Up to 6% of Belgians are Muslims and they will also be engaging in the feast. This means throughout the day, they are not permitted to eat or drink anything, smoking cigarettes or engage in any sexual activity, from dawn to sunset; Even if you take medication, you must swallow a pill dry (some exceptions are made). This is no easy feat, especially since summer has seem to come early this year in Belgium with this really hot weather over the past few weeks. However, when the sun has set and the evening comings, then they are allowed to and drink as they please, with many often feasting after a long day fasting.

Children and the elderly are excused from practising Ramadan as they may be too weak without the sustenance, and the kids will need the attention for their time at school. But for all those participating in this spiritual month, Ramadan Mubarak!

The post Ramadan in Belgium appeared first on Brussels Express.

First came a Belgian parliamentary report on “Islamic radicalism: The Grand Mosque of Brussels in the Dock”. One of the areas under investigation was the role of the Grand Mosque and Cultural Islamic Centre in Brussels which, said Brussels based rights activist Willy Fautre, give “real cause for concern.”

Secondly, Belgian Federal migration minister Theo Francken has appealed to Belgium’s supreme administative court to overturn a decision that allows the imam of Brussels’ Great Mosque to stay in the country.

Francken wants the Council of State to rule against Belgium’s Foreign Disputes Council, which this week concluded that Abdelhadi Sewif’s residency permit should not be withdrawn because there was a lack of evidence that he posed a serious threat to society.

The migration minister announced last month that Sewif’s permission to stay in Belgium would be revoked, claiming security services had “very clear” signals that “he is a follower of Salafism, radicalised, very conservative and dangerous to our society and our national security”. Francken said: « We are sure of our facts, Salafists are not welcome. Whatever he may claim, we have reliable intelligence from security experts. »

Fautre,director of HRWF, speaking last week, said the parliamentary inquiry into the Brussels attacks had criticised the mosque authorities for refusing to register it under Belgian law. The results of an investigation by the Belgian parliament into the twin terrorist atrocity which killed 31 and injured 250 in Brussels left question marks against the mosque he concluded.

Back in March 2016, Brussels was hit by a double terrorist attempt in which 31 people lost their lives and more than 250 were injured.

In the aftermath of this tragedy, the Belgian federal parliament put in place a parliamentary inquiry commission which delivered four intermediary reports. The first three reports published on 3rd August 2016, 4th May 2017 and 15th June 2017 dealt with the various aspects of the management of the crisis on the day of the attacks, the assistance to victims during and after the crisis, and an analysis of the security architecture.

The 4th intermediary report (205 pages) published on 23rd October 2017 addressed a number of issues

The second chapter of the last intermediary parliamentary report questions the role of the Grand Mosque of Brussels. The mosque occupies a corner in parc cinquantenaire but real questions are now being asked about its future.

First of all, though, some historical context is worthwhile.

In 1968 Belgium recognized the Islamic and Cultural Centre (ICC) as the representative platform of the Muslims and Islam of Belgium.

One year later, the Belgian government signed a convention granting the ICC, then represented by the ambassadors of Saudi Arabia and Morocco, the use of a building (that the Grand Mosque of Belgium [GMB] now occupies) for 99 years.

 In 1978, the new Islamic and Cultural Center of Belgium (CICB) was inaugurated, taking over the role of the ICC. The building complex now accommodates not only the Grand mosque but also a school, and a research and training centre on Islam and the Arabic language.

For years the Grand Mosque of Brussels has been accused of propagating Wahhabism and Salafism in Belgium.

In its fourth intermediary report, the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission writes that it first heard Mr. Galaye N’Diaye, the GMB imam, and Mr. Jamel Saleh Momenah, director of the Cultural Islamic Centre of Brussels (CICB).

According to Fautre as they did not know any of the Belgian national languages, they expressed themselves in English during the hearing. Both of them denied being Wahhabis or Salafists.

The GMB imam noted that he was teaching Salaf Islam, the doctrine of the first three generations of Islam, but not Salafism, another current which led to the movements in Saudi Arabia… He claimed that he was preaching a moderate Islam.

Other actors and experts heard by the commission shared a different view about the activities of the GMB, says Fautre.

“There was a consensus among them to say that the Islam promoted by the GMB and the CICB is from the Wahhabi-Salafist current with a strong influence of the worldview of the Muslim Brotherhood. The doctrine of the Wahhabi-Salafists is literalist in its interpretation of the sacred texts, extremely normative culturally and exclusivist concerning other visions of Islam,” he said. “Their conception of Islam refuses any compromise and claims total engagement of their adherents. It rejects “the others” who do not share it and creates a ghetto mentality ». 

It rejects Sufism, the saints’ worship, esoteric currents, the juridical schools and doctrines that have their own particularities in the interpretation of the Quran. The Wahhabi-Salafist project has political objectives at the national and international level. In Belgium it aims to unify the various Sunni communities around their interpretation of Islam.”

