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Monday, November 23, 2015

GHOST TOWN BRUSSELS - EVERYTHING CLOSED - POPULATION HUDDLING AT HOME - NO AMOUNT OF VETTING OF MUSLIM MIGRANTS can prevent their children from becoming radicalized - MOST MUSLIM TERRORISTS IN EUROPE NOW ARE EUROPEAN BORN

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot.  Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/11/ghost-town-brussels-everything-closed.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
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Western countries swear that all they need to do to be safe is to thoroughly vet their immigrants for possible links to terror.
 
What they still don't want to admit, however, is that no matter how clean the record of Muslim immigrants is, there is a very high possibility that their children will be radicalized and will murder the same people that gave them asylum.  That is the problem.  Most of the latest Muslim terrorist operating in Europe now are EUROPEAN BORN. 
An almost empty Grand Place central square in Brussels shows the impact of the security crisis which has gripped Belgium
An almost empty Grand Place central square in Brussels shows the impact of the security crisis which has gripped Belgium
 
For many years Europeans seemed indifferent to the many acts of Muslim terror against Jews.  Jews still don't matter in Europe.   But now NON-JEWS are the target, and they're scared. 
 
Following are pictures of Brussels terrified into silence and cowering in their homes because of Muslim terror.   European cities have become WAR ZONES  -  a self inflicted situation brought about by the EU policy of open borders and welcome mat for millions of Muslim migrants.  The enemy is already inside, armed and dangerous. 
 
Don't be fooled by the appearance of a large and ubiquitous presence of armed forces.   Belgium, like the rest of Europe, continues to welcome Muslim migrants with open arms and to give them free rein in their neighborhood enclaves, while political leaders still repeat their mantra that terror has nothing to do with true Islam.  Behind the tough anti-terror talk and impressive military display, there is still a hidden political agenda to replace the indigenous European population with a Muslim one.
 
THIS USED TO BE YOUR CITY, BELGIAN PEOPLE  - BUT NO MORE
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said the decision to keep Brussels on lockdown was based on 'quite precise information about the risk of an attack like the one that happened in Paris'
Shopping mall empty of customers.  The economy and tourism will be collateral damage from this latest wave of Muslim terror in EuropeMUSLIMS KILL EUROPEANS, EUROPE BOYCOTTS THE JEWS  This at a time when the European Union, headquartered in Brussels, has decided to label and boycott Jewish goods coming from Biblical areas in Israel, in solidarity with Muslim Arab terrorists in that country.  
 
Daily Mail - Ghost town Brussels: Schools shut, shops deserted and metro closed as Belgium remains on lockdown after 21 are arrested in hunt for world's most wanted - who is seen 'heading towards Germany in a BMW'
  • Belgium's terror threat alert was raised to its highest level and troops were deployed to the capitals' streets
  • Anti-terror police and soldiers last night carried out raids, leading to 21 arrests at 22 properties in Brussels 
  • Fears remain that Paris-style terror attack is 'imminent' in the city, resulting in the shutting of metro and schools
  • Authorities have stepped up hunt for Paris jihadi Salah Abdeslam, who is spotted 'heading to Germany in BMW'


  • See more images, and read column by Mark Langfan on how Europe rewards terror, and one by Giulio Meotti on the EU blaming Israel for Muslim terror.

    A Belgian soldier stands guard at a security perimeter set up in Brussels central square last night
    Merry Christmas - sort of  - because in addition to the terror, you're not allowed to say anything related to Christianity, so as not to offend the Muslim population


    Schools, shops and even NATO's headquarters have been closed today following the orders of the Belgian government
    Schools, shops and even NATO's headquarters have been closed today following the orders of the Belgian government

     A deserted playground at a closed primary school in Brussels following the announcement of a likely terror threat in Belgium
    Europeans did not care while Jihadists murdered European Jews.  Now it is their turn to be afraid for their lives.

    Prosecutors later said 16 people were arrested in 19 raids targeting extremists in the Belgian capital
    Brussels, like Paris, exhibits the new face of Europe.  A WAR ZONE.

