By Paul Belien
Sunday, May 14, 2006Yesterday Hans Van Themsche, an 18 year old high-school student who had just been expelled from boarding school for smoking in the dormitories, went berserk and set out on a bloody rampage in antwerp. In the morning he shaved his head down to the neck. He put on combat boots and a black leather outfit and went to a store of sporting and hunting gear to buy a rifle. Dressed as a "Goth” he walked through town and shot at three people who crossed his path: a veiled Turkish woman, a two year old Flemish toddler on a tricycle and her black nanny, killing the latter two and seriously wounding the first.
a policeman was able to neutralise the student by shooting him in the stomach. He is currently in hospital, recovering from the wound. according to the authorities he said he was a skinhead on a suicide mission who wanted to kill foreigners and intended the last bullet for himself. In a farewell note, which he left at his school, he mentioned "heaven, which does not exist” and wrote that his three brothers would feel better once he was gone. Luc Deprez, the schoolmaster, said that Hans Van Themsche, who turned 18 last February, was an intelligent and courteous boy. according to the judicial authorities, who questioned his parents, there are no indications that the murderer was raised "in a racist or violent environment.”
The murderer's aunt, Frieda Van Themsche, confirmed that the boy has been raised in a family where he and his brothers were even forbidden to play with toy guns. Frieda Van Themsche, however, is a member of parliament for the Vlaams Belang party. This party, which is antwerp's and also Belgium's largest single political party, aims for the independence of Flanders, is opposed to Muslim immigration and does not believe in a multicultural society.
Following Hans Van Themsche's killing spree, however, his aunt is guilty by association, and so is the entire party. The Belgian government has strongly condemned the shootings, describing them as an extreme form of racism. Guilty, too, is this website because the writer of this article happens to be married to another VB member of parliament. Today a far-left organisation, the Progress Lawyers Network (PLN), attacked The Brussels Journal in a press release, and demanded that "Paul Belien be prosecuted for his recent publications.” Tomorrow the Belgian media will parrot the message. I am a prolific and outspoken writer, which in Belgium is not tolerated from a Conservative. Sixteen years ago, long before my wife went into politics, I was fired by a Belgian newspaper for writing an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal explaining why the Belgian media spiked the story of the late King Baudouin's objections to the Belgian abortion bill. Since then I have never been given the opportunity to write for a Belgian newspaper again. Last summer I started The Brussels Journal, which some want to silence because political correctness is all they want the public to hear.
Following the recent murder of Joe Van Holsbeeck I wrote that citizens should be allowed the right to bear arms (specifically mentioning peppersprays) if the authorities are no longer able to guarantee public safety. according to Belgian law it is illegal to buy, possess and carry pepperspray, although this is a purely defensive weapon which, if Joe Van Holsbeeck had been allowed to use it, might have saved his life. On the other hand, while Belgian law forbids adults (anyone over eighteen years of age) to carry sports or hunting weapons without permits, they are allowed to buy and possess such weapons. In a reaction to Van Themsche's killings the Belgian government announced today that legislation will soon be voted to restrict the possession of weapons even further. However, there is a threat which is at least as dangerous to our society as weapons.
Like the Columbine School Massacre a few years ago in the US, Hans Van Themsche's killing spree is indicative of a society where young people have lost all respect for human life. Is it a coincidence that this should happen in a society that has lost respect for human life itself? Belgium has a very liberal abortion law and wants to extend its euthanasia legislation to minors and to the senile elderly (whose guardians will decide for them). Is it a coincidence that at the same time so many young people have also lost their faith in the future? They listen to Satanic and "goth” music, dress in black, shave their heads and write in farewell letters that "heaven does not exist.” Having lost faith in heaven, they then decide to turn the world into hell.
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