The Islam Party: A benign minority or a potential reality?

With two municipal councillors in two Brussels communes, the small Islam party has yet to appear for the international press after the presentation of their Sharia-inspired program.

The Islam Party is for “Integrity, solidarity, freedom, authenticity, morality“, so says the party, but those interpretations are of variable dimensions in the minds of its founders. They are hoping this rhetoric will help their 28 aspiring candidates around the country in winning communal elections.

Their program and manifesto is already extensively commented on – such as their perspective on sex-segregation on public transport.

The political landscape has actively taken interested in a sincere way to defy the fixed ideas of these ideologues, as Islam could make up the majority population in Belgium by 2030, and thus, finding a solution to these fringe ideas is pertenant.

But this party, just like other extremism, is revealed by its expression of an uneasiness. It shows a clear fringe of our populations who are exposed to socio-economic realities: educational deficit, deficit of the social fabric, lack of cultural and economic integration… It is here that a fertile ground for the blossoming of all absurd ideas, or even sordid ones which advocate inequality, the rejection, confinement, a dream of religious or ideological supremacy tinged with ethnicism and racism, are born.

In this respect, beyond calls for the prohibition, control, or even the rejection of a party, it is important that our democratic representatives take back their hands to provide a healthy representation of the aspirations of all citizens, and building a social project where everyone can find themselves at least partially, without exclusion, without caricature, without frustration or feeling of unfairness.