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Europe Report
By Paul Belien
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
I just returned home from the anti-Islamization demonstration in Brussels. The Belgian police beat up the peaceful demonstrators in what even the Belgian public television call "an extremely violent fashion." Here are some video images. The grey-haired man whom we see being attacked by the police first is Luk Van Nieuwenhuysen, the Vice-President of the Flemish Parliament. Shortly afterwards we see the police maltreating Frank Vanhecke, a member of the European Parliament and the party leader of the Vlaams Belang. We see how he is handcuffed and pushed into a police bus. Afterwards we also see the police "taking care" of Filip Dewinter, the VB group leader in the Flemish Parliament. We see how his arm gets caught between the closing doors of the bus. An Italian MEP and a French MEP were also arrested. The demonstrators were kept in cells for seven hours and released this evening.
By Paul Belien
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
At a press conference in the European Parliament yesterday evening foreign journalists openly doubted the statement by Philip Claeys and Koen Dillen, two members of the European Parliament for the Vlaams Belang party (VB), that the Brussels police had told the VB that they would tolerate yesterday's anti-Islamization demonstration if it was a peaceful "static" protest at Schuman Plaza. Despite this agreement, the police beat up the peaceful demonstrators in front of the European Commission building. "You can tell us whatever you want, but we need proof," one of the foreign journalists told Claeys and Dillen.
By Paul Belien
Friday, September 7, 2007
The Left's strategy of importing immigrants to turn them into voters in order to "elect a new people" is backfiring in the Netherlands. After the November 2006 general elections the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) appointed two immigrants ministers, Moroccan-born Ahmed Aboutaleb and Turkish-born Nebahat Albayrak, in order to advertise its special care for Muslim interests. Both ministers, who retained their original Moroccan and Turkish citizenship upon becoming Dutch citizens, hold dual citizenship. Geert Wilders, the leader of the "Islamophobic" Freedom Party (PVV), opposed the appointment of the two ministers doubting their loyalty to the Dutch nation. The political establishment reacted with indignation, but the Dutch seem to vindicate Mr. Wilders.
By Paul Belien
Monday, September 3, 2007
Last Wednesday the Belgian King Albert II appointed the Flemish Christian-Democrat Herman Van Rompuy as his "scout" (explorateur). Mr Van Rompuy, a member of the Crown Council, has to defuse the political crisis ensuing from the inability of Belgium's parties to put together a government after last June's general elections. In Flanders, the Dutch-speaking north of the country, where 60% of the Belgians live, these elections were won by parties that aim for greater Flemish autonomy and are no longer willing to subsidize Wallonia, the Socialist-dominated French-speaking south of the country.
By Paul Belien
Friday, August 31, 2007
In June 2002, the Arab-European League (AEL), an anti-Semitic Islamist organization of Belgian immigrants led by Lebanese-born Dyab Abu Jahjah, a notorious member of the Hezbollah, requested permission to hold a demonstration in Antwerp. Two months earlier, an AEL march had led to heavy riots in the city. Antwerp has Belgium's largest concentration of Jews. The Antwerp mayor, fearing new violence, prohibited the demonstration.
By Paul Belien
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Today the Belgian Council of State (CoS) ruled to maintain the prohibition of an anti-Islamization demonstration on 11 September. Three weeks ago the demo was banned by Freddy Thielemans, the mayor of Brussels. Thielemans's party, the Parti Socialiste (PS), caters for the many Muslim inhabitants of Brussels, the "capital of Europe." Udo Ulfkotte, a German citizen and one of the organizers of the demo, who intended to bring 20,000 demonstrators to Brussels, decided to appeal against the mayor's verdict before the Council of State, the highest administrative court in Belgium.
By Paul Belien,
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
America is not the only nation debating amnesty for illegal aliens. The issue is a hot topic across the Atlantic as well. On June 8, the Dutch Parliament approved a proposal submitted by Nebahat Albayrak, a Turkish-born member of the Dutch government, to give permanent resident cards to everyone who has been living in the Netherlands since 2001. Albayrak, the junior minister of Justice, who holds dual Dutch-Turkish citizenship, thinks that some 30,000 will benefit from her amnesty, though no one actually knows how many illegal immigrants are in the country.
By Paul Belien,
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Brussels, the capital of Belgium, prides itself on being the capital of Europe and of the Atlantic Alliance. The city, where the European Union and NATO headquarters are located, has no fewer than three U.S. ambassadors: one to Belgium, one to the EU and one to NATO. Like Washington, Brussels hosts hundreds of protest demonstrations each year. During the past six years Freddy Thielemans, the mayor of Brussels, allowed 3,500 demonstrations. He banned only six, including, last year, a march of Kurdish nationalists belonging to a terrorist organization. As a rule everyone - except criminals - is allowed to demonstrate in Brussels.
By Paul Belien,
Monday, August 27, 2007
Upon approaching its 175th anniversary, Belgium was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain the image of a normal liberal democratic nation-state, governed by consent of the people. At the heart of its hybrid, unrepresentative and largely unaccountable regime is a democracy deficit that is there for the whole world to see.
