(Brussels Times) Belgium is reshuffling and expanding its terrorism database in order to better equip law enforcement authorities to monitor and share information about “potentially dangerous people,” particularly behind bars. Justice Minister Koen Geens announced in a press release that the common […]
(Brussels Times) A Belgian court has given the government 75 days to begin organising the repatriation of a Belgian woman affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) and her child from the Al-Hol refugee camp in Syria. Belgium is expected to appeal the […]
(Brussels Times) Two Belgian IS women originally from Antwerp were repatriated from Turkey on Friday and placed under detention in Antwerp and Bruges, the spokesperson of the Directorate of Prisons confirmed on Saturday. The two sisters, Fatima and Rahma Benmezian, were sentenced […]
(Brussels Times) Turkey has sent the first two Belgian IS women, Fatima (24) and Rahma (31) Benmezian, to Belgium by plane on Friday. When the plane lands at Brussels Airport Zaventem on Friday evening, the two sisters will immediately be arrested and […]
(Brussels Times) Two Belgian jihadist widows, Tatiana Wielandt (27) and Bouchra Abouallal (26), have been arrested by Turkish police, reports VRT NWS. They fled Syria to go to Turkey with their six children on Wednesday. De Standaard claimed they handed themselves in […]
(Brussels Times) Since the Turkish invasion of Syria, nine Belgian women have managed to escape from the Kurdish camps where they were imprisoned, and some are trying to get back to Belgium. Nine Belgian women affiliated with the terrorist group Islamic State […]
(Brussels Times) Vlaams Belang on Thursday launched a campaign in Antwerp and on Facebook against the return of terrorist fighters to Belgium. The aim of the campaign is to put pressure on the government and press for measures such as striking former […]
(Brussels Times) Nacer Bendrer, already sentenced to 15 years in jail for supplying weapons to the perpetrator of the attack on the Jewish Museum, Mehdi Nemmouche, on Monday received an additional three years for a separate case of illegal arms possession. The […]
(Brussels Times) The pre-trial chamber of the Brussels court decided on Thursday that the preventive detention period of four individuals suspected of being involved in the Brussels terror attacks will be extended. The detention of the four individuals concerned will be extended […]
(Brussels Times) A court in Brussels on Wednesday examined the case brought by two Belgian fighters in Syria, Tatiana Wielandt (27 years) and Bouchra Abouallal (26 years), against the Belgian state. Currently in northern Syria, the women demand that the Belgian state […]
(Brussels Times) A family member of Mohamed Abrini, a key suspect in the Brussels and Paris terror attacks, has been convicted on terror charges and handed a suspended prison sentence. A criminal court in Liège handed Abrini’s cousin, an unidentified 24-year-old woman, […]
(Brussels Times) Four terrorist suspects have seen their pre-trial detention extended as part of the investigation into the 2015 Paris attacks, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday. In the context of the investigation related to the attacks in Paris on 13 November 2015, […]
(Brussels Times) A former Islamic religion teacher accused of indecent assault will stand trial on Tuesday morning in the Brussels Criminal Court. The 53-year-old faces charges of indecent assault and harassment for unsolicited touching, an accusation made by a former student of […]
(Brussels Times) Flanders wants to create an institution equivalent to Belgium’s intelligence and state security agency in order to oversee mosques established in its territory. Overseeing officially recognised mosques is a competency of Belgium’s State Security Service (VSSE in Dutch), managed by […]
(Brussels Times) The new Flemish coalition agreement that was presented on Tuesday called for ideological neutrality in schools, banning headscarves and other religious symbols. “In education, we warrant neutrality. In provincial and community education, we ensure the philosophical neutrality for teachers and […]
(Brussels Times) The system of Passenger Name Record (PNR) in operation in Belgium since January 2018 has managed to track down 94 suspected terrorists and suspects involved in a variety of crimes, according to the government’s crisis centre. Under the PNR system, […]
