Brussels Central Station is, as its name implies, a busy node in Belgium’s railway network. On working days, some 140,000 plus government employees, businessmen, EU cadres, tourists et al pass through its Central Hall, and at any given time there’s easily hundreds of people present. On April 12, 2006 one of them was 17-year old Joe Van Holsbeeck, who, together with a friend and while listening to his mp3-player, was waiting for a girlfriend. At some point two young males approached them. After some chit-chat one of them grabbed Joe’s mp3-player, which Joe instantly tried to take back. Thereupon the thief suddenly pulled out a knife and violently stabbed the young man five times, after which he and his accomplice disappeared in the crowd. Young Joe Van Holsbeeck, who received one stab just near the heart, died at 21.00h in the Saint-Peter Hospital. Even though I feel that highlighting this murder is necessary in order to explain some of what is going on in Belgium, I can't get rid myself of the feeling that I am not honoring Joe's remembrance in the appropriate way. Forgive me for that.
Vicious crimes like that are – luckily – still relatively rare in Belgium. But theft, robbery, rape, damaging property, carjacking, steaming, you name it, is rampant. Unfortunately, the majority of these crimes are committed by young North African second- or third-generation immigrants. In Belgium, that means Moroccan youths. It should come as no surprise then that around 60% of inmates in Belgian prisons are not from native Belgian origin, the majority of them from the so-called Maghreb countries - Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia. In order to keep the multicultural dream alive, Belgian MSM tries very hard to shuffle this unpleasant reality under the carpet, and if any ethnicity of the perpetators does come out, there’s always a heir of psychologists and university profs at the ready to be interviewed to explain that the main cause of the higher criminality rates is “kansarmoede” – literally “chance poverty", or lack of possibilities [to succeed in our society]. Personally, I would certainly not dismiss the race factor, and I even think that latent racism in Europe is (much) bigger than in the States.
Be that as it may, the fact remains that in my opinion, the root cause for social exclusion among young North Africans lies in their own culture. While a lot can be said about European racism vs (especially) muslim immigrants, the topic of the very real reciproke racism is taboo. Young arab males in, say, Amsterdam, consider themselves some kind of Herrenvolk vis-à-vis the native youths, whom they regard not only as kafirs, but also as weak and decadent. And while a lot can be said about a lack of job opportunities for immigrants, why is it that mentioning the lack of work ethics among immigrants is not done? Listen, it is an established fact that tax controllers in Brussels are threatened when they put their nose too deep in the books of (bleep) shops. It is a sorry truth that the notorious VAT carrousels are most often found in (bleep) businesses. Hey, I meet employers who complain about shaky absent minded workers of (bleep) ethnicity during Ramadan. I am very sorry, but I MUST mention that the value of a handshake to seal a deal means jack shit in (bleep) communities. Likewise, it IS true that appointments are not kept and bills not paid the way they should when Belgians do commerce with certain (bleep) nationalities. I DO regret to mention, but I feel I MUST, that teachers in schools with a lot of adolescents of (bleep) origin, burn out in a couple of years. And so on and so on and so on, ad nauseum. I hear and see too much to not suspect some real Big Kernel of Truth in certain allegations. I wish it were different, I truly do. But I have to conclude it is not. Period.
To cut a long story short, when the news of Joe Van Holsbeeck's murder broke, the ethnicity of the perpetrators was not only on everyone's lips, this view was initially enhanced by a number of factors: Joe's friend thought they were North Africans; everyone who had witnessed the murder thought they were North Africans; the grainy video images released one week later showed young males apparently of North African complexity; the office of the Brussels public prosecutor accused two North Africans etc. etc. etc. Even the muslim community itself assumed they were, which says a lot about how they view themselves.