     The heightened security presence in Brussels comes as police continue to hunt for terror cell suspects
    Only the brave or the foolish dare to go out.
     
    Added security in the streets of Brussels have been coupled with the increase in the terror alert level in Belgium to 'severe'


    Parents have been told to keep their children at home and avoid all public gatherings following terrorism scare in Brussels
    Schools are closed.  Nobody is safe anymore. 
    Not even innocent children.

    The deserted escalators of Brussels main metro station epitomise the state of concern in the city since the Paris attacks on November 13
    Crowded places are the most vulnerable, so they've been closed.
     
    The usually bustling entrance to the Delta station in Brussels epitomises the effect of the heightened security in the country's capitalThe Delta station - usually bustling with crows, is now empty.

    Belgium closed the metro system, museums, cinemas and shopping centres, and advised locals to avoid large crowds, while clubs and venues have cancelled events
    Museums, cinemas, and shopping centers have also been closed.

    Security officers stand guard outside Brussels's central station this morning amid terror attack fears
    Acute vigilance, to make up for years of indifference as Muslim enclaves in Belgium became dens for jihadism.


    Belgian police special forces take part in an operation in the suburb of Molenbeek, Brussels last night

    A police cordon was erected amid the major police operation in central Brussels last night
    Images
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3329175/Brussels-lock-second-day-police-troops-streets-hunting-suspects-Paris-terror-attack.html

     
    RELATED


    WHY DO MUSLIMS HATE YOU? The reasons are in their sacred religious texts.
    - WHY DO MUSLIMS SLAUGHTER OTHER MUSLIMS? The answer is in a seventh century dispute over the right of succession to Muhammad
     - As long as there are Muslims, there will be massacres, whether between rival Muslim factions or against Infidels

    Read more
    http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/11/why-do-muslims-hate-you-reasons-are-in.html


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    EUROPE DECIDES TO LABEL AND BOYCOTT JEWISH GOODS from Israeli Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem on the anniversary of KRISTALLNACHT, the Nazi pogrom against German Jews of November 9, 1938.

    Don't buy from Jews.

    The European Union shamelessly follows NAZI TRADITION, as they also boycotted Jewish businesses before implementing the Final Solution

    UMichBoycott.jpg

    Read more
    http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/11/europe-decides-to-label-and-boycott.html


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    WHY ONE ISRAELI REFUSES TO POST THE FRENCH FLAG in solidarity with Paris in the aftermath of the massacre
     - ALSO read about French collaboration with Muslim terror against Israeli Jews
     - UPDATE - France will take 30,000 more Muslim 'refugees' in the aftermath of the latest carnage in Paris
    French President Francois Hollande welcomes Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the Elysee Palace before attending a unity rally “Marche Republicaine” on January 11, 2015 in Paris in tribute to the 17 victims of a three-day killing spree by homegrown Islamists. (Photo credit: AFP/ DOMINIQUE FAGET
    French president Hollande hugs Palestinian terrorist Mahmoud Abbas

    Read more
    http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/11/why-one-israeli-refuses-to-post-french.html


     
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    The Jews may be the first,
    but it never stops there
     
    Kill Jews = good terrorism,
    kill Frenchmen = bad terrorism;
    result = world terrorism.
     
     
    HOW EUROPE REWARDS TERROR

    By Mark Langfan


    Israeli and French Jews are murdered, but the world is silent.  At worst, President Obama and other presidents label the terrorist attacks part of a “cycle of violence” that perversely equates the Palestinian terrorist murder of innocent Israelis with those defending themselves against Palestinian Molotov cocktails and bullets. 
     
    But when non-Jewish Frenchmen are murdered by Islamist crazies because the Iranian Shiites are murdering the Syrian Sunnis in Syria, the UN Security Council labels the terrorism “barbaric” and "heinous".  Sorry, it doesn't wash.  You can’t have “good terrorism” against Jews and “bad terrorism” against non-Jews. When the world rewarded Palestinian terrorism, it validated terrorism against all peoples.
     