By Paul Belien,
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Belgium is rapidly unraveling. Following the June 10th Belgian general elections, won by Flemish-secessionist parties, the Belgian parties seem unable to form a government coalition.
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The Arab-European League (AEL), a pro-Hezbollah organization of Arab immigrants in Belgium and the Netherlands, is rallying its members to march in Brussels on 11 September "against Islamophobia and racism in Europe." The AEL demonstration is a response to the request by the Danish-British-German organization Stop the Islamisation of Europe (sioe.wordpress.com) for permission to demonstrate on 9/11 in front of the European Union's buildings in Brussels against the introduction of Sharia laws in Europe.
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Thursday, August 23, 2007
A newly arrived Moroccan immigrant in the Italian village of Valaperta di Casatenovo, near Lecco, could not stand the statue of the Virgin Mary in a niche opposite the house which had been assigned to him. The immigrant's Muslim faith forbids the depiction of humans. Every morning the poor man was confronted with the statue of the Madonna -- an intolerable affront to his deeply-felt religious convictions. Consequently, yesterday morning the immigrant filled up the niche with concrete. Two elderly ladies were able to save the statue of the Holy Virgin, but two statues of little angels surrounding the Madonna were walled in by the zealous Moroccan.
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Monday, August 20, 2007
The politicians in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, are unable to form a government coalition with sufficient support in both parts of the multinational country, i.e. in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking north of the country, and Wallonia, the French-speaking south. They have asked the Belgian King Albert II to defuse the situation.
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Sunday, August 19, 2007
A far-left group of anti-American conspiracy theorists, calling itself "United for Truth" (UfT), is going to demonstrate in Brussels on 9 September. The group will march from the North Station to the South (Midi) Station in protest against "George Bush's involvement" with the 9/11/2001 terror attacks in New York and on the Pentagon.
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Friday, August 17, 2007
John Stossel is right. Last week he wrote that the "Healthy Wisconsin" scheme, passed in that state's Senate and offering supposedly "free" socialized health care, is good for America because people apparently need bad examples. As Mr. Stossel says, "We need laboratories of failure to demonstrate what socialism is like. All we have now is Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, the U.S. Post Office, and state motor-vehicle departments. It's not enough. Wisconsin can show the other 49 states what 'universal' [health] coverage is like. I feel bad for the people in Wisconsin [...] but it's better to experiment with one state than all of America."
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Today, Udo Ulfkotte, one of the organizers of the anti-Sharia demonstration in Brussels on 11 September, was in the Belgian and European capital to confer with lawyers about legal steps to counter last week's decision by the mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, to ban the demonstration.
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Every year the authorities in Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of the European Union (EU), receive between 500 and 600 applications for permission to demonstrate or hold protest marches. With very few exceptions permission is always granted. In the past five years only six applications were turned down -- an average of one a year. Among these was one for a demonstration by the DHKP/C, a Kurdish terrorist organization.
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Liberal politicians, like Hillary Clinton, envy Western Europe for its welfare state. They tell U.S. voters that a European-style welfare state is needed to help the poor. In reality the motives of liberal politicians are not altruistic, but egotistical. Welfare makes people dependent on the state. It is not a coincidence that liberalism and secularism are almost synonyms. Liberals want to replace God by the state.
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Friday, July 20, 2007
Last week, the Italian interior minister, Giuliano Amato, hosted a conference in Rome on "Islam and Integration." Italy, one of Europe's southern border states, has 1 million Muslims out of a population of 58 million people. Illegal immigrants arrive in Italy in huge numbers. According to a recent survey, the country could count almost 7 million Muslims by the end of the next decade.
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Friday, July 13, 2007
The Hergé Foundation agrees with yesterday's decision of the international bookseller Borders Books to ban the comic album "Tintin in the Congo" from its children's section and move it to the adult section of its stores.
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Thursday, July 12, 2007
July 11 is Flanders Day. The date refers to the day in 1302 when an army of Flemish burghers defeated a superior army of French knights by driving them into a swamp. Historically the term Flanders refers to the mediaeval county of Flanders centered around the town of Brugge (Bruges in French). Today, the term Flanders is used in a broader sense, referring to the Dutch-speaking part of contemporary Belgium i.e. the historical counties of Flanders, Brabant and Loon. Brussels, the historical capital of Brabant, is currently the capital of Europe, Belgium and Flanders (in its contemporary, broad sense).
By Paul Belien, Brussels Journal
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Ehsan Jami is a 22-year-old local councilor and member of the socialist Labor Party (PvdA) in the Dutch town of Leidschendam. His party, which belongs to the ruling government coalition in the Netherlands, is eager to get rid of him because... he is a Muslim apostate.
By Dr. Ludwig De Braeckeleer
Thursday, July 5, 2007
On June 28, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) announced that the Libyan agent convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie deserves a second appeal. The dramatic legal decision is likely to embarrass Washington and London.
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