Molenbeek, Belgium, and its canal. Kiev.Victor/Shutterstock. All Rights Reserved.The recent terrorist attacks in Paris have sent a shockwave through Belgium. As the links between the Paris attackers and Belgium became evident, the commune of Molenbeek, one of Belgium’s most impoverished suburbs (also heavily populated by people of an ethnic background) became the focus of the world’s media attention. Subsequently, Molenbeek soon gained notoriety as Europe’s terrorist capital: the Molenbeekistan.
Cleansing 'Molenbeekistan'
Echoing Nicolas Sarkozy’s statement that France’s citées (housing projects) had to be “cleansed with a Kärcher” after the 2005 riots, Belgium’s Minister of Interior, Jan Jambon, a member of the nationalist Flemish party (NVA), similarly, vowed to “clean up” Molenbeek. Two months after the attacks, Minister Jambon presented his “plan canal” (in reference to Molenbeek’s canal).
The plan aims at increasing the police presence in the area by a thousand agents before 2019. The Belgian government also vowed to invest millions of euros for the police and justice system to take action against "radicalisation, violent extremism and terrorism in the canal zone”. This means measures going from investment in new surveillance technologies to increased control over “places of worship” (and in this case of course one has to understand “Islamic places of worship”).
