Thousands Protest Brussels MP3 Murder. BBC Omits Facts

From the desk of Paul Belien on Sun, 2006-04-23 22:36

Today, some 80,000 people participated in a silent march in Brussels to commemorate 17 year old Joe Van Holsbeeck, who was knifed on 12 April because he refused to hand over his MP3 player to two North African youths. The murder happened during the evening rush hour in a crowded Brussels central station. The murderers were filmed by security cameras, but it took a full week before the authorities released the footage. The assassins are still at large.

stille-mars.jpg

This BBC report about the march, which was the largest protest in the country since 1996 when 300,000 marched through Brussels in anger over the murdering of children, does not mention the ethnicity of the assassins, though many Belgians are worried about the extremely violent mentality of North African youth gangs. [update 24 April, 7:30am GMT: the BBC has added a few final paragraphs mentioning "racial tension"] In fact, the initiative for the march came from Fouad Ahidar, a Moroccan-born Flemish member of the Brussels regional parliament, who said last week that many immigrants are equally worried about violent Moroccan youth gangs.

Ahidar, a father of five, already called for a protest march on 15 April, saying that if the victims had been immigrants and not Belgians, “or even if an immigrant just gets a few kicks from police officers, half of Brussels would be on the streets in solidarity with the victim.” According to the Moroccan-born MP, anti-Belgian racism is rife among Muslim street gangs. “This murder stinks of racism,” he said. “There is a growing group of criminal Moroccan and Turkish youths who go after victims who look like infidels. We have to fight racism in all its varieties, whether by the immigrants or the native community.” What Ahidar says is common knowledge but only he may say so. If a native Belgian makes such comments he or she risks being taken to court for racism by the authorities’ racism watchdog CEOOR, an instrument used by the government parties to silence political opponents.

In response to Ahidar's appeal many immigrant organisations had called on their members to participate in the protest. Because the BBC report does not mention the ethnicity of the murderers it also has to omit the presence of immigrants in the protest. “There are many Muslims here,” imam Nordine Taouil told Flemish radio and television today. He stressed that many imams had called upon the faithful to be present. “We are here to show that we oppose violence.”

More on this topic:

Murder Shocks Brussels While PM and Cardinal Blame Victims, 19 April 2006 

Van Holsbeeck Murder: Bending Over Backwards in Brussels, 20 April 2006

The beeb didn't mention it

Submitted by jltbro on Thu, 2006-04-27 22:51.

The beeb didn't mention it because they were right! Unlike this publication, proper media outlets want to 'report impartial' news as opposed to spun and slanted views.

The assassins were Polish!

Submitted by cousin mary on Tue, 2006-04-25 09:36.

The assassins, dear commentators, weren't North-Africans or muslims, but Polish. Although that makes no difference whatsoever for poor Joe, I'm glad this new fact sheds a clear and hard light on the disgusting racist backbiting in this forum. This is not to say that there aren't any problems with North-Africans in Belgian cities. There àre problems in Brussels or Antwerp (but not in Ghent, for instance, while there is a substantial muslim minority in Ghent too). But it is now very clear that people like Paul Beliën WANT North-Africans to commit crimes, so they can denounce them more hatefully (Beliën calls them "predators") and destabilize our country.

I know that Beliën and his comrades often repeat that they say what the whole of Flanders thinks. Well, I àm Flemish, and I can tell you one thing: they don't speak for me. 

BBC 1 - Blogosphere 000000

Submitted by aphilion on Tue, 2006-04-25 09:12.

yes, the good old BBC didn't mention the nationality of the assassins, probably because their nationality wasn 't known (it's an old journalists ploy)... now they are known however, two polish youths .... It is well known that Poland is by far the mst Muslim country in all of Europe, right ?

Bayes' rule could have warned you for gaffes like this ......

Fouad ahidar expressed his

Submitted by Cogito on Mon, 2006-04-24 13:07.

Fouad ahidar expressed his thoughts freely, in a way a non-muslim would not be allowed to in Belgium without the threat of being prosecuted by the CGKR.

Already now it is a fact in belgium that only muslims have freedom of expression.

 

ROPMA

Submitted by Defender on Mon, 2006-04-24 09:25.

“There are many Muslims here,” imam Nordine Taouil told Flemish radio and television today. He stressed that many imams had called upon the faithful to be present. “We are here to show that we oppose violence.”

What a load of BS, their so called religion of peace condones the killing of infidels, the only reason they were there is because of the huge public outcry amongst native Belgians, the Muslims want to look sympathetic and keep their left wing allies, they won’t risk the native Belgians uniting in a righteous rage and start to fight the Islamic plaque that has infested their country.

VRT radio did omit the facts as well

Submitted by grumpy on Mon, 2006-04-24 08:51.

As far as I could hear, it was only after Ahidar's appeal (several days after the murder) that our "official" VRT radio mentioned the ethnicity of the murderers.

If you think this was the

Submitted by django on Mon, 2006-04-24 06:24.

If you think this was the largets march in Brsussles street since 1996, then yoy're worng. There have been gov plans for social reform (eg pension plans), and there were large strikes too ....