| advertisement |
|
|
| advertisement |
|
|
|
| Complaint against extreme-right leader for “islamophobia”
|
|
 |
Filip Dewinter
|
|
|
| Page tools |
 |
|
|
|
A multicultural youth association and an anti-racist movement in Belgium have lodged a complaint against the leader of an extreme-right party for his recent comments made in an interview with a Jewish American magazine.
“Kif Kif” and “MRAX” (Movement against Racism, Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia) requested the Antwerp prosecutor to press with charges against Filip Dewinter, head of the Flanders-based Vlaams Belang (or Flemish interest) party for “inciting hatred.”
They also demanded that his parliamentary immunity be lifted and that public subsidies to the extreme-right party be cancelled.
In an interview with the New York-based “Jewish Week”, published last month, Dewinter admitted that his party has a “Islamophobia.”
Asked why Jews should vote for a “xenophobic” party, Dewinter replied : “Xenophobia is not the word I would use. If it absolutely must be a phobia, let it be a islamphobia.”
 This interview is not only an unfortunate attempt to seduct the Jewish electorate in Antwerp but also an incitement to hatred
Didier de Laveleye, MRAX director | “Yes, we are afraid of Islam. The Islamisation of Europe is a frightening thing. If this process continues, the Jews will be the first victims. Europe will become as dangerous for them as Egypt or Algeria,” he added.
“So, I return your question. Should Jews vote for a party that wants to stop the spread of Islam in Europe?” he asked the journalist.
Dewinter added : “In our view, Judaism and Islam are absolute not two of the same kind. On the contrary, they are foes.”
Incitement to hatred
Xenophobia is not the word I would use. If it absolutely must be a phobia, let it be a islamphobia
Filip Dewinter | “This interview is not only an unfortunate attempt to seduct the Jewish electorate in Antwerp but also an incitement to hatred,” MRAX director Didier de Laveleye, told EJP. “This is attempt to mount the Jewish and Muslim communities one against each other,” he added.
He mentioned that the two associations were preparing a letter to the “Jewish Week”, co-signed by the heads of the Belgian Jewish and Muslim communities, warning the newspaper against giving a “platform” to the extreme-right leader.
Dewinter reacted by saying that he “didn’t say he had a hatred against Islam but rather that we are afraid of it.”
“I said what a great majority of people think after what happened in Madrid, London or New York. I am only expressing the people’s fear of radical Islamism,” he told EJP. “By lodging a complaint these so-called anti-racist organizations want to suppress the debate which is living in our societies in Europe,” he added.
Earlier this year, Dewinter, who appeared to woo the 17,000 strong Jewish community of Antwerp ahead of next year election for Mayor, gave an interview to the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz in which he denied that his party was anti-Semitic and that it was on the contrary an “objective ally” of the Jewish community.
Jewish community unimpressed
“Dewinter presents himself again as the defender of the Jewish community towards Islamist radicalism but nobody is duped, it’s full propaganda and his move is merely an electoral calculation,” Myriam Zomersztajn, director of the Jewish secular community centre in Brussels, told the newspaper “Le Soir.”
In the same interview Dewinter also distanced himself from some anti-Semitic figures within his party and called himself “the number one friend of Israel.”
Dewinter presents himself again as the defender of the Jewish community towards Islamist radicalism but nobody is duped, it’s full propaganda and his move is merely an electoral calculation
Myriam Zomersztajn, director of the JCC in Brussels | Although it has made considerable and growing gains in successive elections, Vlaams Belang (the former Vlaams Blok party had to change its name after being banned by the Supreme court for racism) has until now been boycotted by all democratic political parties who never invited it to join a governing coalition.
Vlaams Belang is particulary strong in the Antwerp region where it won 34,9 percent of the votes during the last election.
At the 2004 June general elections, one million Belgians voted for this party, out of anti-immigrant feelings and fear of Islam’s radicalism.
Dewinter continued recently to attract media attention when he announced that he would led a delegation of his party during a visit to Morocco in December.
|
|
 |
|