Our Flemish correspondent VH has translated two articles about the demonstration. The first one is from the Vlaams Belang website:
9/11: Symbolic Wake
This afternoon about 200 Vlaams Belang militants in cooperation with “Cities against Islamization” (STI) held a symbolic wake at the Brussels WTC building. Among them were all prominent Vlaams Belang representatives and the European Parliament members Carl Lang (FN) and Mario Borghezio (former undersecretary of Justice for the Lega Nord). Three female protesters were arrested.
The symbolic action, in which the demonstrators one by one laid a red rose down next to the World Trade Center building, was dignified and without significant incidents. Apparently, the police have learned their lesson since last year’s events and realized that this country is not a police state where peaceful demonstrators may be assaulted at will.
In his speech Filip Dewinter severely attacked Parti Socialiste Mayor Freddy Thielemans, whom he called an Islamo-socialist and a collaborator with radical Islam. “The demonstration ban is the best proof of the Islamization of our country,” Dewinter said.
Furthermore, he noted that “9/11 was not just a terrorist attack, but a declaration of war by radical Islam against the free West. Islam legitimizes through the Koran the use of violence against unbelievers to achieve its goals. Islam has to renounce all forms of violence and distance itself from passages in the Koran that call for violence against unbelievers; if not, Islam can never be tolerated on European territory.”
The second article is from HLN:
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Three arrests during Vlaams Belang demonstration near WTC tower in Brussels
Two Vlaams Belang members and a sympathizer have been administratively detained. The arrests took place when some fifty Vlaams Belang members wanted each in turn to lay down a rose near the WTC tower in memory of the attacks on September 11.
The demonstration was banned by Mayor Freddy Thielemans because of the risk of riots. The judge and the State Council have confirmed the ban.
“We wanted to pay tribute in a serene way to the victims of September 11. Thielemans proves that he is nothing more than an Islamo-socialist who is indebted to his constituents,” said Vlaams Belang chairman Filip Dewinter.
11 comments:
"The demonstration was banned by Mayor Freddy Thielemans because of the risk of riots. The judge and the State Council have confirmed the ban."
Here you go. Instantly totalitarian. They can easily ban brushing the teeth - when the "risk of riots" becomes a threat.
Accuse them of being pro-violent.
In fact they say we are not violent enough, so we do not count.
In case we become violent, they would say "we cannt ban it, there is a risk of riots".
Is it not a clear promotion of violence as the only legitimate political tool?
This certainly is a victory for the rioters.
Has anyone seen VB do any 'rioting'?
Not that I know of. They just want to be able to stand in their capital, express their sympathies, and be able to do so without being assaulted. The police should be perfectly able to protect a demonstration like this.
What happens here encourages rioters :(
Exactly Czechmade.
Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch has posted a mini-essay about how he wants to avoid sullying his politically impeccable hands with the "fascist" dirt of the Cologne anti-jihad conference:
The Cologne conference and European fascism
Apropos of my previous comment, I note that Gates of Vienna in August 22 of this year posted about the Cologne anti-jihadist conference:
The anti-jihad activist group is planning an Anti-Islamization Congress in Cologne next month. As reported here previously, the organization has been vigorously denounced by the OIC and the government of Malaysia.
It has also been denounced by Iran.
And now we can add to the list of denouncers our illustrious Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch (see link in my previous post).
Spencer is somewhat of a triangulator, trying to position himself in the "Virtuous Middle" between the nasty "Islamo-fascists" on one side, and the evil "neo-fascists" on the other. Deep down, Spencer is a man of the Left. In reality European nationalists are doing far more, and will achieve far more, than a mere scribbler like Spencer could ever contemplate.
Erich,
thank you for notifying us about Spencer's post, the (mostly approving) comments are depressing. I want to add that Udo Ulfkotte and his Pax Europa organization, and the Central Council of Ex-Muslims denounced the conference, too. So did Ralph Giordano, a prominent German Jew who came out against Islamization and the mega-mosque before. I haven't heard any statement in the media approving of the conference by anybody whatsoever. H.-C. Strache is not going to attend, but 40,000 leftist extremists are expected to rally against it. My town is already paved with posters calling on activists to protest in Cologne. Yes, there are a few prominent voices tentatively critical of Islam now, but perish the thought that somebody actually does something about it.
I just peeped over at LGF to see what the reaction was. Surprise surprise, they were crowing like bleedin cockerels. Robert's being "brave" now, according to them, and they're already agitating about "f-bomb" fjordman, who has a number of articles up there.
I will give Robert the benefit of the doubt, because the fjordman articles remain in place. If they're removed then my opinion of him will not recover but, I seriously doubt they will be. He's covering his arse from the "europe is racist by default" crowd at LGF. Unfortunately he's encouraging their destructive behaviour by doing so.
I want to see Pamela's reaction. I don't believe she's spoken about the Cologne conference yet.
I think I might write to Robert later this evening though, considering my track record in correspondence with Mr Spencer in the past, I might end up causing more trouble than I solve. :D
It's a shame. I honestly thought we were past all this by now.
"It's a shame. I honestly thought we were past all this by now."
The only way to "get past" unfair treatment is to sweep it under the rug. Otherwise, if one thinks the unfairness is important to be addressed, then it's up to the people being unfair (Spencer and LGF against Vlaams Belang et al.) to do something about it.
At the very least, as I wrote many months ago, Spencer should carefully read the many essays by Christine at the Center for Vigilant Freedom (aka the 910 Group Blog) then offer a counter-argument defending his position against Vlaams Belang and Filip Dewinter. He has never done this. He owes it to the people he's smearing with the brush of "fascism", "anti-Semitism" and even "racism" and their supporters to at least offer such a counter-argument.
By failing to do so, Spencer is behaving like the many Islam apologists who smear him but never offer cogent reasonings why.
Robert, little Robert...
Well I'm with you here, Graham and Erich. Very disappointing.
The article in question is still in the google cache. There's nothing dramatic about it. In the discussion thread, Hugh Fitzgerald is discussing Sufism. And then - wham! - suddenly the thread is deemed unclean by Robert and deleted.
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