Concerning the respect of human rights, the representatives of the GMB and the CICB answered “Obviously, we will always respect Belgian laws. This has always been one of our priorities.” 

However, when asked about the compatibility between the Cairo Declaration (asserting the supremacy of the sharia) and the European Convention on human rights, they said they did not know the European Convention but they would examine it without any delay.

However, according to experts heard by the commission, the rejection of certain universal values is consubstantial with the Islam taught by that mosque as, by definition, they rely on the divine laws from which sharia proceeds.

According to the GMB/CICB representatives, their teachers come from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Senegal, and Gambia, amongst other places. They train future theologians, not imams, and for those who want to study Islam in Saudi Arabia, the ambassador, who is the president of the CICB, is instrumental in providing them with a visa.

It is not difficult to imagine what sort of Islam and sharia they want to learn and will learn in Saudi Arabia before coming back to Belgium or to another EU member state.

In the past, the CICB was in charge of designating teachers for the Muslim classes in public schools in Belgium and also organized the massive distribution of writings on Islam with a radical connotation.

This has resulted in a significant impact on Islam in Belgium and on many Muslims. Since the 1990s, the Executive of the Muslims of Belgium (EMB), the official interlocutor of the Belgian state, has been in charge of the Muslim religion classes in public schools.

The GMB and the CICB continue to play a key role in the life of many Muslims in Belgium. The permits issued to those who slaughter animals for religious purposes, the registration of conversions to Islam, and the distribution of grants are still among the privileged competences that the GMB and CICB hold.

The average annual budget of the CICB/GMB for the last four years was approximately €1,433,000 (which does not include donations in nature): 65% to 75% of their budget comes from the controversial World Islamic League (WIL) which has its seat in Saudi Arabia and whose Secretary General is the former Minister of Justice of Saudi Arabia.

Last but not least, the GMB has never asked to be officially recognized by the Belgian State.  Fautre concludes: “This unwillingness raises a number of concerns among the members of the Belgian Parliament as many areas in its activities remain opaque and outside the control of the authorities.”

The post The Grand Mosque in Brussels at the centre of a storm appeared first on Brussels Express.

That was one of the key messages to emerge from a hearing in the European Parliament on the ongoing threat from radicalisation.

The debate on Tuesday was organised by TRENDS Research and Advisory, Human Rights Without Frontiers and the European Foundation for Democracy. It sought to explore the drivers behind radicalisation in Europe and its impact on the EU’s neighourhood countries, including the Western Balkans.

Opening the discussion, Croatian MEP Marijana Petir voiced particular concern about the trend, “especially apparent” in BiH, to “hijack the ethnic identities” of Bosnians and Albanians. She said, “Each are rich with centuries of tradition and a culture of tolerance but the overarching goal of militant Salafism in the region is to reduce them to nothing more than a single religious identity.” The region, she noted, is seen by terrorist organisations, including the so-called Islamic State, “for rest and recuperation or recruitment of new fighters, for their transfer to or from Western Europe and for the acquisition of weapons, ammunition and explosives.” Croatia, she told the hearing, has the longest border in the EU which “makes preventing and exterminating radicalisation all over Europe that more important.” And that many surburban areas in BiH, including Sarajevo, were “harbouring” Salafi settlements.

Wahhabi settlements on the Croanian border serve as a “recruitment and training centres”  for Islamist radicals “that will then benefit from visa-free and cross-border travel” to the rest of the EU.

She added, “That is why Croatia needs strong support from the EU to protect the external border. Only by identifying the problem, isolating it and making a plan of action can we assess this successfully.”

Her concerns were endorsed by another speaker, Richard Burchill, director of research at TRENDS, who said, “The attempts by these radical and extremist groups seek to squash the identity of other Muslims is simply wrong. We must have freedom of religion and religious expression. This has to be protected although, equally, that does not mean there should be a free-for-all.”

While welcoming the opportunity to openly debate the possible catalysts of radicalisation, Burchill also expressed a degree of pessimism, saying, “We have to realise that while we may defeat such people militarily that does not mean that the ideology they are peddling will simply go away because it will not.”

Further contribution came from Vesselin Valkanov, head of the Brussels office of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) who also shared other speakers’ concerns about the growth of radicalisation and extremism in the Western Balkans. He also said the region was “totally unprepared” for the task of trying to rehabilitate locals who, having left to fight for IS in Syria, had now returned home. He agreed that Muslims in the region were now being targeted, saying, “The radicals are, indeed, trying to hijack the identity of Muslims. They are trying to reduce their identity of what the extremists call an ‘authentic’ version of Islam. This is a very pernicious development.”

