Belgium has finally turned on Muslim immigrants in the wake of the Brussels terror attack as anti-immigration groups are experiencing a surge in popularity, promising ‘drastic action’ in the aftermath of the atrocities.
Voorpost, a Belgian anti-Immigration organisation that is being closely monitored by security services, says its membership has rocketed following the carnage.
‘A huge number of people have started supporting us online. We have had more than double the number of new members in the last three days,’ Bart Vanpachtenbeke, the leader of the organisation
There is anger in Brussels now. I think there are dark times coming. We can’t give any information, but we are planning a lot of new protests. There is a lot of drastic action, a lot of noise coming.’
Liberal Security services believe there is a real risk of violence coming from the nationalist gangs, not from Islamic terrorist whom have already slaughtered more than 30 and planning more attacks.
Other populist organisations have also reported a dramatic spike in support after the attacks. Tom Van Grieken, leader of the anti-Islam Vlaams Belang party – Belgian equivalent of France’s Front National said that his party’s Facebook page gained 10,000 new likes overnight.
Some of his online posts warning of the dangers of radical Islam, he added, have been shared more than four million times.
‘For a small country, that is massive,’ he said. ‘Our support has increased by 25 per cent. People are realising that everything we have been saying was right.
‘Our government are world champions of looking away and pretending there isn’t a problem. They are cowards, and people are fed up with it.’
The official Vlaams Belang Facebook page displays many inflammatory comments from supporters, some of whom refer to Muslims as ‘monkeys’.
‘I really hope you win the next elections and send back every Muslim,’ says one. ‘It will never work to live together with that scum.’
Others wrote, ‘the government won’t do anything, you need a new Adolf for that. He would solve it in a couple of months’, and ‘sadly the Hitler Youth doesn’t exist any more.’
Mr Van Grieken believes that the attacks were ‘symptoms’ of a deeper malaise.
‘We are the only party that highlights the dangers of radical Islam and the existence of parallel societies in our main cities,’ he said. ‘People are furious with the elites in this country.’
Belgium has so far not experienced the same unrest between local people and migrants that has been seen in Germany, Finland and elsewhere in Europe.
But frustration is mounting, and it is directed at the ruling classes as well as the Muslim community.
‘People are waking up as there are more attacks. People are starting to feel that Muslims are winning the war in Europe and it is a risky situation,’ Voorpost’s leader, Mr Vanpachtenbeke, said.
‘We tried to protest in Brussels but we were banned. Any criticism of the Belgian government is smashed down, and that is just making people angrier.’
The revelations that the Right leaning group is planning more drastic action is fuelling fears that the Brussels attacks were a ‘game changer’, creating a new climate of fear and suspicion.
Muslims are told to ‘look less Arab’ and ‘go back to your own country’. One of them said, ‘now that we are being bombed in Belgium, should we run away to Syria?’
‘This is not the same country as it was last week.
The joy has disappeared. The whole climate, the way people look at you has changed in the last two days. I have escaped from a war zone and now I am feeling threatened just walking down the street.’
Michaela Sieh, 48, a volunteer worker at a refugee centre, told said that the day after the attacks, she also received an online message saying, ‘thanks for bringing the refugees here, now one of them will rape my girlfriend’.
Mr Dabbah, who has a seven-month-old son that he has never met, left Syria after posting messages in Hebrew on his Facebook page, in defiance of Assad’s anti-Israel stance.
He said that once the war in his home country is over, he and ’90 per cent’ of Syrians will immediately return home.
‘I understand why people are turning against migrants,’ he said. ‘They are in a deep state of shock after these attacks.
‘I am compassionate towards them, but it makes me feel very depressed. It’s just a matter of time until things turn violent here.’