This is when Paul Belien, The Brussels Journal Chief Editor, wrote an op-ed on his site, which was subsequently copied and printed in several leading Belgian newspapers. Those of you familiar with Mr. Beliens work know that his writings are sober, well thought-out and easily readable. They also put Mr. Belien firmly in the conservative camp, something quite inappropriate in "Old" Europe and also the reason why he is not on the payroll of any of Belgium's newspapers and/or magazines. He is, after all, that fascist from the Wall Street Journal, you know. It also doesn't help that Mr. Belien is the only Belgian journalist to have acquired name and reputation on yonder side of the Atlantic, and it certainly doesn't help either that he is married, has five (yes, FIVE) children and - the horror - has the audacity to call himself a Christian.Mr. Beliens op-ed was titled "Gives us weapons" and for once, presumably because of the gruesome murder, unusually emotional. The Belgian Thought Police has now forced him to remove it, but MFBB has the key excerpts for you:
... The predators have teeth and claws. The predators have knives. As children, they have learned at the yearly sacrificial feast how to cut the throat of warmblooded animals. We get sick when we see blood, but they don't. They are trained, they are armed. [...] We are the herd-animals, they are the beasts of prey. The herd-animals themselves have allowed the beasts of prey in their biotope. [...] Maybe our indifference is most characterized by the fact that we let the parents of the underage, murdering criminals alone, that we continue to let them benefit from our social security, that we do not destroy their houses and do not deport them as a punishment for the criminal offspring they have planted in our midst.... It is [also] the authorities, the police, the government, the church which is indifferent... [...] In a democratic state the government must protect the citizens against the predators. If the state cannot or will not carry out this function, the citizens have the right to arm themselves. Whe who goes to Brussels without pepperspray is a fool. [...] He who counts on politics for his protection is as good as dead.I have decided to post as many excerpts from Mr. Beliens column as I could still gather left and right, with the inevitable result that I dishonour the author's flowing prose. A collection like above sounds somewhat like a rambling hatefest, but I can assure you that in its complete original form it was a powerful piece of prose. Now, those of you familiar with Mr. Beliens work will conclude that it was a very emotional post, and if you are unaware of certain aspects of Belgium's wonderfully multicultural diversity you may think it's on the brink of a hatefest. But keep in mind that at the time it was written the author was still assuming - like everyone else - that the perpetrators were North Africans and that the majority of crimes in Belgium is committed by people from that community - it's a naked fact.
But there is more. See e.g. how he emphasizes the muslim religious ritual of slaughtering "warm blooded animals" - sheep. Well, I don't know if you got these chaps in the States too, but over here we have this outfit which calls itself GAIA and which is an organization coming up for animal's rights. Now hold it, you can be absolutely sure the guys and gals flocking to such organizations stand a much better chance to belong to the Lefto Fruitcake Department than to appear on The Weekly Standard's subscription list. And I would rate chances that they are Bush aficionados about as likely as McCain becoming POTUS in 2008. But when it comes to stop unnecessary suffering of animals, I'm quite sympathetic. I'm not a vegetarian - guess I'll never be, since nature obviously mades us omnivores and I'm not contemplating to go against that. But I fully agree that when animals have to be slaughtered for human consumption, precautions should be taken that they die without suffering.
Well, guess what? On January 10, 2006 GAIA demonstrated in front of the office of the Muslim Executive, the organization supposed to perform a liasion function between the Belgian government and the Muslim community here. A club of jolly good fellows, btw. The reason? Every year the Muslim slaughterfest turns out to be a horrific bloodbath. Belgian law forbids illegal slaughtering, and every year provides for several large-scale facilities where muslims can legally cut sheep throats. Belgian natives breaking the law face severe penalties. Not so the Belgian Muslim community however: the notorious Brussels Parti Socialiste bigshot Emir Kir estimates that only one in ten of the sheep slaughtered during Ramadan meet their end in one of the fancy Belgian State compounds. Oh, and Belgian law dictates too that the animals have to be anaesthetized - too bad for our foor-footed friends when they meet their ends at the hands of true fidels. Likewise, Belgian law forbids that the sheep's paws are tied. Funny, I read about a GAIA guy who witnessed the arrival of a bunch of paw-tied wool suppliers in Ronse, objected to it and was threatened physically. Yeeeeeeeaaaaah, tell me all about it.Where was I? Oh yeah, GAIA protesting in front of the Muslim Executive's HQ. It was a nice show, see pic. Several of the placards read: "Muslim Executive, Respect The law". On others was written: "Illegal slaughterings - the Muslim Executive is responsible". Reaction of the Muslim Executive: the week later they sued GAIA for "inciting to racial hatred and religious uproar". Now is it just me or are there elsewhere people who have noticed that when muslims in western countries are demanded they respect the laws and customs of the country involved, increasingly turn to using that country's legal apparatus to silence the objectors?
Are you still following? Amazing. So, Mr. Belien was apparently very pissed off by yet another perceived act of criminality from the (bleep) corner and blew off some steam via his keyboard. The way I see it, what really pissed of the PC crowd over here, is that he dared to say that if the state cannot protect its citizens, they have the right to defend themselves. In EUtopia, where the State officially replaces God that is BLASPHEMY!!!
Shocker, one week later.
The perps were not North Africans.
They were Poles.
Stormclouds gathering over Paul Belien. Oh yes, over that evil collection of Vlaams Belang Nazi stormtroopers too, but we'll come to that later.
Yet another shocker.
