Islamophobia Watch

Far-right groups are calling for a ban on the building of new mosques as part of a new campaign to stop the spread of radical Islam in Europe. Belgium's far-right Vlaams Belang party teamed up with radical groups from Austria and Germany on Thursday to launch a Charter to "fight the Islamisation of West-European cities".

"We are not opposed to freedom of religion but we don't want Muslims to impose their way of life and traditions over here because much of it is not compatible with our way of life," Vlaams Belang's Filip Dewinter told Radio Netherlands Worldwide. "We can't accept headscarves in our schools, forced marriages and the ritual slaughter of animals."

In particular, the coalition called for a moratorium on new mosques, which they say "act as catalysts for the Islamisation of entire neighbourhoods."

"We already have over 6,000 mosques in Europe, which are not only a place to worship but also a symbol of radicalisation, some financed by extreme groups in Saudi Arabia or Iran," Mr Dewinter explained, citing a large new mosque being built in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. "Its minarets are six floors high, higher than the illuminations of the Feyenoord soccer stadium!" he cried. "These kinds of symbols have to stop."

However, it is unclear how the group plans to tackle perceived threats such as the teaching of the Koran, apart from holding rallies in European cities with high immigrant populations.

Radio Netherlands, 17 January 2008

The four young men look unremarkable in Cologne's downtown pedestrian zone. Now and then they press a pamphlet into somebody's hand with a smile.

These young men handing out flyers work for an organization called "Pro Cologne". They are gathering support in the otherwise liberal-minded and open city of Cologne to protest an enormous mosque slated for construction in the district of Ehrenfeld. Around 300 members of Pro Cologne have collected more than 20,000 signatures, and a few unsavory characters on the German far right hope to use their success as a way to win seats in state parliaments.

With a new political party called "Pro NRW" (Pro North-Rhine Westphalia), stemming from the Pro Cologne movement, two leaders named Markus Beisicht and Manfred Rouhs want to win enough votes to enter the state parliament in 2010. About a dozen Pro Cologne spinoffs are already preparing local campaigns across the state – in Gelsenkirchen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen and Bottrop, among other places. Where no new mosques are being planned, Beisicht says, the party will just fight smaller existing mosques.

The methods of the anti-mosque movement have been studied by far-right groups in other countries, like Austria's FPÖ ("Austrian Freedom Party") and Belgium's Vlaams Belang ("Flemish Interest") party. In November, Markus Beisicht gave a special presentation on the Cologne movement to FPÖ members in Graz. "We will lead our fight across Europe," he told them, "whether it's in Graz, Cologne or Vienna." He's invited friends from the FPÖ, Vlaams Belang and France's National Front to a big "Anti-Islam Congress" in Cologne next September.

Spiegel Onlne, 3 January 2008

"Sitting in his office in Antwerp, Filip Dewinter says he wants to keep religion out of public life, protect free speech, promote democracy and ensure the equality of men and women.

"He talks like a progressive. But as head of the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party, which gets 20 per cent of the votes in the Flemish half of Belgium, he is one of the most far-right politicians in Europe. His adviser hands me a leaflet showing a minaret with a red line through it. 'Stop Islamising', the slogan demands. 'No mosques in our neighbourhood.' ...

"Islam is the greatest challenge to old politics since the fall of communism. It has scrambled categories of right and left. The right steals the left's language to allege that Muslims do not fit in because they do not respect Western values of pluralism, women's rights and even gay rights....

"The populist Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn was often labelled right-wing but said, fairly or unfairly, that he was hostile to Islam because he did not want to 'have to go through the emancipation of women and homosexuals all over again'. He entered politics partly out of rage at young Muslim men smashing the windows of his gay bar.

"Left liberals, meanwhile, are thrown into confusion, or worse. In 2004, the left-wing Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, hosted a visit by Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Muslim cleric whose fatwas endorse wife-beating and the murder of homosexuals....

"The left rightly points out that most Muslims are not extremist. Yet it is so afraid of appearing racist or asserting Western cultural superiority that it seems unable to acknowledge any problems associated with the Muslim faith at all....

"Responding to both radical and fundamentalist forms of Islam gives the democratic left a chance to rediscover its core beliefs. It should not cede ownership of Western values to the right, values that the left fought for centuries to create."

James Button in the Sydney Morning Herald, 22 October 2007

ANTWERP – Followers of right wing party Vlaams Belang gathered on Thursday evening to protest the construction of a new mosque in the Antwerp district of Deurne. Police say about 150 people with banners and protest signs gathered at the Boterlaarbaan, the planned site for the mosque, at about 7.30 pm last night.

The protestors' message was loud and clear as expressed by prominent VB member Filip Dewinter. He shouted slogans like "Adapt or go back where you came from" through a megaphone. The protest is part of a larger campaign started by the VB a few weeks ago calling for a stop to the "further Islamisation of Antwerp." Banners with the slogans "Keep Europe European" and "Keep Muslims out" were carried as well.