Valkanov told the packed gathering that the focus of the incoming Bulgarian presidency of the EU will be the Western Balkans. He also pointed to several iniatives by the RCC to tackle these and other related issues, citing as an example the creation of a ‘religious platform’ designed to counter the spread of radicalisation.

The Grand Mosque in Brussels: real cause for concern

Willy Fautre, director of HRWF, told the debate the results of an investigation by the Belgian parliament into the twin terrorist atrocity which killed 31 and injured 250 in Brussels in March 2016. One of the areas under investigation was the role of the Grand Mosque and Cultural Islamic Centre in Brussels which, said Fautre, gave “real cause for concern.”

Fautre said the parliamentary inquiry into the Brussels attacks had criticised the mosque authorities for refusing to register it under Belgian law, adding, “Registration means coming under some sort of control. You can only assume the reason they continue to refuse to register is because they do not want to be open and transparent.”

Magnus Norell, of the European Foundation for Democracy, spoke about the current situation in his native Sweden which itself was hit by a terrorist attack earlier this year.

He said that there was a thin dividing line to be straddled in the debate about Islamist radicalisation, saying, “There is the danger of, on the one hand, being branded a racist and, on the other, accused of being too lenient. In Sweden, for example, there is still a reluctance to talk about these issues. While Belgium has produced four official reports into the 2016 attacks Sweden, so far, has produced none on the attack that happened in April this year.”

In a question and answer session that followed the main debate, Fautre pointed out that it was not only the Grand Mosque in Brussels that was not registered with the Belgian authorities.

He said, “There are others in Belgium as well. One of the reasons, clearly, is that they do not wish to be transparent about their finances.”

The Grand Mosque, he said, has an annual budget of some €1.4m but has been accused of propagating Wahhabism and Salafism in Belgium.  Wahhabsism proposes a radical view of Islam and “the others” who do not share Wahhabi ideas.

The post Growing concern on the Grand Mosque in Brussels and Islamic radicalisation in Europe appeared first on Brussels Express.

The panelists present, who offered different points of view and analysis on the topic, were: Dr. David Courey, Dean of Graduate Studies and History Professor at the Continental Theological Seminary, Brussels; Anne-Joelle Philippart, Accreditation & Quality Manager at HEC Management School – University of Liege; and Rev. Daniel Costanza, Pastor at Christian Center Brussels and Executive Director of the Pentecostal European Fellowship. Although not all of them were Protestant, they all shared a common interest for Luther and a strong religious belief that, in a way, monopolized the conversation and offered a unanimous point of view. Although interesting, the conference could have used a more laic approach, focused more on the history and sociological impact of Luther’s achievement in society, stressing more the changes adopted and the repercussions on today’s lifestyle and religion, rather than personal belief.

Dr Courey started the session, affirming that Martin Luther for him is a model, the human representation of the end of the dark ages and the beginning of the modern era. The monk revolutioned the approach to the Bible, translating the text from Latin to German and printing it, making it more present and accessible for the believers. In this way, he gave back power to the single man, to the individual, reshaping his relation with society and religion. What before was an anonymous element of a group, of a crowd, was now more affirmed and independent, and could have a deeper and more direct access to his faith, with less intermediaries or obstacles. For Dr Courey, Luther had the incredible courage to stand up in front of the system, adopting fundamental changes that would have consistently change people’s approach to the Church. He acknowledged the power of the human conscience, for which no one can be compelled to believe or act in a certain way, when faith is involved.

Anne-Joelle Philippart adopted a more personal and sociological approach to the topic, observing how Luther seized the perfect moment for his reform. He acted in a time in which the invention of the printing system and the growing accessibility to knowledge through universities made it possible to people to get closer to the sacred text and develop a more personal and deep reading of its meaning. Philippart underlined how fundamental this trait was, and still is, in the comparison of the Catholic and Protestant approaches: she believes that the Protestant faith quite supports the debating or the critical reading of the texts, inviting people to interpret the Bible by themselves, questioning its books. For Anne-Joelle, these elements make the faith itself and the relationship with religion stronger and healthier, since the believer has to actively work to develop and enrich his or her own commitment.

Lastly, the Reverend Daniel Costanza described the impact Martin Luther had on his personal life, remembering how his name and achievements marked his adult life. The Reverend remembered once again how fundamental Luther’s idea has been in reshaping the approach and understanding of the Bible. He noted that it has been a simple, but revolutionary idea translating the text and making it more available for the population. That has given to common people the power to stand up in front of the Church and “speak the truth of god”, affirming a more personal and direct contact with the supernatural entity.

The conference did not focus too much on Martin Luther’s impact on nowadays society, and did not go too much in depth on his legacy and impact on today’s life. Nonetheless, it offered some food for though and definitively triggered curiosity towards the achievements and ideas of Martin Luther.

The post The legacy of Martin Luther appeared first on Brussels Express.