Deeply disturbed by Paris attack mastermind-suspect being a Brussels born Belgian, with support from others in Brussels
I read these two news articles today, (Warning: has some graphic pics) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3320224/The-mastermind-terror-Officials-say-Paris-massacres-planned-Belgian-recruited-13-year-old-brother-fight-ISIS-Syria-posed-smiling-decapitated-bodies.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/17/world/europe/paris-terror-attack.html.
The picture that they paint is that the mastermind-suspect is a 27 year old man born in Brussels, Belgium and that the neighbourhood of Molenbeek in Brussels is suspected to have harboured people who supported/perhaps even participated in the horrendous Paris attack that have killed over a hundred.
I have lived in Brussels, Belgium in the mid-80s for a year and a quarter. It was my first trip abroad and my first exposure to the (materially) prosperous Western world. I have very fond memories of Brussels and the people I met and interacted with there. I used to commute by tram/metro and bus, and walk around Brussels freely. I also used to eat outside (in restaurants, pubs, Pizza joints, snack-shops) many times. I do not recall any incident of racism that I faced in Brussels and other parts of Belgium that I visited (I am a brown-skinned Indian guy).
I recall some terror threats even then with some suspicion of planned bomb blast or perhaps even a small bomb blast on Avenue Louise, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_Louise, where I was living (studio apt. provided by the customer who I and couple of my colleagues were working with then: Wang Labs. telecommunications research centre called Wang ITRC). Here's something I got when I browsed the net about bomb blasts in Belgium then, which even mentions a suspicious package being found on Avenue Louise, http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1985-12-07/news/0340630240_1_nato-blast-belgium. I had to carry my work permit/passport-visa documents with me as sometimes a police van would pull up alongside me when I was walking on the street and ask me for my papers. But it was all polite stuff and once the papers were shown, it was OK. No sweat.
I had been invited to visit the homes of some of the Belgian colleagues at the customer workplace and still fondly recall those visits. Great guys! And happy times for me!
And now around three decades after my stay in Brussels I read about this horrendous stuff in the media! What a tragedy that this same city is now facing such terrorist challenges from WITHIN!!! The mastermind-suspect is a 27 years old, born and raised in Brussels - so he wasn't even born at the time I was living in Brussels. I have not been to Molenbeek area of Brussels (as far as I can recall). So I can't say how that area was thirty years ago. But I would not be surprised if it was much more peaceful and happy than it seems to be today! What a tragedy!
I wish the people of Brussels & Belgium all the very best in rooting out such terror threats from WITHIN. And, of course, I extend my prayers and condolences to the victims and the families of the victims of the horrific Paris attacks.
============================
A comment on my Facebook post with the same contents, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1678028979080339, mentioned that discrimination and frustration is a common experience among people of Arab descent living in Belgium & France (the commenter lives in Europe). I responded as follows (slightly edited):
Well, I was leading a fairly comfy life in Belgium then, as I had free studio apt. housing, and received a modest but manageable living allowance, besides my Indian salary (modest then as I was under a trainee bond of three years) being paid in India. I guess those were the perks of being a software techie. It seems that Molenbeek today (and maybe, even in the mid-80s when I was living in Brussels) is a not-so-well-off area of Brussels and there is a lot of poverty among the many immigrant or previous-generation-immigrant families there.
From http://www.wsj.com/articles/brussels-district-is-home-to-some-suspects-in-paris-attacks-1447718699:
Claude Moniquet, a Brussels-based security expert, said, “Molenbeek is a small district, where more than half of the population is Muslim, but unlike other parts of Brussels where there is a mix, here it’s a very closed, monocultural environment, predominantly Moroccan.” With a high unemployment rate among young people, youths are very susceptible to extremism and radical ideology, he said.
Youth in Belgium born outside the European Union entirely had an unemployment rate of 43.6% last year—compared with the national youth unemployment rate of 23.2% and the overall unemployment rate of 8.5%. In Molenbeek, the overall unemployment rate is about 30%.
--- end small extract ---
So, yes, there are challenges for youth in these immigrant and previous-generation-immigrant families in Molenbeek and other such places in Europe. But, I repeat what I mentioned in another post, "In this early 21st century it is through peaceful negotiations that change can come for any people who feel or are disadvantaged. The way of the sword or the gun will only lead to more suffering for those who are disadvantaged, as well as suffering/harassment of the innocent followers of the religion whose twisted form the killers/terrorists profess. Surely, that is not the way that will be approved/liked by the merciful and compassionate God that is worshipped and adored by most, if not all religions and religious sects, of the world!"
I am sorry for those being killed in Syria and Iraq too in areas controlled by ISIS. But they have taken the way of the gun and decided to take on the big military powers via terrorist attacks on the homeland of the big military powers that are attacking them! That way may lead to just more destruction and death on both sides, with perhaps the brunt of the suffering being in ISIS controlled areas.
There has to be another way for jobless youth in Europe from immigrant backgrounds than this madness. History of the past few decades shows us how severe the reaction can be from the big military powers to such attacks. Pitiless is the word the French president used to describe how he is going to react. God knows how many are now in horrible suffering in ISIS controlled areas in Iraq & Syria. Afghanistan went through decades of HELL and has yet to recover. I hope & pray that that story will not be repeated in Iraq & Syria for as long as it played out in Afghanistan, and that somehow this madness of war and the suffering involved for the people caught up in it there comes to a quick end.
