Posted on 09/13/2007 9:30:12 AM PDT by Between the Lines
By John-Henry Westen
BRUSSELS, September 12, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A September 11 demonstration against the "Islamization of Europe", where protesters planned a moment of silence to commemorate the 9/11 tragedy in the United States, was banned by the Socialist mayor of Brussels Freddy Thielemans claiming he feared "chaos and security threats". Despite the ban, over 200 Belgians went ahead with a peaceful demonstration and joining them were the several prominent pro-life politicians.
What then transpired is something reminiscent of Tiananmen Square. Brussels Journal reporter Paul Belien who was at the scene describes the police brutality not only with words but with photos and video.
"Riot police units from Liege in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, maltreated the demonstrators, many of them from Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, in an excessively violent way," reports Belien.
On video police are seen brutalizing several politicians from the Vlaams Belang party and members of the European Parliament. Vlaams Belang (VB) is currently the second most important party in Flanders and one of the largest parties in the country.
VB supports natural marriage and family life through tax reform and opposes same-sex marriage and adoption by homosexual partners. VB also opposes abortion except in cases of rape or for medical threats to a mother's life and supports relaxation of the country's strict adoption laws. VB also proposes Flemish independence and in that respect is similar to Canada's Bloc Quebecois a large national party which proposes secession of Quebec.
Belien describes the scenes shown in the video:
"The grey-haired man whom we see being attacked by the police first is Luk Van Nieuwenhuysen, the Vice-President of the Flemish Parliament. Shortly afterwards we see the police maltreating Frank Vanhecke, a member of the European Parliament and the party leader of the Vlaams Belang. We see how he is handcuffed and pushed into a police bus. Afterwards we also see the police "taking care" of Filip Dewinter, the VB group leader in the Flemish Parliament."
See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR-J8cXYVIo&eurl=http%3A%...
Note how Dewinter's hand is beaten with a baton at the end of the video. The demonstrators were kept in cells for seven hours and released.
In this photo Vanhecke is seen held by police officers while one of them pinches his scrotum. "As they did so they shouted abuse such as "Sale Flamingant" (Dirty Flemish-secessionist)," reports Belien.
Flemish television reporter Goedele Devroy told a colleague that she was amazed by the brutality of the police against the peaceful demonstrators "who just stood there." She added: "This is strange because, when I rang the police this morning, they said that they would tolerate the demonstration if the demonstrators would not use violence and if they just remained put and would not try to march."
An Italian MEP and a French MEP were also arrested.
The Italian government has complained to the Belgian government about the arrest of Mario Borghezio, an Italian member of the European Parliament, protesting against the violation of his parliamentary immunity by the Belgians.
Belgian authorities have also heard a complaint from prominent Slovak politician Vladimir Palko. Palko, of the Slovak Christian-Democrat Party KDH, has written Alain Cools, ambassador of Belgium in Slovakia and publicly protested against the illegitimate use of force against peaceful demonstrators in Brussels.
In his open letter, Palko wrote: "Until today, I thought that something like this is possible only in Lukashenko's Belarus, in today's Europe. Moreover, I do not understand why it is forbidden in Brussels to demonstrate against islamization of Europe. Islamization of Europe is a serious problem. We can have various opinions and disagree about solutions needed, but it is highly important to freely discuss about them."
Concluding his letter, Palko wrote: "I hope that in future we will not hear about such events anymore and that European Union where we live together will be area of liberty, not a soft-tyranny."
To express concerns to the Belgian government:
Embassy of Belgium in Washington, United States 3330, Garfield Street N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 United States Phone: +1-202-333.69.00 Fax: +1-202-333.30.79 +1-202-333.54.57 Email: Washington@diplobel.org
General Consulate of Belgium in Toronto, Canada - 2, Bloor Street West, Suite 2006, Box 88, Toronto, Ontario M4W 3E2. Tel: 944.14.22, 944.14.23, 944.14.24 Fax: 944.14.21 E-mail: Toronto@diplobel.org
For Belgian embassies in other countries see this list:
http://www.learn4good.com/travel/belgium_embassies.htm ;
(c) Copyright: LifeSiteNews.com. Permission to republish is granted (with limitation*) but acknowledgement of source is *REQUIRED* (use LifeSiteNews.com).
