2023-12-12 06:30:00
This is a cowardly act of provocation. Anonymous, without physical damage, without individual target but which leaves an unhealthy atmosphere and insecurity within the Muslim community. On The Islamophobic provocation was unleashed in the middle of a public space, at the Stib Paduwa stop. The object is not large or easily visible and? unlike racist, Islamophobic or anti-Semitic tags, broken windows or damaged statues, it is difficult to report it in order to call in a cleaning service for a piece of bone. Neither the socialist mayor Ridouane Chahid nor the Brussels North police zone were aware of this.
Anonymous letters in mosques
This is because these muffled noises are gaining ground in Brussels. “In 40 or 50 years of activism, I have never seen this,” laments the president of the president of the Collective for Inclusion and against Islamophobia in Belgium (CIIB), Mustapha Chairi. People in the Muslim community are afraid, there is permanent tension which continues to increase.”
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If usually, the CIIB lists the majority of reports in September at the start of the school year and during the recruitment period, another unhealthy atmosphere looms this year. “In schools, there is a hunt for certain behaviors and certain ideas about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the street, acts often take place against women who are spat on or insulted.” But after October 7, there was a resurgence of Islamophobia in the capital. “Some mosques have received threats, these are anonymous letters. The comments are rather classic, there are threats to close the mosque, to set it on fire… Today I have the feeling more than ever that nothing can stop a person from committing the act. The animosity is at its peak.”
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A dangerous political and media context
How can we explain such acts in a multicultural city like Brussels? For Mustapha Chairi, this resurgence cannot only be explained by geopolitical news. “The elections are here, we are trying to be the worst bastard to create hatred for our neighbors. It worked in Italy, the Netherlands, Argentina… There is an exploitation of hatred by party presidents and the central power of the State is so disarmed that debates now take place on Twitter.” The political spectrum is, in the eyes of the activist, just one factor among others. “In the media, many columnists reproduce what is happening in France.”
For the activist, this context allows “the ordinary citizen who is cracking to gain confidence in his ideas” and push him to take actions like the one that occurred this Monday morning in Evere. “It also means that it can happen everywhere, all the time…”
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