Sunday 17 February 2013

Immigrants and Bureaucrats in E.U. Capital: letter from Europe

Quote, from New York Times:
.... what has made his [Lucas Vander Taelen] 2009 article so noteworthy is that he is a politician from the Green party, a former deputy in the European Parliament and now an elected representative of Brussels’s Dutch-speaking population to the Flemish Parliament, which governs Flanders, in northern Belgium. By criticizing the behavior of young immigrant youths, he found himself cast out from the unspoken confines of Belgium’s politically correct — or “bien pensant” — circles.
“I got furious e-mails from orthodox leftists, who wanted to denounce me to the commission on racism,” he said. “I didn’t respond. Everyone who knows me knows I am not a racist.”
But there were other reactions. “I got enormous support, with thousands of e-mails. Even now, people say ‘thank you’ on the street, on TV and radio,” he said. “Obviously, I touched a chord.”
What tripped the wire for Mr. Vander Taelen was a series of threats and acts of violence against a Brussels art gallery that had displayed a work by a French-Algerian artist, featuring a pair of red high-heeled shoes, strategically placed on a prayer rug.
Then and now, an unapologetic Mr. Vander Taelen makes a larger point that goes beyond bad behavior to values — and the need to impress upon Brussels’s immigrants, many of them Muslims, respect for concepts like the separation of church and state, women’s equality and freedom of speech. [end quote]
Interesting that this article should appear in the "paper of record", the New York Times, not usually known for raising anything unpleasant if it's to do with Islam, the "religion of peace"....
Things must be getting bad in Brussels, indeed the whole of Europe, for the Times to take note.  I imagine it must be rather worse than what the article describes as "low-decibel tension of life with North African immigrants in the heart of the Belgian capital".
For "young immigrant youth" from "North Africa" read also "Muslim": West to East in North Africa: Morocco and Tunisia: 98% Muslim, Libya 97%, Egypt 97%.  I mention this because Vander Talen describes his daughter and his being spat at and called "many bad things", when they venture into these immigrant areas, and it's Islam that calls on its adherents to separate themselves from the infidel and to look down on them.  This is known in Islam as "The Doctrine of Loyalty and Enmity".  Eg, "Let not the believers take unbelievers for their friends in preference to believers." [K 3.028].

Article, behind paywall.  Or: Pdf.