The Many Faces of Belgian Fascism

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Tue, 2006-08-22 10:46

A quote from Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal, 22 August 2006

There is also the amazing case of journalist Paul Belien, who edits the Brussels Journal, a pro-American, Euroskeptic, anti-Islamist blog. In February, the blog was one of the few news sources to republish the notorious Danish cartoons of the prophet Mohammad, thereby attracting some two million unique visits. It also attracted extraordinary scrutiny from the Flemish newsweekly Knack. Noting that Mr. Belien's blog had been cited by Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes, Knack described the link as "no coincidence," but rather a "deliberate provocation by the neocons," the ultimate aim of which was to make Americans and Europeans believe "that all Muslims are violent and dangerous, after which the clash in Palestine, Iran and Syria can really kick off."

But that was as nothing compared to the reaction Mr. Belien provoked by an article following the Van Holsbeeck murder, in which he described the killers as "predators" and called for Belgium to decriminalize the possession of self-defense weapons (pepper-spray is what he says he had mainly in mind).

Two weeks after the article appeared, Mr. Belien received a letter from the Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism, a government-mandated body whose mission is to "assist victims of discrimination" and "sensitize the general public on anti-discrimination." (Belgium has one of the strongest anti-discrimination regimes anywhere.) Mr. Belien's article, according to the CEOOR, constituted an "incitement to violence"; he was ordered to remove it from his blog or face state prosecution. He complied. In the meantime, he says he received emails with pictures of burned corpses and messages reading, "This is what is going to happen to you."

Mr. Belien has since been questioned by the police for homeschooling his five children, four of whom have moved on to university or beyond. Part of Mr. Belien's problem, surely, is that his wife is a member in parliament for the Vlaams Belang. But whatever her politics, Mr. Belien is not a member of the party, and nothing on the Brussels Journal suggests that it is a party vehicle. His chief crime, rather, seems to be that he has laid bare, to an English-speaking audience, the lesser-known charms of the Belgian state.

More murders in Belgium than in U.S? Wrong!

Submitted by futtta on Mon, 2006-08-28 13:08.

As far as facts are concerned, the following in Mr. Stephens column is not correct;
"Belgium's per capita murder rate, at 9.1 per 100,000 is nearly twice that of the U.S."

After some websearching, this figure proved wrong: it is based on statistics that include attempted -i.e. unsuccesful- murders. Indeed, in 2005 there were 174 'succesful' murders, as opposed to 770 unsuccesful attempts (source: figures in a french-language pdf from the site of the Belgian police. See page 2 under "Infr. contre l'integrite physique", where 'Acc.' stands for succesful and 'Tent.' for attempted, unsuccesful). The correct ratio (when assuming 10,5 million inhabitants) per 100.000 is 1,7 and not 9,1. And 1,7 is -not coincidently- the exact number a UN-report mentioned for homicide-ratio in 1996 in Belgium (as seen on http://www.haciendapub.com/stolinsky.html).

This means that the correct comparison between murder rates in Belgium and the USA (5,5/100.000 in 2004, cfr. http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm) is not 'Belgium's per capita murder rate is nearly twice that of the USA' but '... is 3 times lower than that of the USA', which off course places the "pervasive and growing sense of lawlessness" he mentions in an entirely different perspective.

It is a pity that, being the high-profile journalist he is, Mr. Stephens did not check the 'facts' in his editorial better than he did.

Social "justice"

Submitted by Kapitein Andre on Wed, 2006-08-23 06:23.

Belgium is a state containing two relatively distinct and indigenous nations - Flemings and Walloons - evidence of a historical and at-best vague demarcation line between Teuton and Gallo-Roman...

Perhaps in the interests of national self-determination, Belgium will be split along these lines, similar to the former Czechoslovakia. Perhaps not.

However, Belgium is under no obligation to accept foreign immigrants, least of all non-Europeans. In fact, promoting multiculturalism and political correctness, the former eroding nationality, the latter suppressing nationalism is an act of sabotage against the Belgian people. At best, with their small population, Belgians will become disenfranchised; at worst endure a Yugoslavia-like experience outcome uncertain.

At present, the Baltic republics and Kazakhstan are dealing with forced colonization, Russification, and re-settlement wrought during the Soviet era. Conflicts along ethno-national lines are on the increase and comprise the majority of conflicts today.

Whether it is the Republicans and their admittance of Hispanic illegal aliens, or the SPD attempting to assimilate Germany's Turks, politicians at all levels and from all parties must realize that the state is nothing without the nation. All attempts at civil society will result in the disenfranchizement, marginalization, and atomization of the native people and the fracturing of society by the newcomers according to foreign loyalties...

I may not agree with the Christian Right, however, the suppression of free speech w.r.t. nationalism is an act of treason against the nation, which I might add, is older than liberalism, democracy, and in some cases even organized religion...