    All the current terrorism can be traced to the world’s rewarding the Palestinians for their wanton butchery of Jews.  Take for instance, the Palestinian terrorist 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre of Israeli athletes. 
     
    What did the world do in response? Did it condemn Arafat, and all the Palestinian murderers for their bloodthirsty barbarity?  Of course not! 
     
    The Palestinian monsters, funded by their terrorist-paymaster, the current Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, had only murdered Israeli Jews. 
     
    So, instead of the Palestinians being denounced, the world invited Yasser Arafat to speak at the United Nations in 1974 and gave "Palestine" representation at the UN. 
     
    When Yasser Arafat ascended the podium at the United Nations, the world taught terrorists that terrorist murder is legitimate, and wins big.
     
    But the world didn’t stop there.  For 40 years, the world hasn’t stopped rewarding the monstrous Palestinian terrorists for their terrorism.  The world has only given the Palestinian terrorists bigger and bigger prizes for their wanton barbarity. 
     
    They gave them Gaza and large parts of Judea and Samaria from which the Palestinians perpetrate improved acts of terror including terror wars with rockets. 
     
    Does the world castigate Hamas when they fire rockets into civilian Israel areas or commit terror attacks from the Gaza Strip or Judea and Samaria?  Of course not, after all they are only murdering Jews. 
     
    To the world, including President Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, a terror murder of a Jew is a “good terrorist” murder that doesn’t warrant condemnation. 
     
    They can’t openly praise the Palestinian terrorists, so they usually keep quiet.  But their message is crystal-clear, terrorism against Israelis Jews is acceptable and justified.
     
    Instead, the world’s leaders put pressure on Israel to reward the Palestinian terrorists with land from which the Palestinian terrorists will more easily perpetrate larger and more lethal terrorist attacks. 
     
    What’s worse, the United Nations and its band of holier-than-thou countries come up with the Orwellian charade that this constitutes a “peace-process” when everyone knows it’s a terror-process. 
     
    But the world’s terrorists are not idiotic Western diplomats.  They see the reward for Palestinian terrorism for what it is - a fantastic reward for murdering people. 
     
    And the world doesn’t just reward Palestinian barbarity.  When the United Nations (and by extension all the world’s countries) create a “Palestinian State,” they are actually legitimizing a “Terror State” which has only one purpose: to annihilate Israel.  And what’s good for Palestinian terrorists is good for all Islamic terrorists.
     
    Therefore, all the countries of the world have a simple choice. They can either continue to reward barbaric Palestinian terrorism against Israel, and expect the Islamic terrorists to attack other countries with the same bloodthirsty pathology with which they attack Israel.  Or, reject all Palestinian terror and any Palestinian State built on terror. 
     
    The world must prove that terrorism will not be rewarded, and instead will be mercilessly punished for what it is: pure, unadulterated evil.  Otherwise, expect Islamic terrorism to explode in a theater near you.

    Source
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/17893#.VlNqfptdGM8

    Author MARK LANGFAN, who specializes in security issues, has created an original educational 3d Topographic Map System of Israel to facilitate clear understanding of the dangers facing Israel and its water supply. It has been studied by US lawmakers and can be seen at www.marklangfan.com

    You can read more of his columns here:
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Author.aspx/983


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     Europe scapegoats Israel for Paris, cancels out Israeli victims
     

    Instead of admitting that they are being attacked in a worldwide religious war waged by Islam, Europeans automatically blame Israel. 
     
    By Giulio Meotti

     
    When jihadists killed civilians in Paris, Europe called it "terrorism". When jihadists kill Israeli civilians in Tel Aviv, as occurred last Thursday and Sunday, Europe calls it "militancy" and cancels out the Israeli victims of terror.
     
    If America eliminates Osama bin Laden it is "justice" announced on TV; if Israel kills Sheik Ahmed Yassin it becomes "retaliation" to be ashamed of.
     
    But we are past these heinous double standards, we are in the middle of what the Israeli deputy foreign minister, MK Tzipi Hotovely, called "blood libels."
     