On May 11, almost exactly one month after the gruseome Joe Van Holsbeeck killing, 18-year old Hans Van Themsche shaved his head bald, bought a gun, ventured on Antwerps streets, shot and gravely injured a woman of Turkish descent and killed a two-year old white toddler and her 24-year old nanny from Mali. It was a horrible crime which shocked the entire country. Very soon the press found out that Hans Van Themsche's father helped fund the Vlaams Blok and that he had an aunt who is an MP for the Vlaams Blok's successor, the Vlaams Belang. And all hell broke loose. It did not help that the perpetrator himself was not a member and did not even attend VB meetings. The Vlaams Belang was the culprit and the origin of a climate of hate which made young men like Van Themsche act against foreigners in such callous ways.There is a lot to be told about this story and I will try to elaborate on it later, but one thing at a time. Suffice to say that right now the Vlaams Belang is under attack from all directions, and the authorities have finally found a big stick to clobber it to death. Last Friday, the Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht even went as far as to say that those who voted for Vlaams Belang bear responsibility too for the murder in Antwerp. Personally, despite the fact that the madman shot a white baby too, I would indeed describe the crime as a racist act. Is the VB responsible? In my opinion, no. The party's discourse is polite. To claim that it calls for murdering foreigners, as many in Belgium now do, is insane. What it does do, is point to really grave problems caused by immigrants and denounce that nothing is done about it. But are racists inside the VB responsible? I would answer that a "possible" or "yes". Remember, I have never denied that the VB has murky origins. Even though I would describe the party today as "clean" and its leadership as decent I will not be so foolish as to claim that there are no white supremacists with evil views. Young Hans van Themsche may have been influenced by these people. But I will never, NEVER accept that the party itself is responsible, and intend to provide solid proof on this blog that their discourse does NOT exhort to violence against foreigners.
But back to Paul Belien. How the VB is now beleagured from all sides would be a bridge too far within the context of this post, how Mr. Belien is prosecuted may just seem doable yet at the end of a long story. As I wrote earlier, Mr. Belien has been forced to remove his post, see quotes above, from The Brussels Journal. A number of good posts circulate in te blogosphere about this scandalous event, amongst others one from fellow Belgian blogger Maarten Schenk over at Live from Brussels, but a real good short and telling one can be found at the excellent French blog No Pasaran:
Paul Belien, social and polical commentator and blogger is being attacked for his opinions and analysis. Today Father Johan Leman, a Catholic priest of the Order of Saint Dominic (the inquisition order) and a professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, has joined the chorus. Father Leman is the previous president of the CEOOR (Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism), the inquisition center of the Belgian government. In today’s news broadcast on the national radio he says that the CEOOR has been negligent because it has not already started prosecutions against me.
Mr. Belien is being threatened with prosecution under the law for supposedly being part of a neo-con conspiracy, led by Daniel Pipes (whom until then he had no contact with) and the Danish journalist Flemming Rose who became known for publishing the Muhammad cartoons. They are accused of wanting “to anger radical but also moderate Muslims into violent action.”
In short non-conformity is attracting what amounts to offending the thought police. It is Cuba with crappy weather along with a priest - a sort of liberation theology type - who has no problem taking orders from a rather more earthly accomodation to human failings rather than taking wrong to be wrong, and right to be right. All drawn through a non-moral process motivated entirely by turning the other cheek, without it ever becoming an example of resolution or an demonstration of grace. The don't want to reason with anyone - they want him in the dock for not thinking like they do.
In other words, the law is being used to silence speech, and to promote the narrowing of the parameters of discussion as it relates to any notion the left backs.
In 1567, Philip II, son of the Habsburg Emperor Charles V, who was a zealous prosecutor of Protestants, sent the notorious Duke of Alva into the Netherlands at the head of a 10,000 strong army, with unlimited powers for the extirpation of heretics. Upon arrival he instantly erected a tribunal which soon became known to its victims as the Blood Council, to try all persons deemed as such. During the six years of his reign, between 6,000 and 18,000 people were executed for the mere fact of dissenting with his Uebercatholic Majesty Philip II. Alva imprisoned the counts Egmont and Hoorn, the two popular leaders of the dissatisfied Dutch nobles, and had them decapitated even though they were opposed to the Protestants.
450 years later, we have luckily not yet returned to the point where those who dare to oppose the True Faith are beheaded - if you exclude certain theaters in the Middle East and the occasional slaughtering of Dutch dissenters. But it is certain we are already down a very slippery road to such an extent that those who dare to contradict the dogmas of the Politically Correct cabals are silenced. Today, a man is forced to remove his opinion under threat of prosecution so that others cannot take notice of it anymore. Think about that opinion and its wording what you want, but the author does have points. Is it too premature to assume that in 10 years, one gets imprisoned for the same facts? And is it too premature to assume that when Europe will indeed have become Eurabia - God forbid - that person will be brought to death?
Given the fact that even church authorities in Europe are now pandering to the demands of islam, and an overwhelmingly leftist establishment almost happy to fulfill the dhimmi role, one can only hope that the West's only strategic game to avert the global danger of militant islam - the US led enterprise to install democracy by force in the muslim world - will succeed. Don't count on the UN. Much less the EU. Count on the GI.
MFBB.