Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Police officers secure a street during a raid in the Molenbeek neighborhood of Brussels on Friday 18 March. AP/Press Association Images
molenbeek

Anti-Islam rally in troubled neighbourhood of Brussels is banned

Members of a far-right organisation had planned the march for Saturday.

THE MAYOR OF the Brussels district of Molenbeek has said far-right extremists have been banned from holding a planned anti-Islam rally in the troubled neighbourhood, as the city remains on edge after last week’s suicide attacks.

Members of the French far-right youth group Generation Identitaire had posted a message on their website asking supporters to descend on Molenbeek this Saturday and march under the banner “Let’s expel the Islamists!”

The impoverished immigrant neighbourhood of Molenbeek has long been seen as a hotbed of Islamist extremism and the prime suspect in November’s Paris terror attacks was arrested there earlier this month, just metres from his family home.

‘There could have been clashes’

Molenbeek mayor Francoise Schepmans said the decision to ban the demo came after talks with police and other district mayors.

“If we had let it happen, there could have been clashes,” Schepmans told AFP, amid fears the protest could trigger angry counter-demonstrations in the largely Muslim Molenbeek.

The regional Brussels government will issue an order prohibiting “any demonstration or counter-demonstration in connection with this call to protest,” added Mustafa Er, an aide to Schepmans. The ban will cover all of the capital’s 19 districts.

In a sign of the simmering tensions in the still grieving capital, riot police fired water cannon last weekend to disperse far-right football hooligans who shouted anti-immigrant slogans and disrupted mourners at a shrine for victims of the Brussels attacks.

A total of 32 people were killed in the March 22 suicide bombings at Brussels airport and a metro station. The attacks were claimed by the Islamic State group.

- © AFP, 2016

Read: Friends, siblings, students, a married couple: 35 confirmed dead after Brussels blasts>

Your Voice
Readers Comments
68
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.