Police Officers Stabbed in Molenbeek

In yet another incident of cultural enrichment in Molenbeek — an immigrant district of the Belgian capital, Brussels — two police officers were stabbed by a “French” mujahid yesterday morning.

Below are two subtitled news videos about the attack. The first is in Dutch, and was translated by Michael Laudahn. Many thanks to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:


The second report is in French:


From De Standaard, also translated by Michael Laudahn:

BRUSSELS: The man who attacked two police officers with a knife in the metro Beekkant station is under arrest for attempted murder in a terrorist context, according to a communiqué issued by the federal prosecutor on Saturday. He risk receiving a life sentence.

The perpetrator, a 34-year old French Islamist, explained to the examining magistrate that he had executed the attack in order to be shot dead by police, and so change the Belgian government’s position on the niqab.

The two officers attacked are 23 and 24 years old. One of them was already able to leave the hospital. The other one, a woman, is severely wounded and remains in the hospital. The facts of the attack were recorded through surveillance cameras, showing the perpetrator attacking the agents while they were on patrol in a hallway, thus not during a control, as had been reported earlier.

The perpetrator had a big knife in his pocket, plus a shorter blade hidden in a pen. He declared himself a mujahid, who had come from Paris in order to make ‘holy war’. Through his act, he also wanted to demand that the ‘unbelievers’ withdraw from Afghanistan, and protest against the Belgian government’s policy towards Moslems and the wearing of the niqab. He was carrying documents confirming this, which among others pointed to Sharia4Afghanistan and the Taliban.

The man admitted attacking the officers with a knife, but without the intention to kill. He is unknown to the French and Belgian police services.

And excerpts from an earlier article:

‘The woman got a knife in her neck, the man in the neck and a leg. Heavily wounded, they were transported to the hospital, where one of them was submitted to an emergency operation. Both of them are now outside danger to life’, according to commissaris Johan Berckmans.

[…]

In the perpetrator’s luggage, several newspaper clips on this [niqab ban] incident were found, on Sharia4Belgium, and on the 250-euro premium promised by Vlaams Belang [patriotic political party] for those who report to police a woman in burka or niqab.

Transcript of first video:

0:00		The Beekkant metro station has been completely closed off.
0:03		Here at around 6:30 a man stabbed two police officers.
0:07		The individual raged against two police officers. They are a man and a woman;
0:11		both received knife wounds from the man in their necks and lower backs,
0:15		they were transported to 2 different hospitals, and there they seem to be out of danger and will leave the hospital today.
0:22		The perpetrator, a Frenchman aged 34, has been arrested, but it cost the officers much effort.
0:27		According to the first police officers to arrive, initially he seems to have been in a totally normal mood.
0:31		First they tried using their clubs, then gas, then finally he let go of the officers surrounding him, and they could subdue him.
0:41		According to police, he is a radical Moslem. The man carried with him articles about Sharia4Belgium and ... [?] central in Molenbeek.
0:48		The motive is still uncertain, but he mentioned that he belongs to an extremist party in France, and that he is in solidarity
0:54		with the Moslem community in Belgium, and that he does not agree with the policy the government presently pursues.
1:01		The metro station is accessible again, and for the time being, everything remains calm in Molenbeek.

Transcript of second video:

00:00		(inaudible) they were meeting...
00:04		...people at ground level. At that time...
00:08		...there were two police officers who were doing surveillance at the exit of the Station.
00:12		They were attacked by a person from behind. So, the man and the woman were stabbed...
00:16		...in the back of the neck And then after, the person was really violent and then he was subdued by other colleagues who were in the station.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.