge bomb in the back of a Brussels restaurant.

"Trabelsi is an important figure for armed Islamic circles. He is a highly symbolic figure who has met Osama bin Laden," said Claude Moniquet, president of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center, a Brussels-based think tank specializing in terrorism issues.

UPDATE: A systematic cell by cell search has been concluded at Belgium’s Arlon prison, in relation to the arrests, according to the Belgian Le Soir newspaper. The entire prison was searched, with police dogs aiding the massive effort. This is the security facility where Tunisian terrorist Nizer Trabelsi had been serving his ten-year sentence, up until he had been transferred three weeks ago to a prison in Lantin, then more recently to Nivelles. The story says that the initial prison transfer was decided upon after suspicions grew about a possible escape attempt by Trabelsi. “Searches were made at the time of his leaving Arlon”, said Arlon prison director Marc Dizier. “Nothing was found relating to an escape attempt. Following new facts discovered Friday, new investigations have been made”, he added.

What the failure to covenant looks like

We first mentioned Hind Fraihi and her recent book in: Those for whom Vlaams Belang is the last stop! Fraihi went undercover in Belgium's Moroccan neighborhoods to learn about the rise of fundamentalist Islam there.

Charles has just sent me an English-language youtube clip from a
Deutsche Welle TV broadcast from Brussels that discusses Fraihi and her book.


It's a video that reveals how the streets of many districts in Europe are no longer under the control of the European states, but are the domain of entrepreneurial Islamist dictators. Those who think the present global crisis caused by the rise of Islamic fundamentalism promises to be a short-lived phenomenon resulting from a rural society's early integration into urban modernity need to listen to Fraihi and think again.

What the video depicts so well is the violent balkanization that befalls a country without a common covenant, a common commitment to a single rule of law that applies equally to all people. Those who forget, or who never know, their responsibility to act as guarantor for the equal freedom and rights of every other citizen, whatever their ethnic, racial, or religious brackground, whether they are aboriginal or newcomer, whatever their sex or social status, may look forward to a Belgian future where, instead of a shared commitment to a common constitutional order, they will be ruled by the push and pull of competing bureaucracies, gangs, and religious authorities, and whatever back room deals these can work out, far away from the tv news cameras and democratic transparency.

For the people to own their politics, to be self-ruling, they must share a common sense of nationhood. This is what Covenant Zone exists to defend for Canada, in face of would-be supra-national forces, like the EU, the anti-national leftist elites of our academies and media, or the Ummah, that threaten to destroy the only basis on which democracy can be sustained.

If you want to discuss how we can better make ourselves into guarantors of each other's freedom in a shared and renewed Canadian covenant, please join us here on the blog, or, if you can, attend one of our regular Thursday night meetings in the atrium of the central branch of the Vancouver Public Library, 7-9pm, in front of Blenz Coffee. Look for the guys with the blue scarves.

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Belgium's other crisis: urban violence

Belgium is much in the news these days, because of its unprecedented parliamentary crisis.

In the shadows of the dividing nation exists a further division, an increasingly irreconcilable chasm between civilization and anarchy... a quiet war between "youths" and police, offering grim prospects for whatever future Belgium wrestles for itself in its parliament.

What follows is one story in this daily war from one neighborhood outside Brussels, in three acts. Translated by myself, from an article collected by the diligent French news site Bafweb:

There is much talking of the tension that exists between the youths of the French banlieues and police officers… but there is not much mention made of the altercations that take place at home. A few days ago, one of these almost became dramatic. Iron bars, Molotov cocktails, gasoline cans… anything goes for beating on a cop!

Everything started on November 16, in Forest. Two motorcycle officers in the Midi zone noticed two youths on a [booster? In original]. The moment that one of the youths prepared to break a car window, the police approached. Naturally, when they spotted the police, the two thieves took flight on the booster. The motorcycle police kept up the chase.

Arriving at Saint-Antoine place, the police were literally caught in a trap by a gang of youths that had come to the rescue of the poor thieves… the police were thrown to the ground and clobbered by blows from iron bars! “The thieves managed to flee”, confirmed the police. End of the first act.