    The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is obviously not the reason for the wave of massacres perpetrated by Islamic State; those that attacked French in the heart of Paris, or killed Christians or Yazidis, did not do it because of the Palestinians.
     
    Yet we cannot count the ministers in Europe and Nobel Prize winners who immediately connected the French massacres to the "Israeli-Palestinian" question, not by equating Palestinian Arab terror with worldwide Arab terror, but by throwing some responsibility on the Jews. 
     
    "We are not guilty of the terrorism that strikes us, more than the people of Paris are guilty for the attacks that they suffered," said the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Therefore, of course, we reject this accusation. But now we are facing something new: not only we are blamed for the terrorism we suffer. Now we come to the absurd that we are even blamed for the terrorism directed at the French."
     
    Interviewed by SVT2 on the terrorist attack in Paris, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sweden, Margot Wallstrom, said that "to counter radicalization we must go back to the situation in the Middle East, where the Palestinians see that there is no future for them and must accept desperation and resort to violence. "
     
    The same words were used by Jan Marinjissen, secretary of the Socialist Party in the Netherlands, who on radio NPO said that "their (ISIS, ed) behavior is related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
     
    Former Foreign Minister of Iceland, Jon Hannibalsson, asked not only to pray for the French victims of the attacks, but also for the Palestinians. "Yes, we pray for Paris, but we also pray for the Palestinians killed in the Occupied Territories".
     
    Former British Minister John Prescott wrote in the Daily Mirror: "We need to find a lasting peace throughout the Middle East. We can not let the plague of bad feelings and bad blood in Israel and in the Palestinian territories continue. The best tribute to those who died in Paris, is not to send troops and drones in Syria. And 'to channel the anger for a lasting peaceful solution in this area'. "
     
    The former president of Finland and Nobel Peace Prize, Martii Ahtisaari, said: "Europe must pay attention to the reasons for radicalization. Advancing the peace process in the Middle East is of fundamental importance. The issue of Israel and Palestine must be resolved."
     
    The same by the former Foreign Minister of Ireland, Dermot Ahern, who has so perspicaciously explained the origins of ISIS: "It comes from the destabilization of the entire region because of the Israeli-Palestinian issue." Former US President and Nobel Peace Prize Jimmy Carter, also said at the Jon Stewart Show: "One of the sources is the Palestinian problem."
     
    It is the same illness that struck different parts of the free world in the Thirties. Blaming the Jews whenever something bad happens is an old habit. These leaders of the European Union, including two Nobel Prize for Peace laureates, were looking for an excuse to offer to the terrorists who massacred 130 people in Paris. Again, at the expense of Israel and Jews.
     
    Last week, a beautiful young Jew, Ezra Josh Schwartz, was killed in Gush Etzion by the same enemies of civilization as in Paris. But nobody in Europe lit candles for him. A noble Jew. Already forgotten by the shameless and blind Europe.  
     
    Source
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/17936#.VlNxB5tdGM8

    Giulio Meotti
    The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and of "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books.. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. 
     
    More by this writer
    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Author.aspx/863


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    A left-wing mayor facilitated the Muslim district of Molenbeek to become Jihad Central in Belgium

    By Paul Nutall

    So Brussels is on lockdown due to the heightened terror threat. Trains have been cancelled, people have been told to stay away from crowded areas, meaning that the centre is deserted and sporting events have been postponed. It’s no surprise really because about half a mile north-west of Brussels city centre lies the shabby suburb of Molenbeek.

    Molenbeek Belgium the Raqqa of Europe_2009_3410-copy-714x474
    A neighborhood of Moroccan Muslims, poverty, and fundamentalism, in the heart of Brussels.
     
    It is one of Brussels’ nineteen districts. This run down area of the Belgian capital has become the epicentre of a media storm during the past week as a number of the terrorists behind the appalling Paris attacks came from Molenbeek.
     
    Having an inquisitive mind, I wanted to find out what Molenbeek was really like.
     
