Following the 13 November 2015 attacks in Paris, Eric Zemmour recommended that Molenbeek-Saint-Jean (Belgium) become “bombarded”. In 2017 and 2022, Geert Wilders and Filip Dewinter, leaders of the Dutch and Flemish far right, want to organize “Islamic Safari” – finally banned. In April 2022, Conner Rousseau, leader of the socialist left in Flanders, stated that when he drove through the city, he “not felt in Belgium”.
This is where the terrorists of the November 13 attack lived, or were attracted to, brothers Brahim and Salah Abdeslam, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Mohamed Abrini – who returned to Belgium the day before the attack. Others, Belgian or French citizens, were closely linked to the Molenbeek cell, where now we want to forget the past, amalgam and stigmatization. But only the youngest seemed sincere when they said they didn’t remember. Like Jalil and Khalid, 16 and 17, who are chatting this late October afternoon on a bench in West Park, a “community attraction space,” according to a sign posted at the entrance. “Abdeslam’s fault? Yes, I heard about it at school. He was the only one who survived and was in prison, right? But what did he actually do?”, asked the first.
Olivier Vanderhaeghen believes that “The shockwave will continue over a long period of time, no doubt for two or three generations.” This 48-year-old giant was for six years called the city’s “Mr. Radicalism.” In February 2022, he gave testimony before a special Paris criminal court, telling how the young people he had worked with embraced radical Islam, “Some out of defiance, others out of spite”. Ahmed El Khannouss, president of the Municipal Center for Social Action (CPAS), also mentioned the same thing “Molenbeek’s long trauma”, However, judging that it is indeed true “fading”.
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