Expatica, 5 October 2007

BRUSSELS – Extreme right wing Vlaams Belang is going to launch a campaign to "stop Islamisation," first in Antwerp and later in other cities. The party is calling for a stop to the registration of newcomers in the city, a restriction on the number of mosques, and the expulsion of radical imams.

VB faction leader in the Flemish Parliament Filip Dewinter says that Islam is pursuing a deliberate strategy to conquer Flemish cities. That is being done through increasing concentration, the formation of ghettos, and the refusal to integrate, he says. More and more native Belgians are leaving the cities and the government is making the situation worse, Dewinter says. "Allah is great and Patrick Janssens [Socialist Party mayor of Antwerp] is his prophet. He keeps giving in on essential issues and is not putting a stop to the Islamisation of our city," Dewinter says.

Vlaams Belang wants to put a stop to immigration to Antwerp and encourage voluntary repatriation. In addition Vlaams Belang wants Islam to be scrapped as a recognised religion and that any subsidies be stopped.

"Personal religious observance should be free, also for Muslims, but we do not think that a sort of Islamic pillar of society should be created in our country to which we have to make all sorts of concessions, like segregated swimming areas and halal food in public schools," Dewinter says. "Islam must adapt to our way of life, not the other way round ", Dewinter stressed.

Expatica, 20 September 2007

Dewinter's initiative is enthusiastically received by fascists in the UK.

See BNP Regional Voices, 21 September 2007

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Police arrested two leaders of a Belgian far-right party Tuesday for staging an illegal protest against the "Islamization of Europe," six years to the day after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Police scuffled with some of the 200 people who converged on two squares in the EU district of Brussels to protest against what they perceived as the rise of Islam as a significant political force across Europe. Officers handcuffed two leaders of the far-right Flemish Interest Party, which is very critical of Muslim immigrants, and took them away in police vans.

Protesters sought to use the Sept. 11 anniversary to point out that Islam threatens democracy and the rule of law in Europe. The demonstration was initially planned by Stop Islamization of Europe, a loose alliance with roots in Germany, Britain and Denmark, which had predicted that 20,000 people would come to Brussels from all over Europe. Brussels Mayor Freddy Thielemans banned the protest last month, calling SIOE an inflammatory group and its proposed demonstration a threat to public order. An appeals court upheld the ban Aug. 29.

Only 200 or so protesters showed up Tuesday for a protest lasting only 30 minutes. The demonstrators faced more than 100 police, backed up by water cannons and helicopters, who closed off streets around the EU headquarters.

"We support the goals of the demonstration to protest against the lack of freedom of expression in this country," said Frank Vanhecke, the head of the Flemish Interest Party, before he was bundled off to the police station. "And we also we fully agree that the rise of Islam in Europe poses a risk to our values."

Associated Press, 11 September 2007

The British National Party declares its solidarity with its far-right co-thinkers in Brussels, and warns: "Europe looks set for more of these kinds of protests as decent European patriots become more and more frustrated and angered by the endless appeasement by liberal-leftists in positions of power and influence."

BNP news article, 11 September 2007

"Have European leaders really accepted dhimmitude, the semi-slave status non-Muslims are compelled to live in under strict Islamist law?  It appears so."

Stefania Lapenna at Human Events, 10 September 2007

Remember the "Muslims want ban on Easter eggs" nonsense from Belgium? Here's Diana West's take on this ridiculous, concocted story:

"Clearly, Antwerp's Muslim population (or some sizable portion thereof) rejects the right of the native Christian culture to express itself in terms of its traditional symbols. But what does it mean if post-Christian Antwerp accedes to this Muslim 'demand'?" Well, of course, "it will mean that another outpost of the West will have agreed to strip itself of the defining symbols of its own identity"!

Washington Times, 24 August 2007

Expatica quotes Antwerp trade union representative Badia Miri, one of seven Muslim women employed by the city of Antwerp who were forced to remove their headscarves, as saying: "The Antwerp city government says that neutrality is endangered if staff wear a cross or headscarf. But in our experience action has only been taken against the Muslim women. If the city government is really concerned about neutrality, then Christmas trees and Easter eggs should no longer be allowed at work."

And how does Expatica report this? In an article headlined "Muslims want ban on Easter eggs"!

Update: the "story" has now been taken up by the fascists: BNP regional news, 23 August 2007

Residents in the Belgian capital have gathered to demonstrate their support of Islamic hijab as a freedom of choice for Muslim European women. Demonstrators took part in protests in Brussels Saturday against a decision by several school authorities to ban hijab, the Al Alam news channel reported.

Among the protestors were members of Islamic organizations, independent human rights groups and Muslim students. The demonstrators condemned what they said is an anti-Islam stance taken by officials in Belgium and supported the right of Muslims to freely practice the customs of their religion.

Press TV, 10 June 2007