Report from Brussels: trying to gentrify Molenbeek, idealism met reality
Here’s a fascinating article (to me, anyway) written by a man named Teun Voeten who moved to the Molenbeek section of Brussels back in 2005 and lived there for nine years.
In case you haven’t heard, Molenbeek is the area mostly populated by Muslim immigrants and their offspring, and it was the home to the terror cell that planned the Paris attacks. Voeten came there for the low rents, and brought with him some idealistic and naive hopes (is idealism always naive?):
I was part of a new wave of young urban professionals, mostly white and college-educated ”” what the Belgians called bobo, (“bourgeois bohémiens”) ”” who settled in the area out of pragmatism. We had good intentions. Our contractor’s name was Hassan. He was Moroccan, and we thought that was very cool. We imagined that our kids would one day play happily with his on the street. We hoped for less garbage on the streets, less petty crime. We were confident our block would slowly improve, and that our lofts would increase in value. (We even dared to hope for a hip art gallery or a trendy bar.) We felt like pioneers of the Far West, like we were living in the trenches of the fight for a multicultural society.
Those nine years were an eye-opener for Voeten, who seems to be the classic liberal mugged by reality:
Hassan turned out to be a crook and disappeared with €95,000, the entire budget the tenants had pooled together for our building’s renovation. The neighborhood was hardly multicultural. Rather, with roughly 80 percent of the population of Moroccan origin, it was tragically conformist and homogenous…
Over nine years, as I witnessed the neighborhood become increasingly intolerant. Alcohol became unavailable in most shops and supermarkets; I heard stories of fanatics at the Comte des Flandres metro station who pressured women to wear the veil; Islamic bookshops proliferated, and it became impossible to buy a decent newspaper. With an unemployment rate of 30 percent, the streets were eerily empty until late in the morning. Nowhere was there a bar or café where white, black and brown people would mingle. Instead, I witnessed petty crime, aggression, and frustrated youths who spat at our girlfriends and called them “filthy whores.” If you made a remark, you were inevitably scolded and called a racist
There’s much more; well worth reading. One of the reasons it’s important is that it’s been clear for years that Brussels is an epicenter for jihadism in Europe. The city’s policies illustrate the worst excesses that have allowed this sort of fanaticism to slowly build—as Voeten describes—over the course of the last decade into a very critical mass. It’s the result of a combination of disorganization and fear on the part of the authorities, plus of course the vital ingredient of PC multi-culti thinking [emphasis mine]:
How did Molenbeek become Europe’s jihadi base? Essentially, it has to do with Belgium’s messy governance and the culture of denial that pervades the debate about Islam in the country. Molenbeek is a vibrant community, with narrow streets and a busy street life. There is a teahouse on every corner, a quiet mosque on every block, where people can congregate undisturbed. There are cheap apartments galore, no questions asked. Just like the guerrilla can hide in the jungle, jihadis feel safe in the disorganized Kashba of Molenbeek. The highway and the city’s busiest international railroad station are a stone’s throw away. It’s the perfect logistical base.
It is nearly impossible to explain to an outsider, but Belgium is a country of six governments, Brussels a city with 19 mayors. These many administrative posts are not filled with competent people.
Not just incompetent, but willfully stupid and in thrall to a theory of multiculturalism that is on a course to bring about the death of all they hold dear. Time to wake up. Way past time, actually.
Islam will never be reformed. Muslims will never fully integrate and assimilate into the West. Best to quarantine them in their home countries.
People are looking for the “good Muslims” the way they looked for the “good Germans” to save them from themselves. That usually doesn’t happen, because people Obey Authority, not weaklings.
Quelle suprise? Non.
Muhammed gave then their strategy – and we ought to respect their religion and do the same: demand religious conversion, separation, or kill them.
Europe must either deport ALL its Muslims and abandon its leftist ‘isms’ or embrace it’s dhimmitude. IF it does neither, death and destruction, followed by an abject and harsh surrender will be it’s fate.
“Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” Robert Anson Heinlein
thanks for reviewing my piece… one correction, I am not the classic liberal… read my books ‘tunnel people and ‘How de Body? Hope and Horror in Sierra Leone and you will see. stay in touch, teun voeten
This bring forward what the Italian journalist and novelist e Italian journalist and novelist Oriana Fallaci said
Welcome, teun! Good piece of yours.
As far as the term “classic liberal” goes—it generally means something different here than it does in most parts of Europe. In general, the terms in Europe describe positions more to the left than they do here. For example, European conservatives are less conservative than American conservatives. European liberals are more liberal than American liberals. And so on and so forth.
I was referring less to your politics (with which I’m clearly unfamiliar) and more to your social liberalism (which I share to a certain extent, at least a little bit). For example, only a social liberal would have the expectations/hopes you describe yourself as having had when you first moved to Molenbeek.
My reference to “classic liberal mugged by reality” was actually meant to be a reference to the classic Irving Kristol quote defining a neoconservative as “a liberal mugged by reality.” Not saying you’re a neoconservative, either; it’s just a description of what sometimes happens to such ideals when they meet conditions in the real world.
Just to make it all even more confusing, I used the term “classic liberal.” But in this country, “classical liberal” (a bit different) actually refers more often to the libertarian end of things.
Thank you Neo for this link. A very interesting essay.
I take my hat off to Mr. Voeten, this kind of in depth, first hand reporting is very rare and, as such, very valuable.
Teun,
Very informative, you paint a clear picture. Thank you.
neoneo,
You have been busy today, and special thanks for introducing us to Teun. His is a voice that deserves widespread attention.
The article is now inaccessible. What gives, I wonder?
Cornhead Says:
November 21st, 2015 at 1:23 pm
Islam will never be reformed. Muslims will never fully integrate and assimilate into the West. Best to quarantine them in their home countries.
&&&
Preach it brother.
1,200 years IS A TREND.
Because Muslims cannot be reformed or assimilated, which is widely accepted and understood, what are the Euros to do?
I would cut off all social assistance to the refugees, no free education for non-citizens, guarded residential units (no weapons in or out) and walled-off industrial compounds where each Muslim had a Euro partner in charge of their team, at higher pay. Just for starters. Segregation? Yes.
Germans, and thereby the Eurocracy, are in thrall of honoring the “dignity” of all purported refugees.
This utterly elastic notion of worth means that everything goes: Green Party head Christina Roth says “we cannot say ‘yes’ to 1,000 refugees and ‘no’ to 1001.” Ego, ALL will be accepted. No vetting whatsoever.
By contrast, America has a history of sensible limits on assistance. We have more tradition of self-help, combined with conditional assistance. Even refugees seeking refuge in the US are required to tell the federal government their religion, the parties endangering them and what and when it occurred.
“The Camp of The Saints” is not an old novel – it is reality in Europe, today. And apparently not even 500 innocent civilian casualties will change that.
So, essentially what makes America better is that we gentrify our ghettos, breaking up racist, hate-filled subcultures before the rot sets in?
Frog
like how Jews treated in Europe in the past, isn’t it?
japan:
Yes. But the Krauts were working to kill Jews, if I remember correctly. You can correct me if necessary.
In the present case, it is the building of really large prisons to house the actual and future killers. The Muzzies.