--- end my comment ---
[I thank wsj.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
The picture that they paint is that the mastermind-suspect is a 27 year old man born in Brussels, Belgium and that the neighbourhood of Molenbeek in Brussels is suspected to have harboured people who supported/perhaps even participated in the horrendous Paris attack that have killed over a hundred.
I have lived in Brussels, Belgium in the mid-80s for a year and a quarter. It was my first trip abroad and my first exposure to the (materially) prosperous Western world. I have very fond memories of Brussels and the people I met and interacted with there. I used to commute by tram/metro and bus, and walk around Brussels freely. I also used to eat outside (in restaurants, pubs, Pizza joints, snack-shops) many times. I do not recall any incident of racism that I faced in Brussels and other parts of Belgium that I visited (I am a brown-skinned Indian guy).
I recall some terror threats even then with some suspicion of planned bomb blast or perhaps even a small bomb blast on Avenue Louise, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_Louise, where I was living (studio apt. provided by the customer who I and couple of my colleagues were working with then: Wang Labs. telecommunications research centre called Wang ITRC). Here's something I got when I browsed the net about bomb blasts in Belgium then, which even mentions a suspicious package being found on Avenue Louise, http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1985-12-07/news/0340630240_1_nato-blast-belgium. I had to carry my work permit/passport-visa documents with me as sometimes a police van would pull up alongside me when I was walking on the street and ask me for my papers. But it was all polite stuff and once the papers were shown, it was OK. No sweat.
I had been invited to visit the homes of some of the Belgian colleagues at the customer workplace and still fondly recall those visits. Great guys! And happy times for me!
And now around three decades after my stay in Brussels I read about this horrendous stuff in the media! What a tragedy that this same city is now facing such terrorist challenges from WITHIN!!! The mastermind-suspect is a 27 years old, born and raised in Brussels - so he wasn't even born at the time I was living in Brussels. I have not been to Molenbeek area of Brussels (as far as I can recall). So I can't say how that area was thirty years ago. But I would not be surprised if it was much more peaceful and happy than it seems to be today! What a tragedy!
I wish the people of Brussels & Belgium all the very best in rooting out such terror threats from WITHIN. And, of course, I extend my prayers and condolences to the victims and the families of the victims of the horrific Paris attacks.
============================
A comment on my Facebook post with the same contents, https://www.facebook.com/ravi.s.iyer.7/posts/1678028979080339, mentioned that discrimination and frustration is a common experience among people of Arab descent living in Belgium & France (the commenter lives in Europe). I responded as follows (slightly edited):
Well, I was leading a fairly comfy life in Belgium then, as I had free studio apt. housing, and received a modest but manageable living allowance, besides my Indian salary (modest then as I was under a trainee bond of three years) being paid in India. I guess those were the perks of being a software techie. It seems that Molenbeek today (and maybe, even in the mid-80s when I was living in Brussels) is a not-so-well-off area of Brussels and there is a lot of poverty among the many immigrant or previous-generation-immigrant families there.
From http://www.wsj.com/articles/brussels-district-is-home-to-some-suspects-in-paris-attacks-1447718699:
Claude Moniquet, a Brussels-based security expert, said, “Molenbeek is a small district, where more than half of the population is Muslim, but unlike other parts of Brussels where there is a mix, here it’s a very closed, monocultural environment, predominantly Moroccan.” With a high unemployment rate among young people, youths are very susceptible to extremism and radical ideology, he said.
Youth in Belgium born outside the European Union entirely had an unemployment rate of 43.6% last year—compared with the national youth unemployment rate of 23.2% and the overall unemployment rate of 8.5%. In Molenbeek, the overall unemployment rate is about 30%.
--- end small extract ---
So, yes, there are challenges for youth in these immigrant and previous-generation-immigrant families in Molenbeek and other such places in Europe. But, I repeat what I mentioned in another post, "In this early 21st century it is through peaceful negotiations that change can come for any people who feel or are disadvantaged. The way of the sword or the gun will only lead to more suffering for those who are disadvantaged, as well as suffering/harassment of the innocent followers of the religion whose twisted form the killers/terrorists profess. Surely, that is not the way that will be approved/liked by the merciful and compassionate God that is worshipped and adored by most, if not all religions and religious sects, of the world!"
I am sorry for those being killed in Syria and Iraq too in areas controlled by ISIS. But they have taken the way of the gun and decided to take on the big military powers via terrorist attacks on the homeland of the big military powers that are attacking them! That way may lead to just more destruction and death on both sides, with perhaps the brunt of the suffering being in ISIS controlled areas.
There has to be another way for jobless youth in Europe from immigrant backgrounds than this madness. History of the past few decades shows us how severe the reaction can be from the big military powers to such attacks. Pitiless is the word the French president used to describe how he is going to react. God knows how many are now in horrible suffering in ISIS controlled areas in Iraq & Syria. Afghanistan went through decades of HELL and has yet to recover. I hope & pray that that story will not be repeated in Iraq & Syria for as long as it played out in Afghanistan, and that somehow this madness of war and the suffering involved for the people caught up in it there comes to a quick end.
--- end my comment ---
[I thank wsj.com and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]
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