Bruxelles: Le Vlaams Belang se trompe de Jardin [FR]

Dans la commune bruxelloise d'Etterbeek se trouve le petit traiteur "Jardin de Babylone". Ce n'est pas le restaurant "Jardin de Babylon" (sans "e"), dont la photo (plus bas) sert à illustrer l'"islamisation" de Bruxelles.

C'est ce dernier restaurant que je cherchais.

Pourquoi?

Hier, une libelle de 16 pages A4, imprimée en toutes couleurs, tomba dans notre boîte aux lettres bruxelloise. Expéditeur: Le parti extrémiste et revanchiste flamand le "Vlaams Belang" (La Cause Flamande). 8 pages en flamand, 8 pages en français. Bruxelles bilingue oblige. Heureusement!

Étant donné, que peu de Belges du Nord s'intéressent encore activement à la réhabilitation des collaborateurs flamands de la 2^me Guerre mondiale et que la confédéralisation du pays a fort calmé les frustrations linguistiques, il est compréhensible, que le "VB" cherche désespérément de nouveaux sujets à attiser les sentiments d'insécurité.

Le cible est, en Belgique comme partout dans l'Europe actuelle, un public qui est ouvert à l'idée que les causes de ses malheurs viennent de l'extérieur, de l'étranger, de l'Europe, de la globalisation, symbolisés par la présence des immigrés et des refugiés. Cibler la Xenophobie, en bref.

Le Vlaams Blok n'y va pas à pas feutrés: Chacune des 2 fois 8 pages est remplie d'insinuations vilaines contre les gens originaires des pays d'émigration muslumans. Voici un exemple:

Des mensonges et des vérités sélectives. À peine 80.000 des 1.2 millons d'habitants de Bruxelles-agglomération sont d'origine turque ou nord-africaine. Les grands marchés de Bruxelles sont des lieux d'intégration par excellence. Ils ont été enrichis par la présence d'un grand nombre d'étals qui proples deux titres du pamfletosent ce que nous cherchons, à prix modéré. J'y rencontre tout le monde bruxellois, les vieux et les vieilles, les jeunes, chaque jour, au marché gigantesque d'Anderlecht. Et ainsi de suite. C'est dégoûtant et je me sens attaqué, cambriolé et offensé par cet imprimé du VB.

À en juger par les deux titres de la pamphlette, le VB essaie de 'capitaliser' sur les événéments du 11 septembre dernier à Bruxelles:

Nous en avions parlé dans plusiers langues à l'époque (Voir: les libelles Ulfkotte et/ou Vlaams Belang c.q. Blok, dans Huib's blogs, accessibles ici)

En abbrévié: M. Ulfkotte (allemand) et ses alliés anglais/danois du 'SIOE' projetaient une manifestation anti-islamique le 11/9/07 à Bruxelles. Le manif étant interdit, Ulfkotte tomba entre les mains du Vlaams Belang car il projetait combattre l'interdiction par la voie juridique. Le VB en profita pour organiser sa propre manif et récolta la photo montrée au titre flamand de sa libelle. Ulfkotte, tardivement conscient de la trappe dans laquelle il était tombé, s'est distancié de ces événéments, mais c'était beaucoup trop tard. Merci, M. Ulfkotte, au nom des Belges qui luttent contre l'extrême-droite!

Retournons maintenant au Vlaams Belang: Apparemment, ils ont voulu provoquer de l'agitation parmi les Bruxellois, les Francophones et les non-Francophones. Mais je ne crois pas qu'ils y croient eux-mêmes. La libelle très coûteuse a été créee pour la "tribune": flamande et internationale.  Car chaque Bruxellois, francophone ou non-francophone, sait, bien sûr, qu'il y a de problèmes avec la jeunesse immigrée. Il sait aussi, que, en général, la gestion de ces problèmes est bien faite entre les mains des autorités locales élues, les bourgmestres et les échevins, ceux d'origine étrangère y inclus. Et alors, qu'est-ce que vient faire le VB là-dedans? Personne ne croit que les autorités, socialistes ou non-socialistes, ont été "achetées" et qu'elles trahissent leurs électeurs en poursuivant une "islamisation" de la société bruxelloise. C'est pourtant, ce que le VB dit.

Non, cette publication est destinée à la tribune internationale et européenne. Destinée à montrer que le VB est la seule force qui combat la "déseuropéanisation" de la capitale de l'Europe! Et, aussi, à montrer aux Flamands de province, que le VB "ose" s'attaquer aux perfides Francophones à Bruxelles.

