“Brussels is a Time Bomb”

After the events last week in Schuman Square, it’s instructive to take a look at another aspect of Brussels: its Muslim community.

Arthur Van Amerongen is an Arabic-speaking Dutch journalist who spent a year incognito in the Muslim community in Brussels. He will soon publish a book about his experiences called Brussels Eurabia.

Most of the Muslims in Brussels are Moroccans, and Mr. Van Amerongen describes the expatriate Moroccans in Belgium as extremely hateful of Belgium and its culture. They live apart, as an entirely separate community, and do not consider themselves Belgians.

Mr. Van Amerongen was interviewed on Belgian television, and the blog Covenant Zone has posted an English translation. Some excerpts are included below.

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Q:		Arthur, you write in your book: “Brussels is a time bomb, there will certainly be an attack.” Isn’t this a little exaggerated?
A:		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.
Q:		For you these are the clues that this will happen?
A:		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.
Q:		What do you base that on?
A:		I was among them, I speak Arabic. They hate the Belgians, they have nothing to do with Belgians, nothing, nothing.
Q:		But can you… are you talking about the Moroccan community, the entire Brussels Muslim community?
A:		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.

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		[…]
Q:		Yes, but… okay, you say “the Muslim 25%” in Brussels… Are they all dangerous? Come on.
A:		No, but if 1% of them are dangerous, you are up the creek…
		[…]
Q:		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…
A:		No.
Q:		… that they hate us.
A:		They want a Caliphate; quite simply they want a government that directs the Umma from Baghdad to England. It’s what they want.
Q:		These people are therefore free… free to do what they want here?
A:		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…
		[…]
Q:		…But how did you get the idea to infiltrate, to dive into the Muslim world?
A:		Because Muriel Delgauque, who comes from Charleroi, went and blew herself up…
Q:		In Baghdad…
A:		… in 2004 if I am not mistaken.
Q:		Yes, in Iraq.
A:		She had a Moroccan friend, who came from Molenbeek, and was the first “white” martyr from Belgium. Belgium had the honor of having the first “white” martyr for Al Qaeda.
Q:		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?
A:		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. This girl drank, with her friends, she did drugs, she smoked joints…
Q:		Did you find the answer to your question?
A:		No.
		[…]
Q:		In an interview you gave with Knack [magazine], you said that you had some disagreeable experiences with some Moroccans…
A:		I was robbed, yes. In a horrifying manner.
Q:		You were the victim of robbery, you and your wife were insulted in the street… Is this all related?
A:		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.
Q:		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?
A:		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.
Q:		In other words, to wrap up, a multicultural society…
A:		Doesn’t exist.

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Read the rest at Covenant Zone.


Hat tip: François