The last few days I have spent in Brussels attending a conference organized by the Vigilant Freedom Europa. I suppose we will be called right wing fascists by the left because it was about the danger of Islam in Europe.
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On the second day of the conference I walked down through Jubel park to Robert Shumans plads to get a taxi to the venue. Just a few yards away is the European Commission building. What caught my eye though was a minaret sticking up above the trees just to the left of the park entrance. Curiosity got the better of me and I wandered across to take a closer look. The mosque turned out to be the Grand Mosque of Brussels built with Saudi money on land given to the Belgium muslims by the late King. It is no more than about 200 yards from the E.U. Commission building.
I took a picture and then wandered back towards to main gate to get my taxi.
To get there I had to go past this monument. It must have been very impressive in its day, but the past 100 years have ravaged it. As you can see it is black and eroded. One would have thought that the Belgian people would have would have taken care of it because it is about ending the slave trade in the Congo.
I didn’t know this until I wandered over to read the inscriptions. Well, the part of the inscription that I could read because certain vandals in Belgium society had vandalized it -- it is not difficult to see why. Here is my rough and ready translation to my readers who can’t read Flemish or French:
“The Belgium’s military heroism in destroying the Arab Slave traders…”
Well you can’t read the bit where it says “Arab” in the French inscription because someone has taken a chisel and chiseled it away, but you can decipher it in the Flemish inscription. You can also see that it has happened before because both words have been repaired.
It seemed symbolic to me about the problems we are suffering in Europe today. We allow them to build propaganda offices under the guise of mosques, then do nothing when they try to eradicate our history by disfiguring our monument.
The monument is certainly not on a par with the Giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan, but you can bet your life it will be the first thing they blow up when they take power.
Go see his other pictures, especially the mosque. Yorkshire Miner has an eye for composition and this mosque image really captures the spirit of the place.
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5 comments:
Oceania has always been at war with East Asia...
If you read "A Throne in Brussels", you will see that there's something very sinister to this 'defeating the slave trade' theme of Belgian Congo :(
The truth shall set you free.
I remember getting an email from an acquaintance from Spain who was saddened by the vandalism of a thousand year old fountain in the middle of his town square. It had a cross on it, and shortly after some Muslim workers had been in their town to do some roadwork, he noticed that the cross had been chipped away.
What was even sadder was that no one else in that town cared.
It is like a metaphor of Europe's indifference to losing their Christian heritage.
Yes, we need to care about these things. Every time we rebuild any of this it is a reassertion of our culture and our values.
Punishment for these acts of symbolic vandalism should be more strict than the simple smashing-windows thing. This is more than just economical value being attacked.
I agree Henrik...and giving in by refusing to put back up, say, vandalized statues of pigs (UK) is being dhimmified.
We must keep repairing and refusing.
Long task...the children must be taught to value history and its artifacts.
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