Une malaise s'est emparée de moi, en lisant cette intrusion non-sollicitée dans ma boîte aux lettres. Est-ce que je suis considéré comme une personne assez bête à accepter la version VB de ma vie de tous les jours? Je me sens offensé. Lésé.

C'est pourquoi je cherche ce restaurant "Jardin de Babylon", quelque part dans les 19 communes bilingues de Bruxelles-Capitale. Il est montré dans la libelle du VB comme preuve de l'"islamisation" de la capitale de l'Europe:

Car, deux contre un, que le propriétaire est un Chrétien dévot, qui se réfère aux jardins suspendus de Babylone, mentionnés dans l'Ancien Testament. Une référence "judéo-chrétienne" des plus authentiques!

D'ailleurs, les ignorants du VB ne se rendent pas compte que c'est l'ire de Jahweh contre les bâtisseurs de la Tour de Babel, jugés trop orgueilleux et trop peu respectueux, qu'ils doivent l'existence elle même de leur langue! Le Dieu des Israélites, jugeant la Tour une Arme potentielle de Destruction Massive (ADM) contre Son autorité, frappa les constructeurs d'une différentiation linguistique (Génésis) durable. Ils ne se comprenaient plus. Avant, tout le monde parlait Sumérien.

Maintenant, tous les ouvriers immigrés des quatre coins du monde (Hébreux, Éthiopiens et quelques ancêtres germains des Flamands, venant des steppes d'Asie) ne comprenaient plus les ordres des maîtres sumériens, ni l'un l'autre. la tour n'a jamis été terminée...

C'est à Babylon que Dieu a préparé la scission de la Belgique, tellement désirée par les Flamands extrémistes! Mais ils ont été aveuglés par le Diable de la Xénophobie et ils rejettent dans leur ignorance le Nom même de l'origine de leur Salut!

LOG 11.11.07 [EN] Belgium and Occidentalism plus Integration

Belgium and it's surrealistic Politics

I kept my promise today: The Belgian analysis from Toto Le Psycho  in French, was published in a Dutch translation on De Lage Landen  and on In Europa Thuis. I am not soft on the Flemish opportunism re Belgium and re - Brussels. The more I think about it, the more I see a typical politician's short-sighted way of dealing with a delicate problem. In spite of my admiration for the artistic ways in which the problem was moved out of the scope of the future government, I worry about the fate of my new adopted hometown, Brussels, that figures as the victim of an overdose of politician's compromises.

Occidentalism as a counterpart to Orientalism: The relativity of Enlightenment

Occidentialism, by Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit, kept me busy during a good part of the day. An intelligent analysis of the new religious extremism, put into perspective through former upsurges of that kind by the Japanese, the Indians and the Nazis, as well as Stalin. Essentially, the book is three essays, respectively on the hate of the modern city, of commerce and of the Mind of the West (if any). The reasoning underlines Olivier Roy's analysis of todays Muslim extremism as a product of occidentalisation.  The equally very essayistic treatment of the Dialectics of Enlightenment by Horkheimer and Adorno (1943) shows, that (Christian) religiosity was a reaction to the Enlightenment of classic times (see also my review of  Paul Veyne's Quand le monde devenait chrétien, here). Consequently, the renaissance and, from the 18th Century, the "second" Enlightenment were in a dialectic sequence, reactions against religiosity, which, in turn, was followed by early 19th century Restauration and disciplining of the people into churches of a new kind, catholic and protestant alike. The late 19th century reaction to this, culminating in Nietzsches prophecies, were submerged in 20th century European utopian reactions, celebrating "people", nation" and, actually in the US: "Family".

The burden of integration rests on the West

Reducing Bin Laden's actions to a desperate answer to Western (or conceived as Western) imperialism ("Globalism"), is very useful and ...: enlightening. Western arrogance provokes, as I saw myself in non-Western countries, a huge amount of frustration and desperate efforts to escape it. There is no Muslim specificity in that. Japanese, Chinese, Bolshevicks and nazis acted the same way. Buruma and Margalit are convincing on that issue.

If they are right, as I believe, the burden of delivering the necessary changes in behavior, rests principally on Western shoulders. "Integration" is a two-way process. Those who have the upper hand, should start it. A diffiocult task, that our politicians are not eager to take up...

LOG 9.11.07 [EN] Gadgets, Belgian Tolerance, Justice and Surrealism.

