March 24, 2016
The Atlantic - What is the matter with Belgium? (Molenbeek is the issue)
Belgian Attack Video
A Belgian Parliament member, a lady a Muslim, was interviewed at CNN and she condemned the terrorist attack wondering how on the earth people can kill in the name of a religion, and how she can explain to others as a Muslim why this thing happened.. Those who committed the attacks were criminals and were in and out of jail and how come they were let go?
The next question is why Brussel, the capital of EU has become the center of radicalization in Europe. The answer would seem to be in this article published in
From Daily Caller - Every Terrorist Attack has been linked to Molenbeek
Its location in an international train station that can take anyone to London, Amsterdam, or Paris, makes an ideal center to launch operations and attack
It could be that there is lack of integration of Muslim immigrants, or that there is unemployment problem. In Molenbeek, there is 40% unemployment rate. however the growth of radicalization, which faced authorities has been there for the last 20 years.
Molenbeek started to become center of recruitment and radicalization of Muslim starting in 1997 by Ayachi Bassam, a French national formerly from Syria who established CIB (Centre Islamic Belge) a family owned mosque. It became the center for Al Qaida in Europe. It is located just 3 miles from Espace Leopold, the HQ of EU Parliament.
"Almost every time there’s a link with Molenbeek,” the Belgian prime minister, Charles Michel, said in the aftermath of the Paris attacks Nov. 13 that killed 130 people. “We’ve tried prevention. Now we’ll have to get repressive. It’s been a form of laissez faire and laxity. Now we’re paying the bill.”
What used to be the industrial part of metropolitan Brussels became the place where Muslim immigrants from Morocco to Belgium settled in 1964 when Belgium needed to expand its workforce. Today, the town of 94,000 is 40 percent Muslims. It has an unemployment rate of nearly 50 percent among young adults. It is home to at least 22 mosques and just five churches. The street names are the only clue to outside observers that they are in the heart of Europe. Traditional Belgian supermarkets first stopped selling alcohol and later turned into Islamic book stores.
There used to be Jewish shops in the town center, but the last one closed for good in 2008 when the owners got tired of their shops getting terrorized by teenagers.
If you have $700 and 30 minutes to spare, you can get your hands on a machine gun with little difficulty. It was in Molenbeek two men armed themselves to carry out January’s attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris. The same went for Mehdi Nemmouche, who shot and killed four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in May 2014.
The establishment of a jihadi community wasn’t really known until after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. From his small, family-run mosque in Molenbeek, Bassam attracted troubled teenagers by offering money, work, psychological support and, most importantly, a sense of community. His son, Abdelrahman, had set up a website where teenagers could join and communicate with their spiritual leader, Bassam.
(Mahina pulis. Lax. Dapat sinona na ito after the previous terrorist attack) There is nobody to blame except the laxity of Belgian authorities themselves not to mention their ignorance and negligence. Or takot?!
Dapat isara and ideport ang mga radical diyan, if you want to have peace in Europe. Or better still adopt the policy of Japanese or Russians Putin - we do not need you here. Go back to your country where you have mosque and Sharia law. Let us live in peace.
That the young people or the combatants were radicalized was not because of economic conditions, but because Bassam brainwashed them on its us vs them mindset. That they must continue to think and live as Muslims
This is a mosque inside an apartment building
These hidden mosques are where a lot of the radicalization in Molenbeek is believed to take place. While large, the tight-knit communities are widely out of the spotlight, and members rarely speak of what’s going on inside.
“They tell young people that they aren’t European or Belgium and that it’s ‘us against the others,'” Brussels-based journalist Mehmet Koksal told Der Spiegel. “If a person eats publicly during Ramadan or a woman doesn’t wear a headscarf, they may become the subject of hostility.”
Most of the mosques are frequented by peaceful Muslims, where the imams regularly condemn terror attacks. Nevertheless, the mosques still make for a prime location to recruit teenagers and radicalize their beliefs.
“The Muslim community in Molenbeek is very closed,” Koksal said. “Those who aren’t a part of it are quickly viewed as being agents of enemy forces.”
Police and politicians have been unsuccessful addressing the radicalization problem in Molenbeek. Philipe Moureaux, who served as mayor of Molenbeek between 1992 and 2012, said he was “totally incapable of integrating a new wave of immigration” shortly after taking office. The neighborhood grew 30 percent over the next 15 years, from ’92 to ’07, primarily due to legal immigration.
Brussels has six police departments that share 19 districts. Police have often turned the problem into a blame game and finger pointing between the departments, which encouraged a “look the other way” culture to keep the crime records low. Police in Brussels call Molenbeek a “no-go zone” and do little to change that label.
"