A political faction colluding at the bringing in of immigrants in order to change the voting blocs in their favour. Yes, that could only happen in Europe /s
Sorry, read it wrong. I thought the protesters were against the U.S. In which case, you know, kick some ass and take names. But seeing as how they’re on our side, I’m appalled at this assault on free speech.
Understandable - it's takes a bit for a rational mind to wrap around this
To which we will reply....
Exactly!
If you like this, wait until President Hillary takes office.
“Oh, trust me, they’ll use the sword the second they feel strong enough.
They can’t help themselves.”
Agreed.
Anybody who doesn’t reach that conclusion hasn’t read:
“Jihad In The West”
by Paul Fregosi
Amazon.com listing:
http://www.amazon.com/Jihad-West-Muslim-Conquests-Centuries/dp/1573922471/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-0803763-7665449?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189705084&sr=1-1
If we cannot, and I suspect that we cannot, then we will know where we stand. The era of men in suits debating our future will have come to a close. We will be alone, abandoned by our traditional leaders and without a new leader of our own. But that is easily remedied. Once we know what we need to do, then we will do it and until we are forced to admit that this is our final recourse, it will be one we ignore. When the written word, speech, and the democratic process can no longer be relied upon to bring about change, then words will be replaced with physical deeds. We didnt start this, but by sheer weight of numbers we can finish it
... Do these socialist lunatics have any idea of our violent history? They appear to betting that we will not fight for territory, religion or culture. On this they are possibly right, but we will, surely, fight for our children. The idea that a continent of half a billion people will allow a handful of Communist manqués, in alliance with a very small minority (today) of bearded Nazis, to dictatorially browbeat us into submission, when we have the unarguable knowledge that our failure to retaliate will wreak destruction upon our children and grandchildren is simply too fantastical to possibly be true.
WTF? These people protesting are obviously not thugs - why would the LE be so treacherous???
The EU and its cabal of useful infidels..
I get the biggest thrill everytime I see your name. It’s only funny when it’s pronounced correctly, bwahahaha!
I read somewhere that the French ‘try to ignore’ the problem. Big mistake and I think they’re figuring that out.
“Sorry, read it wrong. I thought the protesters were against the U.S. In which case, you know, kick some ass and take names. But seeing as how theyre on our side, Im appalled at this assault on free speech.”
Hah, I am sure you meant this one to have a “/sarc.”
NO, the difference is NOT our side/their side.
The difference is that this was a PEACEFUL demonstration.
Nobody destroyed property, or threatened lives.
The official press coverage criticizes the protestors for carrying ‘national symbols’ - their country’s flag.
The only thing they did wrong was civil disobedience... they were refused a permit to hold their demo on the 9/11 anniversary in support of the US and the West. The same local government ALLOWED a MUSLIM ‘peace parade’ to CELEBRATE the killings of 9/11 on the preceding Sunday.
Further, as others have pointed out, the govt sent police/troops from the French/Flemish/socialist side of Belgium to put down their rivals, the Dutch/Walloon/capitalists - no doubt COUNTING on the resulting police brutality toward the peaceful protesters - including a Member of Parliament.
Now, I do see a double-standard there.
But it is not where you seemed to think...
Do you really think this action was fair?
Froufrou, see my #36. -Shaz
Oops, got the warring factions mixed up, see the following quote from the article:
“”Riot police units from Liege in Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium, maltreated the demonstrators, many of them from Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, in an excessively violent way,” reports Belien.”
(Paul Belien of The Brussels Journal, which keeps an eye on the EU.)
Gotcha. And doesn’t [location] have a right to peaceful assembly?
I mean, had they not applied for the declined permit, wouldn’t they have been free to ‘accidentally meet up and as a group invoke their disagreement upon the permitted group?
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