I enjoy my new gadgets: The TomTom GPRS localisator for tavelling by car. It guided me for 6.000 Kilometres from Brussels to Istanbul and back via former Yugoslavia, Austria, Poland and Germany. This Log is typed on a new Acer Notebook, that replaces the one that was stolen from me on June 11. While I was composing my first Pepperdine evaluation, and denouncing systematic xenophobia as it was developed by Steyn, Hirsi Ali and Pipes, a randomly stealing band of three Moroccan youths from the Brussels Molenbeek community broke into the lower stocks of my house and got away with the computer, before I could halt them.  Thanks to my registering the number plate of their car, they were apprehended by the Brussels police and their judgment is upcoming, but delayed by the workload of Brussels justice.

As you may have seen, I was not converted to xenophobia by that event. I contributed as much as I could to their future condemnation, as I would have done with any burglar, who breaks into my house. But their origins (or that of their parents) are no issue to me. I have no big trust in police and justice, but in a case like this, I think, you have to work with them and help to get an equitable result.

I feel, that I share this attitude with a majority of my new Belgian compatriots. Last month, the guy who shot randomly foreigners in the centre of the city of Antwerp, killing an African woman and the (white) child she was tending and gravely wounding a woman of Turkish origin, who was reading a book on a park bench, was condemned to life. The boy acted under influence of the racist rambles of the likes of the Vlaams Belang xenophobic party. His avowed racist motives were an aggravating element to the Jury. It was, overall, a worthy and dignified event. No revenge. Only questioning, why, o why, somebody does things like that. As long as we do not condemn Flemish nationalist youth as a group, because of their leanings to violent xenophobia, we should not condemn Moroccans as a group, only because they are foreigners and act out of frustration. But individuals who indulge into crime, have to be judged, and racism is in fact an aggravating motive.

Philip Dewinter, the VB leader, days after the Antwerp shootings in congress with his party (October 2006), lamented that his movement was associated with those facts and stressed, that he had been seeing the parents of the shot child "without inviting the press, anonymously, with his spouse". I was disappointed by the press comments here in Belgium, who neglected to note, that Dewinter had NOT been seeing the family of the African woman, nor the kinship of the Turkish one. As usual, Dewinter was saying the "right" words, but omitting  the visits to the immigrant victims, he was showing to his followers, that he only regretted the excessivity of the boy's acts, but not their xenophobic motives.

It has been a Belgian day, today. In Toto Le Psycho and in L'Europe Chez Soi I commented (in French) the Belgian crisis (Belgique Surréaliste: Diviser pour vivre ensemble...) The "crisis" is very overstated. In this surrealist country, the State is instrumentalised for political games. Subtle games, that result in very Belgian compromissions. All this, thanks to the fact, that Belgium is since long only a symbolic state, a state without nation, plaything for the politicians, and as much as possible avoided by the Belgian citizens. A Dutch translation will be published in De Lage landen and In Europa Thuis.

LOG 7.11.07 [EN] Dutch Courage and Uruzgan

Today (6.11.07) I added a call to support the "een land een samenleving" movement in Holland to my blogs De Lage Landen and In Europa Thuis. With former Groen Links deputy Mohammed Rabbae and former Liberal conservative party leader Hans Dijkstal as presidents, it is a rather weak institution, but they have had the courage to counter prevailing xenophobia in the country. So God bless them, please.

A more extensive post about Uruzgan was also added to those blogs. The myth about a supposed Dutch "soft" approach to Afghan resistance was definitively crushed by a French report about casualties and refugees on October 31 in Libération daily. An article in the Dutch NRC, reporting Australian refusal to participate in a Dutch operation against supposed Taliban attacks, illustrates the transition from "development aid" to full participation in the US policy of counterterrorism attacks in the region of Uruzgan. 

Our Watchblog Islamophobie action [DE] takes shape in an organisation that has been founded in the Kiel assembly of its contributors. I am a member of its standing committee. Yesterday, BigBerta put my attention to the meeting in Brussels (Counter-Jihad) that was organised by Debie of the Vlaams Belang and that brought together the Littman couple, Arnaud Dotezac and Dutch TV commenter Professor Hans Jansen (picture) with Philip Dewinter. They are actively networking. A reply is necessary. It is coming up. More in At Home in Europe, tomorrow.

Coming up: An e-urban evaluation of the INTA/Aydin conference in Istanbul; a reassession of Srebrenica after my visit there; and a review of books on Enlightenment.

 I am doing fine, thank you.