The following is a translation of an article by the lawyer Paul Tormenen for the identitarian think-tank Polémia. The numerous sources cited are detailed in the original article. This piece provides a solid overview of the tremendous demographic transformation which Belgium is undergoing and of the striking differences between European and Islamic migrants, the latter being markedly socially conservative and prone to unemployment. Entire neighborhoods such as Molenbeek have become unrecognizable and begging Gypsies have become a familiar sight on street corners.
If Belgium experienced waves of immigration in the 20th Century, the current wave is unique in its magnitude and the fact that it is “endured” by a part of the population. The ethnocentric demands and the radicalization of a fraction of the immigrant population has provoked differing reactions among the [French-speaking] Walloons and the [Dutch-speaking] Flemish. In Belgium, as in other European countries, the migratory and identitarian questions have become central to the country’s political life.
Between 2009 and 2011 alone, family reunification, which accounts for about half of residence permits, enabled 121,000 foreigners to legally settle in Belgium. A Belgian senator, Alain Destexhe, speaks of family reunification’s “domino effect,” because of the different ways it gives for family members to come from abroad.
Since 2007, the annual number of foreigners arriving in Belgium has always been over 100,000. In 25 years, the immigrant population (of foreign or Belgian nationality) has doubled. Annual growth of the foreign-origin population is estimated at between 1% and 5%. As of 1 January 2018, of Belgium’s 11.3 million inhabitants, 16.7% were born abroad (1.9 million people). These figures do not take into account unidentified illegals, nor the asylum-seekers who are registered on the waiting lists.
The concentration of foreigners is especially visible in the big cities. For example, in Brussels, foreigners are almost as numerous as Belgian citizens. The city of Antwerp now has more immigrants than natives.
“Belgium will become Arab”
This prediction did not come from a dangerous conspiracy-theorist. It was expressed by a journalist, Fawzia Zouari, in the pages of the magazine Jeune Afrique [“Young Africa”] to sum up “the Islamization of minds,” in particular among of the young generation of Muslims. Though the Muslim population remains a minority, its importance is indeed growing and especially is becoming visible. Islamization is visible in several ways: in beliefs, behaviors, religious practice, and political life.
A Shiite political party named “ISLAM” was formed in 2012. It calls for the imposition of Islam’s strictest teachings: no shaking of hands between men and women, banning of mixed-sex schools and public transport, the wearing of the headscarf from the age of 12, etc, as well as the imposition of Sharia law. This political party’s [initial] electoral results are for now “anything but ridiculous,” as noted by a journalist in the magazine Le Vif [breaking the 4% threshold in the notorious Brussels neighborhood of Molenbeek, for instance] and the strict conception of Islam is progressing in Belgium.
According to a 2017 study by a Belgian foundation, 33% of Belgian Muslims do not like “the West’s culture, customs, and way of life” (women’s autonomy, alcohol, eroticism, etc), whereas 29% consider that “the laws of Islam are superior to Belgian laws.” A 2011 study highlighted the anti-Semitism of about half of the Muslim high-school students in Brussels who were polled.
The State Security Service (the Belgian international intelligence agency) observed recently an increase in groups and activities linked to Salafism, Islam’s most radical branch. One hundred Salafist organizations have been counted on Belgian soil. The mayor of Brussels for his part asserted in 2017 that “all of the mosques [in Brussels] are in the hands of Salafists.”
Whereas the Kingdom of Belgium has been rocked by secessionist tendencies over the past decades, dividing Flemings and Walloons, the country is now confronted with new challenges: mass immigration and the rise of political-religious demands from a part of the Muslim community. The country’s cohesion is more than ever being put to the test.
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