Posted on 05/07/2006 9:50:28 PM PDT by Murtyo
Today, some 80,000 people participated in a silent march in Brussels to commemorate 17 year old Joe Van Holsbeeck, who was knifed on 12 April because he refused to hand over his MP3 player to two North African youths. The murder happened during the evening rush hour in a crowded Brussels central station. The murderers were filmed by security cameras, but it took a full week before the authorities released the footage. The assassins are still at large.
This BBC report about the march, which was the largest protest in the country since 1996 when 300,000 marched through Brussels in anger over the murdering of children, does not mention the ethnicity of the assassins, though many Belgians are worried about the extremely violent mentality of North African youth gangs. [update 24 April, 7:30am GMT: the BBC has added a few final paragraphs mentioning "racial tension"] In fact, the initiative for the march came from Fouad Ahidar, a Moroccan-born Flemish member of the Brussels regional parliament, who said last week that many immigrants are equally worried about violent Moroccan youth gangs.
Ahidar, a father of five, already called for a protest march on 15 April, saying that if the victims had been immigrants and not Belgians, “or even if an immigrant just gets a few kicks from police officers, half of Brussels would be on the streets in solidarity with the victim.” According to the Moroccan-born MP, anti-Belgian racism is rife among Muslim street gangs. “This murder stinks of racism,” he said. “There is a growing group of criminal Moroccan and Turkish youths who go after victims who look like infidels. We have to fight racism in all its varieties, whether by the immigrants or the native community.” What Ahidar says is common knowledge but only he may say so. If a native Belgian makes such comments he or she risks being taken to court for racism by the authorities’ racism watchdog CEOOR, an instrument used by the government parties to silence political opponents.
In response to Ahidar's appeal many immigrant organisations had called on their members to participate in the protest. Because the BBC report does not mention the ethnicity of the murderers it also has to omit the presence of immigrants in the protest. “There are many Muslims here,” imam Nordine Taouil told Flemish radio and television today. He stressed that many imams had called upon the faithful to be present. “We are here to show that we oppose violence.”
Gee, I wonder if the killers are practicioners of the Religion of Peace? No, couldn't be! </sarc off>
I don't think it's racism. It's a religious war--especially from the perspective of the other side. Hyper-senstivity to race is an ailment of Western (and Far Eastern) societies. In many non-Western societies, and especially in Africa, the divisions are based more on religion and/or language, and not so much on race.
Booyah! Keyword add'd.
Just not enough, apparently, to call for immediate and unequivocal punishment of the killers...
Please check my message #6. It was not ROP this time. It is important to keep the discussion factual.
See post above. This case has caused untold grief to those who want to be able to discuss the flood of Middle Eastern/North African immigrants in Belgium - partly because the police and Justice Dept jumped to conclusions, but who will remember that one week hence?
Follow the story in the links I provided - very illuminating.
In that case... never mind.
They ought to do like Singapore and send in the Gurkhas!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha_Contingent
Ok, not this time. The fact that it was generally assumed that Asio-African immigrants were at fault says there's a fire behind all the smoke. Even the language you used ("not this time") shows that the issue is a sore point.
More importantly, my comments were more about the wrong framing of the issue of Asio-African immigration into Europe as being centrally about race. That's NOT how the immigrants themselves frame the issue. To them, the central issue is cultural, not racial.
Gypsies are absolute trash.
They would crowd our vehicles in Macedonia, and throw rocks /give the finger at us if we didn't give them money or MREs.
There certainly is a fire behind all that smoke. Why do you think even the police (very PC in Belgium) jumped to the wrong conclusion? But if you read the links I provided you'll see that the PC forces in Belgium will now try to use this case to stifle all discussion about illegal immigration and the (non-) assimilation of Muslim immigrants to Belgium - and Belgium is a micro-Europe, what is happening there, will happen or is already happening in the rest of Europe.
My own opinion is that Belgium is only just a democratic country (if that). I am not alone in thinking so:
Exactly. Infidel isn't a race.
Why do I have the feeling that this will show up in a Mark Steyn article?
Hyper-Guilt about race is sure a western ailment...a crippling one.
I have seen hypersensitivity about race in African and Afro-Caribbean socities.
It's a fixture for sure in Southern Africa and Haiti and the Dom Rep....Jamiaca less so.
shades of color it is....mulattos versus pure African....Haiti has battled that for two centuries now
The war on white Christians goes on...
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