    So when I bumped into Breitbart London’s Raheem Kassam in Brussels and he asked if I would go on a fact-finding mission to Europe’s centre of Jihad, I thought I’d give it a go.
     
    So we planned to take a lengthy walk around the area the following day with the leader of the Swedish Democrats Jimmie Akesson.
     
    Before we set off, I decided to learn a little bit about the history of the suburb and find out why it has become so notorious for Islamism.
     
    Well you won’t be surprised to find the root of the problem is a hard-line socialist of the Jeremy Corbyn school of Left wing lunacy.
     
    In 1992 Phillipe Moureaux – a prominent Brussels socialist – became the Mayor of Molenbeek. He remained in that post until 2012.
     
    BELGIUM-POLITICS-MOLENBEEK
    Phillippe Moreaux, former mayor of Molenbeek
     
    During his twenty years in office, any questioning of the demographic change in Molenbeek was shut down as “racist”, and Moureaux pursued his policies of multiculturalism and “diversity” with gusto.
     
    During Moureaux’s reign of madness the population of Molenbeek exploded.
     
    In the first five years of the century the population rose by 12 per cent and in the first fifteen years by a massive 30 per cent. Molenbeek’s population grew to around 100,000 with around 30 per cent of foreign nationality and another 40 per cent of foreign origins (people who now have Belgian passports).
     
    This huge wave of immigration made it impossible for people to integrate properly, but any criticism was silenced. Of course, as a result, the new immigrants voted en masse for the Belgian Socialist Party, so Moureaux stayed in power. It’s not too dissimilar to the game played by the Labour Party in many cities and towns in the North of England.
     
    However, Moureaux failed on every count: Molenbeek does not have many different cultures and it is certainly no longer diverse. There is one culture: an Islamic culture and no real diversity as almost everyone is either Arab or at least of Arab origin.
     
    Take out the obvious European architecture and we could have been walking around Tangiers or Tunis. However, that still does not answer why Molenbeek has become the hive of Islamic terrorism it is today. To address this point you must look at the failures of the Belgian state as a whole.
     
    Up to 300 Belgians have left the country to travel to Iraq and Syria to fight for IS. This is the highest number of jihadists per capita in Europe. Of that number, it’s estimated that 75 have died and another 125 have returned to Belgium.
     
    The problem here is that Belgium’s security operations are tiny in comparison to their counterparts in the UK and France, so it is difficult to keep track on the returning Islamists. Belgium state security is estimated to employ a mere 600 people and its military counterpart roughly the same number.
     
    That means that Brussels, which houses the European Union’s institutions and NATO alongside Molenbeek, is woefully undermanned when it comes to security.
     
    Moreover, there is also a severe lack of Belgian Imams, which means that they are imported into the mosques from abroad.
     
    The Belgian security services have already raised concerns about the influence of Saudi-sponsored Wahhabism being practiced in the Brussels Grand Mosque, which undoubtedly filters down to Molenbeek’s many smaller places of worship.
     
    The Belgian security services have stated that there are 800 people on their radar who are potential Islamists. This frightening figure included the mastermind of the Paris attack Abdelhamid Abaaoud, but nothing was done.
     
    Finally, the day after our walk around Molenbeek the Belgian Prime Minister belatedly announced that the government will be spending extra cash on counter terrorism and that the security services will be given greater surveillance powers.
     
    This makes sense considering that Molenbeek has been linked to so many Islamist attacks, including the Madrid bombings, last year’s attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels, and now Paris.
     
    The Belgian government and Brussels authorities have also promised to ‘clean up’ Molenbeek, which is commendable, but the question that surely must be addressed is how it came to be a haven for home grown jihadists in the first place?
     
    And why did it take the Paris atrocity for the Belgians to stop turning a blind eye to the rampant Islamic extremism in this ghetto? I think we all know the answers and we know they will make uncomfortable reading for the Left.
     
    Paul Nuttall is the Deputy Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and tweets at @PaulNuttallUKIP

    Source
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/11/23/jihad-central-brussels-became-a-terror-hot-spot-because-of-a-socialist-mayors-immigration-ideology/


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    What gave rise to Molenbeek? Belgian leftists’ culture of denial and character assassination of truth-tellers
     
    Christmas lights in the municipality of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (Molenbeek-Saint-Jean) in Brussels,  November 16, 2015.

