Anti-Islamist Rally Banned in Brussels

By Vasko Kohlmayer
FrontPageMagazine.com
An eagerly awaited public rally was to take place in Brussels – the capital of the European Union – on September 11 of this year. Called ‘Against Islamisation of Europe,’ its intent was to protest the spreading of Islamic sharia law across the European continent and honour by a minute of silence the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks.

The event was being organized by SIOE (Stop the Islamisation of Europe), an alliance of people from across Europe whose objective is to prevent Islam from ‘becoming a dominant political force in Europe.’ Concerned about the Muslim subversion of the continent’s cultures and institutions, SIOE’s has this to say about Islam:

No other religion demands more from those who do not adhere to its doctrine. This would not be a problem if our leaders actually stood up for Western values and insisted that Muslims live within our laws and accepted our cultures and social systems. Instead, it is we who are told we must abandon our values, cultures and societies in order not to offend Muslims. It is Islam that is being rammed down our throats and the throats of our children. It is not only in the West that Islam is causing misery and mayhem. All around the world Islam is battling the “infidels”.

In a clear sign of public support for the planned demonstration, 20,000 people from across Europe have pledged their participation.

But now it looks the event will not be allowed to proceed. On August 13, Brussels’ Mayor Freddy Thielemans, a socialist, made the decision not to issue a permit for the march.

The Mayor’s decision is a very unusual one, because Brussels is known as a demonstration friendly city. In fact, it is the demonstration capital of the world with two or three events taking place on average every day. In the last six years alone, the Mayor’s office has received 3,600 requests for public protest permits of which only 6 have been denied.

But the Mayor is trying to do more than just stop people from voicing their concerns about the ongoing Islamization of their culture. This is what he wrote on August 20 in an op-ed piece in the Belgian newspaper De Standaard:

First and foremost the organizers have chosen the symbolic date of 9/11. The intention is obviously to confound the terrorist activities of Muslim extremists on the one hand and Islam as a religion and all Muslims on the other hand. […] Such incitement to discrimination and hatred, which we usually call racism and xenophobia, is forbidden by a considerable number of international treaties and is punished by our penal laws and by European legislation. The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly pronounced judgments condemning this type of acts.

In what is a truly surreal development, a European public official calls those concerned about the encroachment of Islam on their life extremists and threatens criminal prosecution if they don’t desist.

The Mayor’s concern about extremism is very selective, however. In December of 2004, for example, he allowed a demonstration to proceed where more than 20,000 Iranians protested against the inclusion of People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran in EU's list of terrorist organizations. This is how this group was once described by the US Department of State:

The Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK), a leftist revolutionary group, was formed in 1963. Its founding principles included the creation of a Marxist-oriented Islamic government in Iran; opposition to 'imperialism' as supposedly embodied by the United States; opposition to Zionism and Israel; and a close affinity to Third World radical movements. […] To achieve its political objectives, the MEK almost from its inception has engaged in acts of terrorism and violence; the organization was responsible for fatal attacks on several Americans in Iran in the 1970s.

Not only was the demonstration allowed to go on – it took place in front of the EU’s headquarters – it received extensive official backing. Numerous speeches were made by European parliamentarians and various public personalities seeking to remove the group’s terror designation.

This makes for a remarkable situation: In the EU capital, Iranian Muslims are allowed to show their solidarity with a questionable organization while native citizens are being turned into criminals for seeking to voice their concerns about the unfolding Islamic takeover of their lands.

To add insult to injury, on the very day the organizers of the 9/11 rally were protesting the decision to block the event, Mayor Thielemans approved a permit for another demonstration to take place on September 9. Organized by an alliance of ‘various truth, peace and human right movements in Europe’ calling themselves United for Truth, they claim that the 9/11 attacks were staged by the Bush administration with possible support from some European governments. A message posted on their website on July 30 reads in part:

Recently the French Minister for Housing and the City Mme Christine Boutin expressed her doubts about the official 9/11 report. Before, Michael Meacher, secretary of state in Britain and Andreas Von Bulow, ex Minister from Germany, stated clearly that 9/11 and the war on terror are orchestrated by the Bush administration. Prof. David Ray Griffin held on September 14th, 2006 a lecture ('Should the truth be revealed or concealed') in Copenhagen. In this lecture he asked for a European investigation to the facts of September 11, 2001. To make this demand stronger, the United for truth organization in Belgium is organizing a European protest rally through Brussels. […] They [protesters] agree the 9/11 attacks and other terrorist acts, no matter if they were carried out by some so-called Afghan cavemen or by the governments themselves, inflicted the current policy of fear.

It is hard to believe that in Europe Muslims and far-left radicals are allowed to march in support of their causes and inane theories while those concerned about the ongoing disintegration of their societies are not only being silenced but threatened with legal action.

The controversy surrounding the planned 9/11 rally in Brussels is emblematic of Europe’s rapid descent into madness. Today Europe is a place where things are turned upside down and where common sense is not only commonly disregarded but actively suppressed.

Having lost both its sense of identity and sanity, Europe stands on the brink of being overtaken by Muslims who may well be able to claim their prize without so much as a fight. Brussels’ socialist Mayor Freddy Thielemans is only one of many among Europe’s leftist elites who are not only willing to capitulate to the barbarian invaders of our age but are actively facilitating their progress. America better take heed, for these are the very people its own liberals admire and in whose steps they would like to follow.