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. Last week another request was turned down. Freddy Thielemans, the Mayor of Brussels, prohibited a demonstration against the Islamization of Europe, planned to be held next September 11 in front of the European Parliament buildings. Mayor Thielemans is worried that the demonstration will upset the large immigrant population of Brussels. Over half the inhabitants of the Brussels region are of foreign origin, many of them from Morocco. According to the mayor there is a real danger of violence between demonstrators and Muslims living in the neighbourhood. The latter might not tolerate native Europeans protesting against their continent becoming Eurabia.
Thielemans is a member of the Parti Socialiste (PS), a Belgian party which caters for the Muslim population. The PS is the largest party in Brussels, holding 17 of the 47 seats in the city council. 10 of the 17 PS-councillors are Muslims. The PS governs Brussels in a coalition with the Christian-Democrats, who have 11 councillors, of whom 2 are Muslims and 3 are immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa. Only 13 of the 28 councillors in the governing coalition of the city are native Belgians. Thielemans is the most conspicuous of these. He is an atheist who is fond of Muslims, not because he respects religious people, but because he hates Christians. On 2 April 2005 the Brussels mayor was attending an official cocktail party with the mayor of Angoul™me (France), when the news of the death of Pope John Paul II reached him. On hearing the news he ordered "Champagne for everyone!" His French colleague walked out in disgust. Upsetting Catholics has never particularly worried the Socialist mayor of Brussels, for instance when he refused to ban a play (by a Moroccan-born author) which was advertised around the country on posters portraying the Virgin Mary with bare breasts.
In Mr. Thielemans's absence his deputy, Algerian-born Faouzia Hariche, is Brussels' acting mayor -- which is an improvement. Hariche, too, obviously, is Muslim-friendly, but she has never publicly toasted the death of the Pope.
Last Spring, the Danish group Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark (siad.dk/) (SIAD), the British group Stop the Islamisation of Europe (sioe.wordpress.com) (SIOE) and the German group Pax Europa (www.akte-islam.de/1.html), whose logo includes the flag of the multiculturalist EU, decided to organize a protest march against the introduction of Sharia laws in Europe. The organizers want the march to take place on 9/11 in the streets of Brussels and to end in front of the EU Parliament. There, the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, will be commemorated with one minute of silence.
The initiative was announced on various blogs, but there did not seem to be a contact in Belgium who was responsible for its organization. It seemed as if the march was being organized exclusively in cyberspace, with no preparations being made in Brussels itself. The organizers announced on their blogs that 20,000 demonstrators from all over Europe had announced their intention to come to Brussels. In mid-July we visited the European Parliament buildings and its vicinity with an international delegation from the Center for Vigilant Freedom (www.vigilantfreedom.org). CVF is sympathetic towards the demonstration, but wanted more information. We wondered how the Luxemburg Plaza in front of the parliament buildings, where construction work is still being carried out, could fit the masses which were announced to show up. European protest demonstrations usually end near the Berlaymont building, the European Commission's headquarters, and the adjacent Cinquantenaire Park.
Up until last week the Belgian press had made no mention of the march. Last Thursday, however, Mayor Thielemans banned the demonstration. A local joke has it that the mayor cannot allow a demonstration on his 63rd birthday (Thielemans was born on Sept. 11, 1944) because he fears that if the pope dies on his birthday it will cost him a fortune to offer "champagne for everyone." That would be no big deal in a city where the many Muslims do not drink alcohol, but with 20,000 non-Islamic visitors in town the mayor might bankrupt himself on champagne.
Thielemans' decision prompted Filip Dewinter, one of the leaders of the Vlaams Belang, Belgium's major (and Europe's most successful) "Islamophobic" and Eurosceptic party, to announce his intention to attend the demonstration. Dewinter, who (I am not making this up) is also celebrating his birthday on Sept. 11, is inviting everyone to come to the Luxemburg Plaza with him. "I will have my birthday party on the Luxemburg Plaza in front of the European Parliament. And no-one will be able to prevent me from being there and calling out slogans. Everyone is welcome."
The Danish-British-German organizers can lodge an appeal against the mayor's prohibition with the Belgian Council of State. The CoS may rule that the demonstration must be allowed to take place. Meanwhile an online petition, which everyone is invited to sign, asks the mayor to reconsider his decision. Thielemans' ban has turned the anti-Sharia demonstration into a huge publicity stunt, even if only a few people show up. The press will be there and the world will be watching -- if not a mass demonstration, Filip Dewinter celebrating his 45th birthday with a bottle of champagne. Meanwhile, Thielemans' decision has showed the world that Brussels, a city which does not allow peaceful Europeans to demonstrate and make their wishes known to the European authorities in town, is unworthy of being Europe's capital.
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