Growing Muslim population has European politicians fretting

Brussels, Mar.25 (ANI): A dwindling of Old Europe's population and a growth in the Muslim population across the continent has become a cause for concern among politicians.

Filip Dewinter, a leader of the far-right separatist party Vlaams Belang, predicts there will eventually be a kind of civil war when long time residents of Brussels - the nation's capital and administrative seat of the European Union - realize their city is about to be taken over by Muslim immigrants.

Although there is no official statistics on how many Muslims live in Brussels, it is believed they make up about 25 percent of the city's one million urban residents.

"In those neighborhoods it's not our government that's in power, but the Muslim authorities - the mosques, the imams - who are in charge," Fox News quoted Dewinter, as saying.

For some Belgians, this growth in the Muslim population is not a problem.

The mayor of Molenbeek, Socialist Philippe Moureaux, has worked hard to help Muslims try to integrate over the past decade and a half and believes multiculturalism is a good thing.

Part of the fear among Old Europeans and politicians stems from nasty street crime and a strong anti-Western sentiment among Belgium's Muslims.

As far as Dewinter is concerned, integration simply isn't working. (ANI)