Slow Down, Please - the Transformation of Brussels

A view of the Great Market by IJsendoorn

What is Brussels (or Bruxelles, en français)?

If you are reading this site, you probably know that it's the capital of Belgium. But I'm sure most people worldwide wouldn't know that, and fewer could even find it on a map.

Nonetheless, it is a very important city. It is essentially the capital of the European Union, since the European Commission and the Council of the European Union, among other institutions, are headquartered there. It's also the location of NATO headquarters.

It's a very old European city, with a history going back to at least 695 A.D. But just in the last decade, the old is giving way to the new. The city's Muslim minority is rapidly becoming a majority.

Recently, a group called SIOE (stop the Islamisation of Europe) filed for permission to hold a demonstration on the anniversary of 9/11. According to them, the intention is not political, but to peacefully and safely:

"show the world that Europeans and others have had enough of Sharia by stealth and creeping Islamism".

They also have an online petition here. (BTW, I agree with their cause but I don't think this is the most eloquent slogan, and it probably sounds better in the author's native Danish)

In any case, the petition was denied. Brussels only denies about 5-6 out of 500-600 requests per year, and this was one of them because:

The risk for public order is too high”, said [Mayor Freddy Thielemans'] spokesperson Nicolas Dassonville. “There is a large foreign community in the vicinity, which might react violently. Moreover, the organization stated on their website they will use clearly Islamophobic language.” It can be found on the site that “the Muslims in Europe are trying to found parallel societies”

If he thinks that the latter claim is just "islamaphobic" propaganda, then obviously Mr. Dassonville doesn't read the newspapers much. I posted similar statements by European imams here on my web site, and these are but a few of many.

To be fair, the mayor does have some reason to be nervous. "Ramadan riots" by Muslim youths have become a tradition in Brussels. But it's ironic that Freddy Thielemans' camp calls SIOE "islamaphobic", when it is themselves who seem to automatically assume that the "foreign community" (i.e. Muslims) will react violently... Furthermore, this penchant for violence is one of the core reasons why this demonstration is long overdue!

But the mayor, whose socialist party currently controls the city government, may have other reasons for refusing the request. As one reader at "Gates of Vienna" points out, incredibly, 10 out of 18 of his fellow party members on the council have Islamic names, and if you want to dive into the full list of city councilors, there are plenty of Muslims there too.

The city is not a Muslim majority yet, but it is heading there. And the transformation is so recent that not even many Europeans know about it. In fact, I wonder if most Belgians even know about it. I was in a bookstore here in Germany yesterday looking at travel guides, and since Brussels is one of the few cities that I haven't had a chance to visit yet, I decided to look it up. In all their photos and descriptions of the city, not a single one depicted a Muslim or even mentioned them in any way whatsoever. The closest was one guide that said "es gibt fast 250.000 fremde Bewohner" (almost 250,000 foreigners) in the city, which isn't very specific.

Anyway, we can't rely on anecdotes. Reliable current information is hard to find, but a big clue is here at Belgium's official census site. If you look at the charts, you will see that "Mohamed" (the common spelling there) has been the single most popular boy's name in Brussels at least since the year 2000! Some might wonder if this is skewed, because all Muslim boys are named "Mohamed", right? So it makes a minority seem like a majority. Well, in a word, no. First of all, not all Muslim boys receive the name, and even of the ones that do, not all of them have it as their first name. Anyway, if you think it's a fluke, look over the rest of the list. In 2005 (the last year they show data), the top 5 boy's names were: "Mohamed", "Adam", "Ayoub", "Rayan", & "Mehdi". 4 out of the top 5 were Muslims.

Needless to say, when you write things like this, you come to expect that the most common criticism is that it's "racist", "hateful", "bigoted" or "anti-immigrant". And sometimes, that is right on target. But when you have the culture of an old European city, the very capital of Europe, transforming literally overnight, is it, by default, racist to ask that it simply be slowed down enough that society has the proper time to adjust and plan responsibly? Or enough time to even count them all? The rising crime rate, religious intolerance, and societal divisions are slowly mirroring the same conditions found in the nations that many Muslim immigrants are fleeing from.

Moreover, quick radical changes in a society are rarely productive, received well, or promote stability. There is plenty of room for Islam and Muslims in Europe, but I fear crowded Europe has already hit that saturation point a long time ago. Many people don't realize just how crowded it really is. Its population density is 112 people per sq. km, compared to 70 for nations like Morocco or Iran, or only 14 for Sudan. In fact, Sudan alone is so huge that it has half the land area that the entire European union has, with only 8% of its population size. It's time for Islamic nations to fix their social problems at home rather than exporting their people abroad.

Also, if you read French, a good article on this issue is here (a clumsy translation may be viewable here).




Interested in reading more? Click on any of the labels below to read related articles, bookmark this site, or subscribe to my  RSS Feed