Fragmentation of Muslims in Belgium poses a terror risk

New Delhi, Nov 16: Two of the perpetrators of the Paris attacks lived in Brussels which brings us to the question is Belgium facing a problem of terrorism. Where Belgium is concerned the writing seems to be on the wall and in the years to come, it will face more such problems.

One of the primary reasons is that Belgium has a Muslim community made out of disparate groups which never have a consensus. According a very interesting talk given by Belgium's Interior Minister Jan Jambon this makes it difficult for the government to work effectively with community leaders.

It is this fragmentation of the Muslim community which has made the problem so immense in Belgium the leader also points out.

Further Jambon says that Belgium has a complex structure of government, which makes exchanging of information between police and intelligence services difficult. Brussels has six police departments, just covering the city, and 19 municipalities with 19 mayors. The approach is too divided between different local authorities here in Brussels, the minister also notes.

The bigger problem however is with regard to the passports and identification cards. Jambon says that the government can withdraw passports and identity cards from terrorist suspects or people intending to travel to Syria if they were born elsewhere and then settled in Belgium. However, many suspects are third or fourth generation migrants and the government cannot legally withdraw nationality in these cases.

Further the minister also spoke about the online recruitment process. All recruitments these days takes place online, he says. While in many cases the online recruitment process can be tracked or cracked there are still some forums which pose a difficulty for the security agencies.

Jambon gives the example of the Playstation 4 in this connection. The minister says that communication via Playstation 4 is particularly difficult because authorities struggle to decrypt it.

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