    In Sweden they want the entire country to turn into Molenbeek. The local authorities are distributing Muslims around the country to make sure they are spread into every single district, every community, every neighborhood. It’s like a skit from the al-Qaeda version of Saturday Night Live.
     
    These left-wingers are so mentally defect we’re at loss of words. It’s like a poorly scripted nightmare. Is there no benchmark at all among the Eurocrats of some kind to look for skills and knowledge when they hire people into government positions?

    Molenbeek broke my heart

    A former resident reflects on his struggles with Brussels’ most notorious neighborhood.

    By Teun Voeten, Politico
     
    Last Saturday in Paris, at the Boulevard Voltaire near the Bataclan club, I found myself staring at a pool of blood. I wondered what was happening with the world, and refocused my camera on the aftermath of the terror. When it became clear the attacks were planned in Molenbeek, I was not surprised. The real surprise? That Belgium expressed shock at the connection.
     
    I called Molenbeek my home for nine years. In 2005, it was the city’s last affordable neighborhood — in large part because of its bad reputation. My apartment, just across the canal from the city center, is close to the home where two suspects in the Paris attacks were based, and around the corner from where the shooter from the foiled Thalys attack in August had been staying.
     
    I was part of a new wave of young urban professionals, mostly white and college-educated — what the Belgians called bobo, (“bourgeois bohémiens”) — who settled in the area out of pragmatism. We had good intentions.

    Our contractor’s name was Hassan. He was Moroccan, and we thought that was very cool. We imagined that our kids would one day play happily with his on the street. We hoped for less garbage on the streets, less petty crime.

    We were confident our block would slowly improve, and that our lofts would increase in value. (We even dared to hope for a hip art gallery or a trendy bar.) We felt like pioneers of the Far West, like we were living in the trenches of the fight for a multicultural society.

     Christmas lights in the municipality of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (Molenbeek-Saint-Jean) in Brussels, November 16, 2015.
     
    Christmas lights in the municipality of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek (Molenbeek-Saint-Jean) in Brussels, November 16, 2015.
     
    Slowly, we woke up to reality. Hassan turned out to be a crook and disappeared with €95,000, the entire budget the tenants had pooled together for our building’s renovation. The neighborhood was hardly multicultural.

    Rather, with roughly 80 percent of the population of Moroccan origin, it was tragically conformist and homogenous. There may be a vibrant alternative culture in Casablanca and Marrakech, but certainly not in Molenbeek.

    Over nine years, as I witnessed the neighborhood become increasingly intolerant. Alcohol became unavailable in most shops and supermarkets; I heard stories of fanatics at the Comte des Flandres metro station who pressured women to wear the veil; Islamic bookshops proliferated, and it became impossible to buy a decent newspaper.

    The community of Molenbeek has a large, Moroccan community. Crime, poverty and fundmantalism are some of the less positive sides of this dynamic neigborhood.

    With an unemployment rate of 30 percent, the streets were eerily empty until late in the morning. Nowhere was there a bar or café where white, black and brown people would mingle. Instead, I witnessed petty crime, aggression, and frustrated youths who spat at our girlfriends and called them “filthy whores.”

    If you made a remark, you were inevitably scolded and called a racist. There used to be Jewish shops on Chaussée de Gand, but these were terrorized by gangs of young kids and most closed their doors around 2008. Openly gay people were routinely intimidated, and also packed up their bags.
     
    I finally left Molenbeek in 2014. It was not out of fear. The tipping point, I remember, was an encounter with a Salafist, who tried to convert me on my street. It boiled down to this: I could no longer stand to live in this despondent, destitute, fatalistic neighborhood.

    The community of Molenbeek has a large, Moroccan community. Crime, poverty and fundmantalism are some of the less positive sides of this dynamic neigborhood.


