ISLAMIC SAVAGES - 'Arab Malcolm X' poised to put a flame to Belgium's powder keg

[ftwhd]

>http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,851308,00.html
>
>'Arab Malcolm X' poised to put a flame to Belgium's powder keg
>The Observer (U.K.) ^ | 12/01/2002 | Andrew Osborn
>
>
>Posted on 11/30/2002 8:40 PM CST by Pokey78
>
>
>Behind the race riots that followed the murder of a Moroccan immigrant
>lies a sinister organisation
>
>
>A thick hail of stones lashes a passing car, the frightened driver is
>set upon by an angry mob and, minutes later, the ubiquitous sirens of
>the riot police resonate across the darkened city.
>
>Against a bleak teargas-choked backdrop of broken glass and vandalised
>cars, battle is joined and soon what began as a nasty incident has
>escalated into a riot. It isn't the West Bank and it isn't the Los
>Angeles of old: it is Antwerp, Belgium's second city and a racial
>powder keg waiting to explode.
>
>Racial tension in this port city, where one in three voters supports
>the far-right anti-immigration Vlaams Blok, has been brewing for years
>and last week it came to a head. The murder of Mohamed Achrak, 27, an
>Islamic religious affairs teacher of Moroccan origin, by a white
>Belgian neighbour in the Borgerhout district of Antwerp, sparked
>rioting on an unprecedented scale.
>
>The motive for the killing is not clear. The perpetrator, Constant Van
>Linden, 66, was notoriously unstable and has been in and out of mental
>institutions.
>
>The police say it was an isolated incident by a madman, but the city's
>30,000 Muslims are crying foul - they believe it was a racist murder
>and an ominous sign of the times.
>
>At the centre of the controversy is the shadowy figure of Dyab Abou
>Jahjah, 31. Dubbed the Arab Malcolm X or the Dr Frankenstein of
>integration depending on who is doing the dubbing, Abou Jahjah, the
>president of an organisation called the Arab European League (AEL),
>has the Belgian establishment running scared.
>
>Shortly after Achrak stopped breathing, Abou Jahjah was spotted in the
>middle of the gathering crowd, holding forth to hundreds of
>second-generation Moroccan teenagers. A little later, Antwerp's police
>had the first of many riots on their hands and the finger of suspicion
>fell on Abou Jahjah.
>
>He claims he was merely trying to calm the crowd, but the Belgian
>authorities see things differently. They accuse him of fomenting
>violence and have jailed the self-confessed Arab nationalist who
>models himself on Nasser.
>
>With a general election on the cards next year, feelings are running
>high in Belgium and there are growing calls to ban the AEL from across
>the political spectrum.
>
>Abou Jahjah, who emigrated to Belgium from Lebanon when he was 19 and
>fought against the Israelis, has had the Belgian establishment
>spitting blood before. Earlier this year, he caused outrage when he
>was quoted as suggesting that Arabic should become Belgium's fourth
>official language (along with French, Flemish and German).
>
>Abou Jahjah claims he was misquoted but continues to strike a defiant
>tone. Arabic should be offered as a second language at the very least,
>he argues.
>
>But it was the AEL's controversial decision earlier this month to
>institute 'Arab patrols' that has alarmed the government most.
>
>The patrols, led by Abou Jahjah's right-hand man, Ahmed Azzuz, were
>seen as a provocation. Armed with cameras, notebooks, mobile phones
>and dictaphones, the patrols began shadowing Antwerp's police force to
>guard against allegedly racist behaviour.
>
>The patrols meet at eight most weekday evenings on the Turnhoutse
>Baan, a long, drab tram-lined road that runs into the centre of
>Antwerp. Muscular young men, many of whom wear traditional Arab
>headgear, can be seen filing into an unprepossessing internet café
>long before then.
>
>Outsiders aren't welcome. 'Go home before we beat your f**king white
>ass,' is how one group of young men greet The Observer .
>
>Passing police cars are bombarded with a barrage of expletives and
>spittle. When tension was particularly acute last week anyone with a
>white face was singled out for abuse. White shopkeepers in this
>largely Moroccan district were dragged from their shops and beaten,
>and the area became a virtual no-go zone.
>
>But Abou Jahjah, who claims he has no desire to see ethnic bloodshed,
>talks a more sophisticated game. Fluent in five languages, a student
>of international relations and a man who knows his history, he is a
>very different proposition. In an exclusive interview before he was
>jailed, he outlined AEL's European ambitions.
>
>Sitting in his Spartan Antwerp flat that has since been ransacked by
>the police, he makes it clear that the AEL has plans to expand into
>the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands within two years. It also
>intends to field candidates in Belgium's general election.
>
>The league officially numbers 1,000 members across the continent, but
>that is said to be a conservative estimate.
>
>'The global strategy and ideological structure will be the same,' he
>enthuses. 'Our first aim is to bring about a change in the way in
>which Arab communities are treated and live in Europe. We have 16
>million people in Europe - more than the Belgians - but we don't have
>a political voice.' A federal democratic Arab state in the Middle
>East, complemented by a powerful Arab presence at all levels of power
>in Europe, is the AEL's ultimate aim, but it is its rejection of
>integration that has caused most controversy.
>
>'We reject integration when it leads to assimilation,' says Abou
>Jahjah. 'I don't believe in a host country. We are at home here and
>whatever we consider our culture to be also belongs to our chosen
>country. I'm in my country, not the country of the Belgians. We are
>citizens, not foreigners.'
>
>And if the political establishment does not start accommodating such
>views, Abou Jahjah warns of trouble ahead. 'If they don't get the idea
>and keep excluding, they will create another no-future generation,' he
>warns.
>
>Although he stresses violence is not his chosen route, the AEL's
>website, packed with anti-Israeli rhetoric, paints a very different
>impression. The legend 'We shall overcome by any means necessary' is
>juxtaposed above a picture of masked Palestinian gunmen.
>
>
>
>====================================================================
>"I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the
>government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future."
>- Ibrahim Hooper, director of communications, Council on
>American-Islamic Relations.
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