How the Wahhabism spread radicalised Belgium

Europe, Nov 19: The Paris attacks were planned in Syria, prepared and launched from Belgium. While the Belgium link to the Paris attack has become extremely clear questions are being asked on the handling of terrorism by the authorities in Belgium.

The experts say that Belgium has been too lienient on the issue of terrorism and has turned into a hot spot for Jihadi related activities.

What makes the scenario even more worrisome is that it is a strategic location between France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Terror in Belgium is not something new and the country has turned out to be a safe spot for various terror outfits.

Prior to the 9/11 attacks Ahmed Massoud an opponent of the Taliban was shot dead in Afghanistan by two men holding Belgian passports.

Further proof of the al-Qaeda's network in Belgium was found when the cops discovered a manual of the outfit in the country a first in Europe.

The Wahabi trouble:

Belgium has ignored several warnings regarding the spread of Wahabi culture. There is a major Wahabi influence in Belgium. Reports suggest that the religious leaders are not locals.

Almost 80 per cent of them have been brought in from other countries and during this exercise came the Wahabi preachers too.

These Wahabi preachers were sponsored by Saudi Arabia through the Grand Mosque in Brussels. This has led to a major radicalization exercise in the country thus making it a hot spot for terrorism related activities.

This radicalization exercise has resulted in 250 Belgians joining the ISIS in Syria and also Iraq. Belgium has also recorded the highest rate of foreign fighters per capita of all Europe.

In addition to this there are around a 1,000 who are on the radar of the intelligence agencies and alerts are shared regularly on the high rate of radicalization of the youth

The fragmentation of Muslims in Belgium:

Belgium has a Muslim community made out of disparate groups which never have a consensus and 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. 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.

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