Belgium, hotbed for Islamist terrorism

By Olivier Guitta

After the revelation of the suicide attack from the first Western female-a Belgian citizen- in Iraq on November 9, Belgium is emerging as a crucial country in Counter Terrorism terms. Here are some facts:

The recruiter of the Muslim convert woman suicide bomber whose name was Muriel Degauque and her companion Belgian-Moroccan Issam Goris- who got killed by US troops, is a Belgian converted to Islam 3 years ago named Pascal Cruypenninck. He is a jobless cook. Police found out he had also recruited an 18-year-old African woman who they just arrested.

According to French police sources who arrested a Tunisian allegedly linked to that suicide operation in Iraq and the Belgian cell, �more than a hundred people could have followed Muriel and her companion�s path.�

Mohamed Reha, Belgian of Moroccan origin arrested in Morocco in November, affirmed that there were several wives of Islamists prisoners in Belgium, ready to commit suicide attacks. Also Reha went to Holland to meet Samir Azzouz who just got acquitted for his alleged participation in the murder of Theo Van Gogh. Reha offered Azzouz women recruits for a suicide attack but Azzouz refused because he wanted men.

�Belgium is indeed very attractive for Muslim extremists groups�, estimates Luc Verheyden, director of the anti-terrorist taskforce. �Our country is crucial because of the presence of international institutions. Many media are represented here and the extremists groups need them to pass along some of their propaganda. And Belgium is more lenient to this type of propaganda than of other countries, where it is for example a crime to glorify terrorist acts. Contrary to other countries, Belgium does not have a list of banned groups. We can only freeze the assets of organizations which are on the UN list of terrorist groups but we cannot ban them altogether.�

TrackBack