Europeans fear Islam, Belgian far-rightist says

Charles Dick:

Most Europeans are afraid of Islam because terrorists carry out attacks in its name, a Belgian far-right leader said on Thursday in the Muslim Arab state of Morocco, from which many of his country's immigrants originate.

Filip Dewinter, a prominent member of Belgium's opposition far-right Vlaams Belang party, was speaking at a news conference shunned by Moroccan journalists and after failing to persuade any senior government official to meet him.

"I say out loud what Europeans think to themselves. I think the vast majority of Europeans are afraid of Islam, that is to say because they are afraid of the radicalisation of Islam," he said.

"They are afraid of terrorism which is carried out in the name of Islam. I am not saying that Islam is responsible for terrorism, but I say that people are afraid because there are terrorists who claim to act in Islam's name."

Dewinter referred to an accusation made by a Belgian prosecutor on Wednesday that members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group (GICM), which has been blamed for the 2004 Madrid bombings and the 2003 Casablanca suicide attacks, had their headquarters in Brussels.

"It's clear that they find the means (to carry out attacks) among the Muslim community, among the immigrant North African community in our country, and not only in our country but throughout Europe," Dewinter said.

The prosecutor had been speaking at the trial in Belgium of 13 suspected members of the GICM -- 10 Moroccans and three Belgians of Moroccan origin.

They are accused of being members of the group although none is accused of carrying out the Madrid and Casablanca bombings that killed more than 230 people.

Dewinter, who was on a 24-hour visit to Morocco with his Vlaams Belang party delegation, said he hoped to persuade Moroccans that Belgium "is not a land of milk and honey".

He said his party was not racist or xenophobic, neither were his proposals for repatriation of illegal immigrants and the establishment, with European Union help, of refugee camps in North Africa for migrants including those from sub-Saharan Africa.

Morocco's government refused any contact with the Vlaams Belang delegation.

"Our battle must involve all legal means to counter all forms of extremism," Nouzha Chekrouni, Minister-Delegate for Foreign Affairs in charge of Moroccan Expatriates, told Liberation daily on Thursday when asked about the Vlaams Belang visit.

Most of Belgium's immigrant population originated from Morocco or Turkey.

Vlaams Belang espouses anti-immigrant views and seeks independence for Belgium's Dutch-speaking northern Flanders region, where it won 24 percent of the vote in June 2005 regional elections. Mainstream parties refuse to deal with it.

Vlaams Belang's predecessor, Vlaams Blok, was dissolved after a Belgian court ruled it racist last year.

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