The municipality of Molenbeek has awarded 'honorary citizenship' to a group of young people who organised a series of initiatives in response to a racially-motivated rampage through the municipality by a section of Club Brugge fans.
In the build-up to last season's Belgian Cup final, hooligans supporting the West-Flemish club who were being escorted to the King Baudouin Stadium crossed into residential areas of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean and Jette. The group of fans went on to smash shop windows, attack people, and intimidate and spit at passers-by, Belga News Agency reported.
According to RTBF, several of the individuals chanted "We're going to kill you, this will be your last day" and "Go back to your country" as they raided through the municipality. Violent clashes also took place after several young people from the area attacked the hooligans in retaliation.
"They were not provoked. They were looking for a fight, since they could have reached the stadium without going through that neighbouhood," commented Philippe Close, the mayor of the City of Brussels, after the incidents. "The correct way to describe what happened on Sunday in Molenbeek is a racist attack."
Club Brugge themselves later released a statement condemning the "so-called supporters who ran riot in the streets of Brussels and around the stadium."
'In our country, there are no second-class citizens'
In the wake of the attacks, a group of local young people founded the 'Je suis la Belgique / Ik ben België' collective, which was initially focused on helping the local victims. They later decided to create two mosaics out of the pieces of broken tiles and shop windows.
The idea behind the mosaics, the group explained to RTBF, came when they helped clean up the Brico Ben shop, which had been ransacked by the hooligans. The collective then organised workshops with professional artists to create the two artworks with the pieces of broken tiles they had picked up.
The 'Union' mosaic at Rue de Mexico / Credit: @catherine_moureaux on Instagram
One of the mosaics is now on display at Place de Mexico in Molenbeek, while the second was brought to Bruges on foot by the organisers and later placed near the city's train station. The two works, named Union and Unie respectively, both depict an open eye surrounded by several pairs of hands.
"Every piece assembled here serves as a reminder that hatred will not divide us," the group wrote in a statement published on the municipality's website. "Violence will not silence those who stand up for equality, dignity and justice. This artwork is a statement. It says that in our country, there are no second-class citizens, nor will there ever be."
A ceremony held on Monday at the municipality's town hall saw forty members of the collective, as well as several victims of the attack, made honorary citizens of the commune.
‘The political response was too weak given the circumstances,’ one of the cofounders of the collective, Younès El Montasser, told RTBF ahead of the event. "We wanted to show that it was possible to counter hatred with solidarity and resilience."
Monday's ceremony at the Molenbeek town hall, honouring the 'Je suis la Belgique' collective / Credit: @catherine_moureaux on Instagram
"They took part in a peaceful march to Bruges, set up an exhibition, and created a mosaic using the remains of the tiles destroyed by the attackers to reiterate that standing up to racist acts and speech is everyone’s responsibility," Molenbeek mayor Catherine Moureaux wrote in a social media post after the ceremony.
Three suspects charged
The Brussels Prosecutor's investigation into last year's incidents was recently concluded, with the authorities now looking to send three individuals to trial.
The suspects would be facing charges of “assault and battery causing incapacity for work, with the aggravating circumstance of hatred or discriminatory motives.”
A council chamber hearing will take place ahead of a potential trial before the Dutch-speaking criminal court in Brussels.
