They set fire to e-scooters, attacked police officers and smashed in car windows. Europe is discussing the Riots by Moroccan youth in Belgium and the Netherlands. After the Moroccan national team won against Belgium, they rioted in several cities on Sunday. The riots in the Belgian capital, Brussels, were particularly violent.
The big questions: What is behind the riots? And do such conditions also threaten in Germany?
The well-known migration researcher Ruud Koopmans (61, Humboldt University Berlin) sees the motive for the rioters: sheer hatred of the West!
► Koopmans told BILD that the riots were “part of a larger phenomenon that can be observed among people from Muslim countries all over Europe”: “Many of them grew up in a culture of hatred of the West.”
People are “shaped by anti-Western propaganda in mosques or by politicians and the media in their Arab home countries and therefore see the West as the enemy of Islam, which wants to destroy everything Muslim and oppress Muslims,” says Koopmans. “Many young migrants develop hatred of the West, seeing it as an enemy.”
They would “see themselves as victims of a worldwide fight against Islam.” As evidence for this worldview, “these young people see, for example, that western states support Israel”.
Koopmans: “If a country like Morocco wins against a western team in football, this hatred erupts in riots.” Nevertheless, Koopmans warns against overestimating the riots: They are “also part of simple football violence – and it has always existed .”
Expert: Riots also possible in Germany!
In Belgium there is a large Moroccan community that is very divided: “One part is well integrated, another part hardly. The riots in Brussels show that. Many young people of Moroccan origin do not identify with the country they live in at all: the rioters have torn Belgian flags from balconies and attacked police officers. This shows a deep hatred of the state. The well-integrated part of the Moroccan community, on the other hand, is shocked by the riots. Many people have distanced themselves online.”
Koopmans is convinced: “Comparable riots would also be possible in Germany.” Because some migrants also felt “hatred of the state in which they live and feel like victims, for example in the large Turkish community”. The Turkish President Erdogan also feeds “the story of the oppressed Muslims” again and again in his speeches.
A worrying warning…