The next day, a patrol by the anti criminality brigade returns to the scene. The gang was there. “One of the youths shouted Son of a whore at the police”. Having located the young troublemaker, the officers, prudently, decided to return a little later, hoping to arrest him when he would be alone. Three hours later, the police spot the poet who is effectively alone. Feeling penned in, he set out in flight. “He began calling out to the others in Arabic.” Resulting in the gang reconstituting itself at lightning speed. The police were surrounded by raging youths…

“The police were obliged to leave given that the situation was going to degenerate, but they nevertheless were able to apprehend the youth, who resisted arrest violently.” End of the second act.

The following day, the police receive an anonymous call. “Something was being planned on a street in Saint-Antoine place.” A patrol arrived on the scene at a time when the youths were not expecting them. A piece of luck. A miracle! “When the detectives arrived, they saw six youths take flight, leaving something behind them on the ground.” The police approached, and discovered Molotov cocktails and a can of gasoline with five liters of gas. The youths awaiting the third visit from the police had prepared a surprise for them…

Despite the conclusive tone in the article's final paragraph, the story, of course, is not over.
What happens tomorrow?

Belgians under siege

Tenants are under siege in their apartments near Brussels, unable to leave after nightfall, without risking violence and robbery. This news according to an investigation by French news site dhnet, reveals the extent to which post-Christian Western Europe starts to decay, and rot. How to turn things around, when...

The inhabitants of 216 apartments of a Saint-Gilles complex are taken hostage by a gang of 41 youths who vandalize everything! (with thanks to BafWeb for their highlighting this story; my humble translation of the original french article)

For several weeks, a neighborhood in Saint-Gilles has been considered a no-go zone. A hell on earth. A place where people no longer dare to leave their homes after a certain hour. An area where assaults, insults, incivilities or other degradations occur daily. This is Jacques Franck square, in Saint-Gilles.
...

"15 years ago, we didn't have any problems. Everything has happened very gradually. And then, since last June, horror. In fact, it's tied into the shifting of the [crime scene?]. Since the police have secured Bethlehem place, the juvenile delinquents have come all this way to the two Towers" [says the assistant director of the apartment complex.] "All this because of a gang of youths who squat in the entryways of the two buildings." They squat, vandalize and act in such a way that the residents no longer dare leave without being accompanied by security agents. The youngest [in the gang] is 10 years old, the oldest barely 15.
...

An accompanying article offers an eye-witness account from "Anne", long-time resident in the apartment building:

..."But I want to assure you that I am scared. I can no longer go out. They [the youths] consider me a racist. If I leave the building alone, they follow me into the street. They have thrown stones at me!" Stephane, the assistant director, confirms [the story]. He adds also that since then, he has taken away all the stones that used to be found at the base of the two towers!

In watching the French crime news videos that are all over dailymotion and youtube, one quickly gets the impression that an entire generation of teenagers living in certain regions belong behind bars. Arrests of dozens of kids at one time are not that rare. This post concerns a story out of Belgium, not France, to be sure; yet are the conditions really all that different..? These articles that I've translated above go on to mention that all forty of this particular gang of kids have been painstakingly identified, one by one, and that the whole rotten bunch of them will soon be arrested, and charged. These kids, however, are only one gang. Are there other gangs of forty other kids occupying the vestibules of other nearby buildings in the neighborhood? Is there anyone below the age of 20 in that community who goes against the tide, and does not belong in prison?

You could arrest them, all of them, every single teenage thug; but then what? At some point you have to let them go; what happens then... a change of heart as they become an adult thug?

What could possibly reduce the militant nihilism of these young kids, I ask myself as I read these stories... A hard slap to the head? That's probably what they get at home already. Or what they serve to each other as tokens of friendship. How to change their behavior, without first changing their heart? How to steer these kids away from their savage state, converting them into productive (or at least less destructive) contributors to their community?

Unfortunately, post-Christian Europe won't be receptive to my hope of reducing recidivism through religious conversion, convinced as the continent's ruling class are that their society's worship of the secular will somehow, in some way, inspire the current generation of belgian "youths" to live as people, and not animals.

