Category Archives: Belgium

More on Easter egg ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Remember the “Muslims want ban on Easter eggs” nonsense from Belgium? Here’s Diana West’s take on this ridiculous, concocted story:

“Clearly, Antwerp’s Muslim population (or some sizable portion thereof) rejects the right of the native Christian culture to express itself in terms of its traditional symbols. But what does it mean if post-Christian Antwerp accedes to this Muslim ‘demand’?” Well, of course, “it will mean that another outpost of the West will have agreed to strip itself of the defining symbols of its own identity”!

Washington Times, 24 August 2007

‘Muslims want ban on Easter eggs’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Expatica quotes Antwerp trade union representative Badia Miri, one of seven Muslim women employed by the city of Antwerp who were forced to remove their headscarves, as saying: “The Antwerp city government says that neutrality is endangered if staff wear a cross or headscarf. But in our experience action has only been taken against the Muslim women. If the city government is really concerned about neutrality, then Christmas trees and Easter eggs should no longer be allowed at work.”

And how does Expatica report this? In an article headlined “Muslims want ban on Easter eggs“!

Update: the “story” has now been taken up by the fascists: BNP regional news, 23 August 2007

NSS hero’s paranoid fantasies about the Islamisation of Europe

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pat CondellThat hero of the National Secular Society and BNP bloggers, Pat Condell, delivers another YouTube rant against Islam, this one in response to the decision by the mayor of Brussels to ban the “Stop the Islamisation of Europe” demonstration, scheduled for 11 September, which was initiated by a right-wing xenophobic Danish political party, Stop Islamisering Af Danmark.

Here’s the introduction to Condell’s bigoted diatribe, which promotes the paranoid “Eurabia” fantasies of the racist Right about the destruction of “our” culture by politicians intent on appeasing the Muslim hordes:

“Recent events in Brussels have confirmed for us in Europe what we’ve long suspected, that we’re governed by unprincipled vote-whoring cultural apologists who can’t wait to dismantle our heritage in order to show how culturally sensitive they are, and who’d be quite happy to see us all living under sharia law as long as it keeps them in office. As a result we have a situation now in Europe … where Islamic values are now being imported wholesale and are being imposed on a population to whom they’re about as welcome as a melanoma. No other religion gets these privileges.

“And some people in Europe are so angry at this creeping Islamisation of their culture that they’re starting to protest against it – when they’re allowed to. Only on September 11 in Brussels they won’t be allowed to, because a peaceful demonstration intending to mark the anniversary with a minute’s silence outside the European Parliament has been banned by the mayor of Brussels in case certain members of the religion of peace react violently.”

Predictably, one BNP blogger enthuses that this represents “Pat Condell at his best” while another applauds “the brilliant Pat Condell“.

Update:  Condell is also receiving far-right plaudits on the fascist discussion list Stormfront. Sample comment: “people like Pat Condell are very important to us.”

Pro-hijab rally in Brussels

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Residents in the Belgian capital have gathered to demonstrate their support of Islamic hijab as a freedom of choice for Muslim European women. Demonstrators took part in protests in Brussels Saturday against a decision by several school authorities to ban hijab, the Al Alam news channel reported.

Among the protestors were members of Islamic organizations, independent human rights groups and Muslim students. The demonstrators condemned what they said is an anti-Islam stance taken by officials in Belgium and supported the right of Muslims to freely practice the customs of their religion.

Press TV, 10 June 2007

Petition against Muslim girls’ school in Belgium

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BRUSSELS – A petition has been started in protest of plans to set up a secondary school in Molenbeek exclusively for Muslim girls. Many people are opposed to the idea, citing the separation of church and state in Belgium as grounds to block the plans.

The petition calls for a ban on “any ostensible sign of philosophical or religious membership in the context of a school, for students and especially for teachers.” They want this ban in effect for all schools that receive state subsidies.

“I don’t think that setting up an Islamic school is a fantastic idea, but that is what happens when people feel shut out by a traditional school,” was the response from Francophone antiracism foundation Mrax.

Expatica, 30 May 2007

Students protest headscarf ban

Posted on by Bob Pitt

BRUSSELS – Hundreds of students of the Koninklijk Atheneum Andrée Thomas demonstrated in front of their school this morning against the planned ban on headscarves at the institution.

The administration of the school, which has a great many Muslim students, has decided to ban all outward signs of religious convictions, including the headscarf.

The pupils were protesting because they regard the ban as a violation of free expression and freedom of religion. A number of protestors carried banners that stated that they would leave the school if not allowed to wear a headscarf.

The school administration defends its decision claiming it will contribute to social integration and encourage respect for different ways of life.

Expatica, 30 May 2007

Why no media boost for Belgian racists, Diana West wants to know

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Vlaams Belang“Without attracting much attention, representatives of the Belgian political party Vlaams Belang recently visited Washington, D.C. Frank Vanhecke and Filip Dewinter hoped to meet members of Congress; but Congress was in recess. They hoped to engender some understanding of their program to reverse the Islamization of Belgium; but the media were strip-mining the tinsel life and tawdry times of Anna Nicole Smith.

“Maybe they should have known that Tabloid America doesn’t care about the likely transformation of Europe into an Islamic continent, let alone the fate of a French- and Dutch-speaking country of 10 million people.”

Diana West bemoans the failure of the US media to give favourable coverage to the far-right VB, a political party whose origins are to be found among Belgian fascist sympathisers who collaborated with the Nazis during the German occupation of 1941-44. In the course of that occupation 25,000 Jews (44% of Belgium’s Jewish community) were deported to concentration camps and killed. But, what the heck, the VB now direct their hatred against Muslims rather than Jews, so they’re alright with Diana West.

Washington Times, 16 March 2007

Europe muzzles Muslim intellectuals

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Several prominent Muslim intellectuals are increasingly being barred from addressing international gatherings and delivering lectures across Europe on the grounds of extremism or anti-Semitism.

“We face many hurdles while planning for our annual Bourget conference,” Lhaj Thami Breze, Chairman of the Union of French Islamic Organizations (UOIF), told IslamOnline.net. “We want to invite prominent Muslim scholars from around the world but are always confronted with a long blacklist of people we can not invite.”

The four-day Bourget conference, the biggest Muslim convention in Europe, attracted last year more than 150,000 Muslims from across the continent. “Many moderate Muslims from the East and West, including prominent European thinkers, are banned from attending,” Breze said.

He cited Swiss-based prominent Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan and his brother Hany, the director of the Islamic Center in Geneva.

Islam Online, 28 February 2007

Head scarf ban for Antwerp city counter clerks raises protests

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A head scarf ban for municipal counter clerks in the northern port city of Antwerp has raised protest from Muslims and women activists, officials said Tuesday.

The city council decided late Monday that civil servants dealing directly with the public should not wear visible religious symbols like a Muslim head scarf or a Christian cross. Some 150 mostly Muslim women protested the decision late Monday and the organizers said they were considering further action.

Antwerp has been a stronghold of the far-right Flemish Interest party, but it was defeated in local elections last October by the socialists, who had run a campaign stressing the multicultural makeup of Belgium’s second-largest city.

Opponents of the ban were disappointed that the coalition of socialists, liberals and Christian democrats who run the city council had outlawed head scarves for frontdesk staff. “It was a surprise, especially after a campaign like that,” said Sophie De Graeve of the women’s rights group VOK.

Associated Press, 16 January 2007