Islam in Belgium
Encyclopedia
The practise of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
in Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
is relatively new, and is mostly observed in the Belgian immigrant communities. It is the largest minority religion
Minority religion
A minority religion is a religion held by a minority of the population of a country, state, or region. Minority religions may be subject to stigma or discrimination. An example of a stigma is using the term cult with its extremely negative connotations for certain new religious movements...
in Belgium.
Population
An 2008 estimation shows that 6% of the Belgian population, about 628,751, is Muslim, either Sunni, Shia, AleviAlevi
The Alevi are a religious and cultural community, primarily in Turkey, constituting probably more than 15 million people....
or Ahmadi
Ahmadiyya Muslim Community
The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community is the larger of two communities that arose from the Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889 in India by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad of Qadian . The original movement split into two factions soon after the death of the founder...
.
Muslims cover 25.5% of the population of Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, 4.0% of Wallonia and 3.9% of Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
.
The majority of Belgian Muslims live in the major cities, such as Antwerp, Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and Charleroi
Charleroi
Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. , the total population of Charleroi was 201,593. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of and had a total population of 522,522 as of 1 January 2008, ranking it as...
.
According to estimates released in 2007 by sociologist Jan Hertogen, the largest group of immigrants in Belgium, numbering 264,974, are Moroccans
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
. The Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
are the third-largest group, and the second-largest Muslim ethnic group, numbering 159,336. But these estimates are criticized by the General Direction of Statistics and Economical Information (former National Institute for Statistics) because he simply added the global number of naturalized people without taking into account those who died or remigrated afterwards Other nationalities represented are mostly Albanians, Pakistanis and West-Africans. No accurate numbers can be given as religious or ethnic censuses are forbidden in Belgium, and most people with roots in Islamic countries (including Christian Assyrian
Assyrian people
The Assyrian people are a distinct ethnic group whose origins lie in ancient Mesopotamia...
refugees from Turkey) took the Belgian nationality, their children born in Belgium are more and more born as Belgian citizens and thence do not appear in any statistics.
Moroccan and Turkish immigrants began coming in large numbers to Belgium starting in the 1960s as guest workers. Though the guest-worker program was abolished in 1974, many immigrants stayed and brought their families using family reunification
Family reunification
Family reunification is a recognized reason for immigration in many countries. The presence of one or more family members in a certain country, therefore, enables the rest of the family to immigrate to that country as well....
laws. Today the Muslim community continues to grow through marriage migration. More than 60% of Moroccan and Turkish youth marry partners from their home countries.
In 2009, Mohamed was the most popular given name in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and Antwerp, Belgium's most Muslim populated cities.
Religious Infrastructure
In 1974 Islam was recognized as one of the subsidized religions in Belgium and the Muslim Executive of BelgiumMuslim Executive of Belgium
De Belgische Moslim Executief or L'Exécutif des musulmans de Belgique is the official Muslim interlocutor of the Belgian federal government for the implementation of the July 19, 1974 law recognizing Islam as one of the subsidized religious or secular communities in Belgium according to the law...
was founded in 1996. In 2006, the government gave $7.7 million (6.1 million euros) to Islamic groups.
According to a 2005 Université Libre de Bruxelles
Université Libre de Bruxelles
The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...
study, about 10% of the Muslim population are "practicing Muslims."
There are an estimated 328 - 380
mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
s in the country.
Issues
According to a 2006 opinion poll 61% of the Belgian population think tensions between Muslims and other communities will increase in the future.Headscarf
In December 2004, the Belgian government said it was considering a ban on the wearing of any conspicuous religious symbols for civil servants.In June 2005 the Antwerp Court of Appeal ruled that it was outside the jurisdiction of the state to determine whether Islam requires women to wear a headscarf and that girls in public schools have the right to do so. However, the school board also has the authority to restrict that right for organizational reasons, or for the good functioning of the school, though it must justify any such restrictions.