Maybe it's time that the atheistic left currently directing the european enterprise swallow some pride, and accept what for them, surely, must be the lesser of evils. There was a time when being poor was not an automatic trigger for being violent, rapacious, and sadistic. There was a time, not so long ago, when poor people struggled to live self-disciplined lives worth living, guided as they were by the teachings of their church. People can live with the inevitable disappointments that are part of the human experience, and remain humane, if they have an effective model to follow.

Europe, let some committed Christian missionaries work with the youth, turn prisons into penitentiaries, so that youthful prisoners can become penitent, that is, repentant of their past sins.

Would it make things any worse...? What have you got to lose...?

Who's being naive here: me, or you?

UPDATE: More on Belgian urban violence here.

Those for whom Vlaams Belang is the last stop!

Islam in Europe: Book Review: Undercover in Little Morocco
Esther, at the excellent Islam in Europe blog, reports on the book by journalist Hind Fraihi on the Moroccans of Belgium. The active support in this community for violent Jihad, killing Jews, and control of the local Muslims, especially women, according to fundamentalist Islamic dictates, may come as no surprise. In any case, it is a reminder of what the Flemings rightly fear in their midst. But what may surprise some readers is the support for the Vlaams Belang among the moderate Muslims:

She meets more people like Jamal, but she feels they're fighting a losing battle against the fundamentalists. She says that the moderate Muslims are walking a tightrope, between the Muslim fundamentalists and the right-wing (ie, nationalist) Flemish extremists. I had trouble understanding what she meant, but she later brings example of Muslims who vote for Vlaams Belang. I doubt most Muslims are in danger of becoming nationalist extremists, though. As Fraihi says, if they vote for Vlaams Belang, they do it out of protest, fear and disillusionment.

As one example she brings Fatima, a Moroccan immigrant in her 60s. She doesn't see herself as integrated and doesn't think she acts any different in Belgium then she did in Morocco. She came in 1968, got a hearty welcome, worked with Belgians and generally enjoyed herself. She followed up on her kids - went to PTA meetings and made sure she knew where they were going at all times. A friend of hers complains that her son lives off benefits, even though he could work. There is discrimination, she says, but the 2nd and 3rd generation don't want to work and just use it as an excuse. These youth are coddled by multicultural and integration organizations, all in the name of tolerance.

According to Fatima the problem-youth are problematic because they have become fully Flemish. She suffers from the extremist Muslims who demand that she wear a headscarf, soemthing that she'd never done in morocco. The moderate Muslims are the first victims of Muslim extremism, but nobody takes care of them. She supports the Vlaams Belang program: stopping immigration, reducing marriage immigration and cutting off the integration sectors. She sees Vlaams Belang as the only party which is upset at Muslim extremism, who wants to treat immigrants strictly but justly. Moderate Muslims are fed up and feel that they've been left on their own. Fatima wants to vote for a more moderate party, but only after the danger from Muslim extremism is dealt with.

She meets a worker at a youth center who tells her he blames the parents, imams and Belgian authorities for the Islamization of the youth. The parents blindly follow the Moroccan imams, who preach that almost everything is a crime, though many of them are former criminals themselves who have become 'born again' Muslims. Some have traveled to Afghanistan and are therefore barred from going back to Morocco, and yet the Belgian authorities don't seem to care. The parents were also not that religious when they were kids, but they expect much more from their children. Not only that, the parents had realized their dreams, but their children don't reach as far, don't get anywhere and are therefore easy prey for terrorist recruiters.

As she repeats in her interview, she feels the 'integration' sector has no reason to actually solve the problem, since that would take away their reason for being.

The Flemish nationalists may sometimes be heard preaching "white Europe", but it seems the implicit multiculturalist-Jihadi alliance is not a more appealing option for some Moroccan-Belgians. Perhaps for the infamous "moderate Muslim", the only hope lies in a Flemish nationalism that may one day acknowledge and support Moroccan-Belgian allies. If the only hope for such people is the renewal of a responsible nationhood that makes real demands of youth, etc., maybe you have to start with the least bad option, the one closest to the mark (however problematic) and work from there. Or maybe it's just a great delusion. Maybe it's supporting those who will one day kick you out of the country, or worse. The thing is, no one can know in advance. It all depends on the exercise of human political freedom, and the learning process that only the interaction of strange bedfellows can bring. There is a point at which desperation and good faith meet, the point where all new religion starts...

