Jan Jambon's proposals - Belgian Muslim organisation condemns the minister's stigmatising ideas

On Tuesday MEB, the Muslim Executive of Belgium condemned the statements of the Interior Minister, Jan Jambon (of the N-VA - New Flemish Alliance), regarding Muslims celebrating after the March 22nd attacks. “We consider that they stigmatise this community and that they are unacceptable coming from a minister with responsibility for protecting citizens, including those of the Muslim denomination. Our country's Muslims have always condemned all terrorist attacks wherever they have taken place and whoever their perpetrators prove to be. It is exactly the same for the attacks which have affected our country and which have profoundly scarred us,” declared the EMB in a communiqué.

The ideas positively undermine the efforts of the Exécutif to fight against radicalism, particularly though training given to imams, Islamic advisers within prisons and religious teachers, training in mosques or the setting up of an anti-radicalism telephone line.

The organ representing the Muslim faith strongly regrets the radicalisation of the political discourse of "some" when, it says, we must ensure that hate discourse is stamped out.

”The discourse of some is becoming increasingly radical and feeding hate towards an entire community, which feels unjustly stigmatised,” it adds.

Moreover, the EMB cautions the political world against the risk of reigniting this type of idea at a time where the role of politicians is to maintain social cohesion. It is calling upon the government, politicians and the whole of civil society to act “so as to categorically reject such discourse, which both creates confusion and feeds fear and hate towards Belgian citizens of the Muslim faith.”

(Source: Belga)


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