At the end of 2005, approximately twenty municipalities had issued a ban on walking the streets completely veiled. In a few cases women were fined $190 (150 euros) for ignoring the ban. Under a 1993 executive order, persons in the streets must be identifiable, based on laws dating back to the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
. A veil which does not completely cover the body is however allowed.
Terrorism
Several terror plots in recent years involved fundamentalist Islamists.On 30 September 2003, a Belgian court convicted 18 men for involvement in a terror cell. Nizar Trabelsi
Nizar Trabelsi
Nizar ben Abdelaziz Trabelsi is a convicted terrorist and a former Tunisian former professional football player in Germany. He was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in 2003 for his association with Al-Qaida, and proposed involvement in militant attacks....
was sentenced to 10 years for plotting a suicide attack against the NATO air base at Kleine Brogel. Tarek Maaroufi
Tarek Maaroufi
Tarek Maaroufi, of the Tunisian Combat Group, was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in a Brussels-based fake passport ring that supplied fake Belgian passports to the men who assassinated former Afghan Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Massoud two days before the September 11...
, of the Tunisian Combat Group
Tunisian Combat Group
The Tunisian Combat Group or Tunisian Fighting Group is or was a loose network of terrorists who aspire to install an Islamist government in Tunisia....
, was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in a Brussels-based fake passport ring that supplied fake Belgian passports to the men who assassinated former Afghan Northern Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Massoud
Ahmed Shah Massoud
Ahmad Shah Massoud was a Kabul University engineering student turned military leader who played a leading role in driving the Soviet army out of Afghanistan, earning him the name Lion of Panjshir. His followers call him Āmir Sāhib-e Shahīd...
two days before the September 11 attacks.
In the week after the March 11, 2004 Madrid train bombings, Belgian police arrested four members of the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group
The Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group or Moroccan Islamic Fighting Group is a Sunni Islamist terrorist organization affiliated with al-Qaeda. It is sometimes referred to as GICM after its French name Groupe Islamique Combattant Marocain...
.
On June 8, 2004, 15 people connected with Rabei Osman El Sayed Ahmed, a main suspect in the Madrid bombings, were arrested in Antwerp and Brussels. A Belgian law enforcement official told the Los Angeles Times that the arrested men had been in contact with Ahmed, whom Italian police had captured on wiretaps discussing future attacks, and that they may have been headed for missions in Iraq.
In October 2004, a Belgian court sentenced eight Islamic militants to prison terms of up to 5 years for plotting attacks and for links to Al Qaeda. According to prosecutors, Saber Mohammed
Saber Mohammed
Saber Mohammed, an Iraqi nationalist who opposed Saddam Hussein, pleaded guilty to agreeing to help facilitate Islamic extremism in Brussels in 2004....
received three phone calls from senior Al Qaeda figure Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, which he was believed to be forwarding for colleagues. Also convicted was Tarek Maaroufi.
On November 9, 2005, Muriel Degauque
Muriel Degauque
Muriel Degauque was a Belgian woman from Charleroi and a convert to Islam.La Derniere Heure, a Belgian newspaper, claimed on December 1, 2005 that she was a suicide bomber in Iraq. According to Belgian authorities, a Belgian woman committed a suicide car bomb attack on November 9, 2005 against a...
, a Belgian convert to Islam, committed a suicide car bomb
Car bomb
A car bomb, or truck bomb also known as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device , is an improvised explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then detonated. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupants of the vehicle,...
attack against a U.S. military convoy south of Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
.
The information below was gathered from http://www.thereligionofpeace.com
On June 14, 2009 in Brussels, Belgium, A 32-year-old woman is murdered by her brothers for refusing to wear the veil.
On June 29, 2009 in Brussels, Belgium, A woman is found dead, the victim of an honor killing by her husband and brother-in-law for seeking a divorce.
On August 19, 2009, in Jette, Belgium, A man who says he was sent by Allah to punish women who wear makeup, walks into a beauty salon and attacks an employee while quoting the Qur'an.
On November 18, 2004 in Antwerp, Belgium, Synagogue worker gunned down on the streets of Antwerp.
Notable people
- partial list
- of Moroccan descent
- of Turkish descent