Belgium hasn't got a prayer

From the Belgian (magazine?) news site Le Vif comes this article , provocatively headlined, “Priests may not pray for the unity of Belgium” [translated below, hopefully accurately, by me].
It begs the question: does the separation of Church and State mean that the belgian church should stand by and do nothing while the state of Belgium is poised to no longer exist..?

The pro-Belgian association Spontaan had sent an email to 600 flemish and walloon priests, asking them if they could have their faithful sign a petition to save Belgium. The petition would then be distributed at the end of mass. Cardinal Godfried Danneels didn’t want to hear anything about this initiative, he said in a letter brought forward by Het Belang van Limburg and the Gazet van Antwerpen on Monday.

"Separation of Church and State must be respected", affirmed the cardinal. "Everyone is free to sign the petition. To distribute it within the church throughout the different parishes might be interpreted in erroneous fashion. The Church does not want to put pressure on anyone to make a choice like that."
The diocese of Hasselt goes even further. "Priests who allow themselves to be tempted by the initiative may expect a franc discussion", says their spokesperson Clem Vande Broek.

The Spontaan group see this as a missed opportunity. "We wanted to reach as many people as possible", explains Annette Spiltoir of the association. "The Church could have helped us."

Brussels' sprouting islamist problem (1)

In the wake of the over-the-top police and state response to the 9-11 anti-islamist rally in Brussels last week, I thought this interview would put that violence into context.

Dutch journalist Arthur Van Amerongen has been interviewed both in Knack magazine [translated into english here by Esther at Islam in Europe] and more recently on Belgian television, concerning his upcoming book, "Brussels Eurabia", sounding for all the world like an appropriate companion volume to Fabrice de Pierrebourg's "Montrealistan".

Bruxelles Eurabia
Uploaded by Tazda

The interview has been translated from Dutch to French by bloggers Pistache and Gedeon, and now from French into English by myself. I'd appreciate any corrections or clarifications to ensure it can be as accuate as possible. I haven't had time to do the entire interview, but this is a significant portion of it. The second half can be read here.

Host: The book “Brussels Eurabia” from Dutch journalist Arthur Van Amerongen will be in bookstores in a few weeks. The book talks about the muslim community of Brussels, and promises to be stunning and mesmerizing, if we are to believe our colleagues at Knack. To write this book, Van Amerongen infiltrated the muslim community in Brussels for one year. (0:36)
…
Arthur, you write in your book: “Brussels is a timebomb, there will certainly be an attack.” Isn’t this a little exaggerated? (0:47)

Arthur Van Amerongen : No, listen, it’s an enumeration; look at what happened in England: doctors orginally from India or Pakistan who commit an attempt… if you look at what has happened in 7 years: the Trabelsi affair, the attack on the Philips building… all foiled by your intelligence services. If we only look at the reports, I am certain that [an attack] will happen. (1:10)

Host: For you these are the clues that this will happen?

Arthur Van Amerongen : No, no no. I infiltrated the muslim community of Molenbeek and Marolles for one year. These folks want nothing to do with Belgium, they hate the Belgians. (1:24)

Host: What do you base that on?

Arthur Van Amerongen : I was among them, I speak arabic. They hate the Belgians, they have nothing to do with Belgians, nothing, nothing. (1:32)

Host: But can you… are you talking about the moroccan community, the entire Brussels muslim community?

