A Safe Return From the Belly of the Beast

I just got back from Europe in the wee hours of this morning. After my time in Antwerp and Brussels I spent a few days visiting my old haunts in the West Riding of Yorkshire, so I was later than everyone else getting home.

Counterjihad Brussels 2007 was an enormous success, much more than we could ever have hoped for. Planning for it started almost five months ago, and we worked intensively on it from the beginning of July onward.

But until I sat down on the dais in the European Parliament last Thursday and started introducing the speakers, I didn’t quite believe that it was really going to happen.

There are too many people who deserve thanks for me to be able to list them all here, but I want to make a special mention of Christine at CVF, who worked tirelessly night and day for four months to make it happen. She deserves our deep gratitude.

To hear Bat Ye’or speak about Eurabia from the Belly of the Beast in the European Parliament was a rare moment to savor.

And now the debate on Vlaams Belang has been joined, as I knew it would. I will be covering the issue as much as possible in the coming days, within the limits that my job allows.

Before anybody weighs in on the “neo-Nazi” tendencies of Vlaams Belang, I ask you to source your assertions. Check out the information on Vlaams Belang, and see if you can find any substantive factual references to their anti-Semitism or other Nazi tendencies — besides, of course, the assertions and epithets hurled by their political opponents.
- - - - - - - - -
I just spent four days in close company with members of Vlaams Belang in Antwerp and Brussels, in their offices and in their parliamentary space, riding in vehicles with them, and eating meals with them. They must be excellent dissemblers, because I saw nothing to indicate that they are anything other than Flemish nationalists and patriotic promoters of independence for their native land.

If they’re anti-Semitic, they’re very good at hiding it. I’ll have more to say on this topic later.

In the meantime, Pamela has written extensively on the issue, and there are a couple of posts about it on the CVF blog. Also, see Christine’s post on the related issue of Sverigedemokraterna.

I have 800 or so emails awaiting me. If you don’t get a prompt response, you’ll know why.