    The community of Molenbeek has a large, Moroccan community. Crime, poverty and fundmantalism are some of the less positive sides of this dynamic neigborhood.
    Writings on the wall ("police - Sh-t"), Molenbeek | Teun Voeten
     
    How did Molenbeek become Europe’s jihadi base? Essentially, it has to do with Belgium’s messy governance and the culture of denial that pervades the debate about Islam in the country. Molenbeek is a vibrant community, with narrow streets and a busy street life.

    There is a teahouse on every corner, a quiet mosque on every block, where people can congregate undisturbed. There are cheap apartments galore, no questions asked. Just like the guerrilla can hide in the jungle, jihadis feel safe in the disorganized Kashba of Molenbeek.

    The highway and the city’s busiest international railroad station are a stone’s throw away. It’s the perfect logistical base.
     
    It is nearly impossible to explain to an outsider, but Belgium is a country of six governments, Brussels a city with 19 mayors. These many administrative posts are not filled with competent people. Security services are fragmented and tend to compete with one another.

    The lack of a strong, central authority may be one of the many quirks of this sometimes charmingly dysfunctional country, but just as it resulted in many botched trials — notably of the Brabant Killers, or “Nijvel Gang” who committed a series of violent raids between 1982 and 1985, and the Dutroux scandal in 1995, to name just two — it also creates the perfect breeding ground for potential terrorists.
     
    But the most important factor is Belgium’s culture of denial.

    The country’s political debate has been dominated by a complacent progressive elite who firmly believes society can be designed and planned.

    Observers who point to unpleasant truths such as the high incidence of crime among Moroccan youth and violent tendencies in radical Islam are accused of being propagandists of the extreme-right, and are subsequently ignored and ostracized.
     
    The debate is paralyzed by a paternalistic discourse in which radical Muslim youths are seen, above all, as victims of social and economic exclusion. They in turn internalize this frame of reference, of course, because it arouses sympathy and frees them from taking responsibility for their actions.

    The former Socialist mayor Philippe Moureax, who governed Molenbeek from 1992 to 2012 as his private fiefdom, perfected this culture of denial and is to a large extent responsible for the current state of affairs in the neighborhood.
     
    Two journalists had already reported on the presence of radical Islamists in Molenbeek and the danger they posed — and both became victims of character assassination. In 2006, Hind Fraihi, a young Flemish woman of Morrocan descent published “Undercover in Little Morocco: Behind the Closed Doors of Radical Islam.” Her community called her a traitor; progressive media called her a “spy” and a “girl with personal problems.”
     
    In 2008, Arthur van Amerongen was tarred and feathered for “Brussels Eurabia,” and called a “Batavian Fascist” by a francophone newspaper. When he and I went back to Molenbeek in March and I subsequently described it as an “ethnic and religious enclave and a parochial, closed community” in an interview with Brussel Deze Week, that too provoked the wrath of progressive Belgium and an ensuing media storm.
     
    I always thought as myself as a defender of human rights and human dignity, beyond left- or right-wing categories. Now suddenly I was painted as a right-wing firebrand. For some people I became an “untouchable” and I even lost a few friends, who refused to talk to me.
     
    There are immense problems in Molenbeek, problems of a truly global scale that transcend the municipal and national levels. Still, there is hope. After my interview appeared, Molenbeek mayor Françoise Schepmans invited me to her cabinet and we had an open discussion.

    I was asked to defend my point of view at the local cultural center De Vaartkapoen — a rather hostile audience of 60 people, many whom felt I had offended their community, were polite and interested to engage in debate. Last week, as I showed foreign TV crews around my old neighborhood, I was greeted in the most cordial way at the grocery, the bakery and the snackbar I used to go to.
     
    Most people in Molenbeek are decent people who want the best for their families. But we should not close our eyes to the fact that it is also home to a very deep, and very dangerous, undercurrent of radical Islamism.
     
    Teun Voeten is a cultural anthropologist and war photographer. He has published books on the undergound homeless of New York, the war in Sierra Leone and the drug violence in Mexico.
     
    Source
     
     
     

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