Arthur Van Amerongen: No, the moroccans with their beards, their half pants and their bare feet in their shoes… no, it is a very dangerous community. It’s a time bomb. (1:47)

Host: A time bomb. But… you write this in your book as well. Aren’t you fostering a culture of fear? (1:51)

Arthur Van Amerongen: It’s reality. It’s not a culture of fear. Belgians are much too occupied with B-H-V, Bruxelles-Halle-Vilvoorde. You should be concentrating on the 25% muslims living in Brussels. The danger comes from there. You are pre-occupied by your linguistic quarrels. … The moroccans are more dangerous than the Walloons. (2:12)

Host: Yes, but… okay, you say “the muslim 25%” in Brussels… Are they all dangerous? Come on. (2:20)

Arthur Van Amerongen: No, but if 1% of them are dangerous, you are up the creek… (2:22)

Host: But… Can you say at what time… it will happen.. this…

Arthur Van Amerongen: The bomb?

Host: Yes, this “time bomb”…? (2:28)

Arthur Van Amerongen: euh, I would say.. next wednesay. [laughs] (2:21)

Host: No, seriously…

Arthur Van Amerongen: I have no idea, but it… it will happen. (2:36) Look at England, look at the Netherlands, Theo Van Gogh assassinated; look at what is happening in England: doctors, distinguished Indian doctors, who had obtained political asylum.. what must one think of the moroccans that live here? Do you think that they are loyal to the belgian government? No, they hate us. The moroccans hate us. (2:53)

Host: Yes, but you just said.. that the moroccans that live here in Brussels do not want to have anything do do with Belgium, with Brussels…

Arthur Van Amerongen: No.

Host: … that they hate us. (3:02)

Arthur Van Amerongen: They want a caliphate; quite simply they want a government that directs the umma from Bagdad to England. (3:08) It’s what they want. (3:10)

Host: These people are therefore free… free to do what they want here? (3:13)

Arthur Van Amerongen: That, you should report to the police. I mean… Go take a walk through the bookstores at Lemonnier… Look at the hate pouring out of there, against the jews, against the christians, against the shias… It’s there freely for sale, in french and in arabic. Euh, sorry! All this is possible in Belgium… One can also easily purchase arms…

Host: Let’s go back a bit, [buying] arms is another story. Let’s go back to the muslim community. You were able to infiltrate yourself into it. Was that easy to do? (3:38)

Arthur Van Amerongen: No, very difficult, I didn’t get to drink [alcohol] for 8 months, and I appreciate a short beer time to time…

Host: Yes. But how did you get the idea to infiltrate, to dive into the muslim world? (3:49)

Arthur Van Amerongen: Because Muriel Delgauque, who comes from Charleroi, went and blew herself up…

Host: In Bagdad…

Arthur Van Amerongen: … in 2004 if I am not mistaken.

Host: Yes, in Iraq.

Arthur Van Amerongen: She had a moroccan friend, who came from Molenbeek, and was the first “white” martyr from Belgium. (4:04) Belgium had the honor of having the first “white” martyr for al qaeda. (4:07)

Host: You speak of this woman who blew herself up, who committed a suicide-attack in Iraq. This is what triggered in your head, what decided you to want to do something, try to understand? (4:18)

Arthur Van Amerongen: Yes, I then said to myself: “How is it that a girl from Charleroi had gotten to such a point where she decided to go to Bagdad with her crummy car and blow herself up? It’s absurd. (4:27) This girl drank, with her friends, she did drugs, she smoked joints… (4:31)

Host: Did you find the answer to your question?

Arthur Van Amerongen: No. (4:33)

[Part 2 of the translation continues here.]

[ht to both bafweb and Insoumission for the story]

Brussels' sprouting islamist problem (2)

Part 2 of my translation of European journalist Arthur Van Amerongen's prime time interview on Belgian television program "TV Brussel". Part 1 is here.

Bruxelles Eurabia
Uploaded by Tazda

Host: Did you find the answer to your question?

Arthur Van Amerongen: No. (4:33)

Host: No. Euh, let’s imagine.. Let’s come back to the [possible attack at home]. I say to myself: “Okay, imagine that this attack happens.” First: who would commit it? And especially, second: Why? (4:51)

Arthur Van Amerongen: Moroccans. Look at all the attempts in Europe: Madrid, again in England… 80% are moroccans. (4:57)

Host: But what do they want to get out of this? What… (5:00)

Arthur Van Amerongen: Hate. It’s hatred of Belgium, of the Netherlands, of the West, of christian culture, you name it. (5:08) They hate us. The moroccans hate us. They are frustrated because they… even in the Netherlands, the cultured moroccans that I know… I… I infiltrated this milieu.. I do not know a moroccan that has gone with a Belgian into a belgian home. In the Netherlands, it’s said that among the Belgians one is never invited into the home, so there… The moroccans have never been among the Belgians. (5:33) The problems start there.

