Molenbeek, Belgium, Jihadi Capital of Europe

"...the most important factor is Belgium's culture of denial. The country's political debate has been dominated by a complacent progressive elite who firmly believes society can be designed and planned. Observers who point to unpleasant truths such as the high incidence of crime among Moroccan youth and violent tendencies in radical Islam are accused of being propagandists of the extreme-right, and are subsequently ignored and ostracized."
"The debate is paralyzed by a paternalistic discourse in which radical Muslim youths are seen, above all, as victims of social and economic exclusion. They in turn internalize this frame of reference, of course, because it arouses sympathy and frees them from taking responsibility for their actions. The former Socialist mayor Philippe Moureax, who governed Molenbeek from 1992 to 2012 as his private fiefdom, perfected this culture of denial and is to a large extent responsible for the current state of affairs in the neighborhood."
"Two journalists had already reported on the presence of radical Islamists in Molenbeek and the danger they posed -- and both became victims of character assassination."     Teun Voten, Belgian cultural anthropologist,former Molenbeek resident

Federica Mogherini, the EU's de facto foreign minister (posing at left with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif) said last year, "Islam belongs in Europe.... I am not afraid to say that political Islam should be part of the picture." Françoise Schepmans (right), mayor of the Molenbeek district of Brussels, received a list with the names and addresses of over 80 suspected Islamic militants living in her area. "What was I supposed to do about them? It is not my job to track possible terrorists," she said. "That is the responsibility of the federal police."

The classic scenario of locking the barn door after the horses have galloped off, is taking place in Europe. Wholly infiltrated by a culture, a heritage and a religion whose values stand in stark contrast to European history, culture and priorities, Europe is swiftly disappearing into the political and social maw of a religion whose primary goal is to eclipse all others and, by the irresistible draw of its theological magnetic field -- just like a black hole against which other space objects have no defense -- capture the world by the energy field of its totalitarian ideology.

Now that Europe has been the beneficiary of years of Muslim immigration from North Africa and the Middle East, the importation of Islamic ideals absorbing society into its orbit is proceeding apace. With the demands for Sharia law, for total recognition and respect for the precepts of Islam which recognizes no man-made laws let alone indigenous customs and values, the gradual take-over of Europe proceeds. And it is joined by a more lethal manifestation of Islam's pathology of conquest, one demanding engagement in jihad through which the vengeance of the spurned has its day.

The West looks on with alarm as the Taliban, al-Shabaab, Hezbollah, Islamic State, and Boko Haram maraud through countries of traditional Islamic heritage but which do not sufficiently genuflect to Islam's purity as it was conceived by the Prophet Mohammad in direct and obedient obeisance to Allah. The assaults and atrocities trigger condemnation and fear at the deadly cost to human life. Resolve to counter the waves of terror harden when the West itself comes under vicious attack as it did in America, France, Spain, Britain and Belgium. Not to mention Indonesia, Mali, Iraq, India.

Finally, a recognition that what has been occurring in the only Western-type democracy in the Middle East, is also afflicting Europe, in another classic: the canary-in-the-mine syndrome. "The threat we are facing in Europe is about the same as what Israel faces", finally admitted Olivier Guitta, managing director of GlobalStrat, international security consultancy. "We have entered an era in which we are going to have to change our way of life and take security very seriously."

In Europe and across the world authorities are looking to once again tighten security at airports, railway stations, government buildings and sites key to civilized life in the wake of the deadly bombings at the airport and subway in Brussels. An increased police and military presence in the public arena; explosive experts, sniffer dogs and plainclothes investigators are now being deployed, while governments warn against travel to Belgium.

Counterterrorism units are being deployed in crowded areas and transit locations worldwide in acknowledgement of the string of terrorism assaults setting Europe as a target. Europe itself must now contemplate the implementation of tougher security levels at airports and at obvious 'soft targets' like shopping malls, similar to what Israel has been living with for years.

A former security director at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport, Pini Schiff, issued his critique of Belgium's security, classifying the Brussels airport security as "a colossal failure". In Paris and at Gatwick and Heathrow in London, security is at a high alert level. How alert can any country now be to the threat that exists within? In the United Kingdom 27 percent of Muslims claimed sympathy with the Charlie Hebdo attacks; 78 percent support punishment for publication of Mohammed cartoons, with 68 percent supporting arrest and prosecution of anyone who would "insult Islam".

A World Public Opinion survey at the  University of Maryland gives figures of 61 percent of Egyptians, 32 percent of Indonesians, 41 percent of Pakistanis, 38 percent of Moroccans, 83 percent of Palestinians, 62 percent of Jordanians, and 42 percent of Turks endorsing or sympathizing with attacks on Americans or on U.S. groups. In Belgium, 16 percent of young Muslims believe state terrorism is "acceptable" according to a 2013 study, while 12 percent of young Muslims in Britain feel suicide attacks against civilians can be justified.

The Washington Post reported "About 50 to 70 percent of all inmates in prison [in France] are Muslim, though Muslims represent about 12 percent of the country's population". An Anti-Defamation League report in 2015 found that: "An average of 55 percent of Western European Muslims harbored anti-Semitic attitudes. Acceptance of anti-Semitic stereotypes by Muslims in these countries was substantially higher than among the national population in each country."
A 2006 Swedish government report found that 5 percent of its indigenous population held anti-Semitic views, while the number surged too 39 percent amongst adult Muslims. A 2012 study of Germany's burgeoning Turkish population disclosed that 62 percent of Turks in Germany want to  live exclusively among one another. As well, 46 percent express the aspiration that the country become a Muslim majority nation.

The venerable BBC noted that 36 percent of 16- to 24-year-old Muslims believe should a Muslim convert to another religion they should be punished by death. Thirty-five percent of Muslims prefer to send their children to an Islamic school, while 37 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds say they feel that government-funded Islamic schools should be established. Of 16- to 24-year-olds, there is a 74 percent preference for Muslim women to wear the veil, in comparison to 28 percent among those over age 55.