…. [At this point the journalist cedes his place to a pre-taped video report on a morrocan woman, Malika Abbad, who works for a flemish minister, who provides some counterpoint to Mr. Van Amerongen's position. She ends her rebuttal by saying… “Franchement, je trouve que ce sont des conneries”:
“Frankly, I find that this is all nonsense. (7:45) I would have prefered that, even coming to the same conclusions, he present things from the human side, saying, ‘we, as a society, we must nevertheless reflect seriously on the question of how to integrate, with dignity, these people into our society, and give them the sense that they are part of it…” (8:05)

[The interview resumes back in the studio]

Host: So, Mr Van Amerongen. “Nonsense”, says Madame Abbad.

Arthur Van Amerongen: Yes, I understand flemish. This is typically moroccan to always defend one’s own community. As if scoundrels and junkies didn’t exist. Brussels is harassed by moroccans and this woman says “no, this is only a few moroccans that are bothering all the people. Come with us..” I can accompany her into her family and I’d have a nice story… it is not a story. Moroccan hypocracy is terrible.

Host: For who, this is the type of woman who is completely disconnected from society… She’s the moroccan who…?

Arthur Van Amerongen: It’s typically moroccan, to not sweep out one’s doorstep [note: I think an english version of this expression would be “not to air one’s own dirty laundry”], and once more to defend oneself… Okay, 10% of moroccans are junkies, 10% are radicals. “No, come with me, you will see a gentle moroccan who owns a little store, and you’ll see how nice they are…” No, it’s not about that, about that 80%. It’s about this 20% who do f*** all here in Brussels.

Host: You are very harsh towards this community.

Arthur Van Amerongen: yes, I am very riled up. Absolutely. (9:07)

Host: In an interview you gave with Knack [magazine], you said that you had some disagreeable experiences with some moroccans…

Arthur Van Amerongen: I was robbed, yes. In a horrifying manner.

Host: You were the victim of robbery, you and your wife were insulted in the street… Is this all related?

Arthur Van Amerongen: Of course. I walk down Haute street, the “Hoogstraat” as you say. Okay, I’m walking there, with my girl friend, who was dressed in a manner a little sexy – which means, for moroccans, that she was wearing a t-shirt. And they were saying in arabic: “dirty whore! Dirty whore!” Kahda – a very ugly word. Ok, I go on my way, I turn around and say :”your sister!” Not even “Your mother!”, which would be even more serious. I received a blow to the back, and I got worked over. I went to the police… but bla bla bla. These people, if they want to live within an orthodox system, let them go do it elsewhere, but not in Brussels. (9:57)

Host: Last question. You have also said to our colleagues at Knack: “The more I gathered information on this community, the less I began to understand the moroccans”, to the point where you used the term “helplessness” [note: or maybe “impotence”… not sure from the context]. I ask myself, therefore: if this is your sentiment, despite all your travels – you were a war correspondant - , your studies, this sentiment must be shared by the average Brussels citizen. Does this explain in part why living together is so hard for the two communities, or why they do not recognize each other?

Arthur Van Amerongen: There is no life in common. The moroccans must adapt or leave. They adapt to our culture, our liberties, and that’s it. If they do not want to adapt, if they want their own… if at Molenbeek they do not want any billboards from H&M with women in bikinis, all they have to do is get the hell out, they have only to leave Brussels and return to Morocco.

Host: In other words, to wrap up, a multicultural society…

Arthur Van Amerongen: Doesn’t exist.

Host: … doesn’t exist.

Arthur Van Amerongen: No, sorry. It’s too bad for Vlaams Belang, but it doesn’t exist.
…


[ht to both bafweb and Insoumission for the story]