(Brussels Times) An Islamic school in the Flemish city of Genk will appeal an accreditation refusal based on constitutional grounds which prevented it from opening on the first day of school. The Flemish minister of education, Hilde Crevits, said Genk’s Selam College […]
(Brussels Times) Selam College, an Islamic school planning to open its doors in September, has not received provisional recognition. This was decided on Friday by Flemish Education Minister Hilde Crevits on the basis of the education inspection opinion and of a competent […]
(Brussels Times) Dutch-speaking green party Groen want to strike down a general ban on the wearing of headscarves in Flemish schools and only ban them on a case-by-case basis, a party member announced Wednesday. Elisabeth Meuleman, a Groen MP, announced that her […]
(Brussels Times) The Leuven communal council spoke out on Monday evening against the withdrawal of recognition from the Al Ihsaan mosque. This opinion was expressed in the context of the process begun by the Flemish minister-president Liesbeth Homans (N-VA) to withdraw official […]
(Brussels Times) Four terrorist suspects have seen their pre-trial detention extended by a Brussels trial court as part of the investigation into the 2015 Paris attacks, federal prosecutors announced Thursday. Prosecutors said the council chamber of Brussels ordered the detention of Ossama […]
(Brussels Times) The Muslim Executive, the body that represents Belgium’s Muslim community to the public authorities, is to take on 18 women in religion-related roles for the first time. The Executive will take on nine theological experts and nine preachers, who will […]
(Brussels Times) Brussels police confiscated nine sheep meant to be sacrificed without stunning on unauthorised slaughter floors set up in Brussels for the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, celebrated at the weekend. Initial inspections carried out on Friday saw police seize two sheep […]
(Brussels Times) Abdelhay Bakkali Tahiri, president of the Islam party, has been fired from his job with Bruxelles Propreté for reasons which the agency denied were politically motivated. Tahiri (photo, centre) had worked for the regional waste management agency for nine years, […]
(Brussels Times) The new Flemish Minister President Liesbeth Homans from N-VA has initiated procedures against the Al Ihsaan mosque in Leuven. The mosque received substantial criticism back in 2017 following the imam’s preaching, justifying physical violence against women, and had to close […]
(Brussels Times) Headscarves and other religious symbols will no longer be banned in higher education schools managed by Brussels’ French Community Commission (COCOF), a member of the coalition government announced at the weekend. The ban was also lifted from Francophone adult education […]
(Brussels Times) A Belgian terrorist suspect in the Brussels and Paris terror attacks carried out months apart from each other has been extradited to France, Belgian federal prosecutors confirmed Wednesday. Ali El Haddad Asufi, wanted for his suspected involvement in the November […]
(Brussels Times) A proposal to open a temporary slaughterhouse for Eid al-Adha, one of the most important holidays of the Muslim faith, has been requested to the Brussels region through a letter sent by the Brussels municipality of Molenbeek. The decision to […]
(Brussels Times) Several members of the Francophone environmentalist party, Ecolo, have distributed unapproved flyers in Laeken with political stances on wearing a headscarf in public administration and at school, and for un-anaesthetised slaughter. “Should the headscarf be allowed in the counter? Yes. […]
(Brussels Times) Over 300 Belgian academics from universities across the country have signed an open letter calling for the repatriation of Belgian children in Syria, prompted by the death in April of a one-year-old Belgian in the war-torn country. “This baby is […]
(Brussels Times) Belgium’s Muslim authority has renewed an invitation to foreign imams to observe prayer during the month of Ramadan, due to a lack of sufficient preachers in the country. A temporary months-long Belgian visa will be delivered to 81 Moroccan imams, […]
(Brussels Times) The federal state security agency has listed more than 100 organisations in Belgium representing the extremist religious Salafist tendency of Islam, according to a written answer provided to justice minister Koen Geens. Salafism is a tendency of Islam developed in […]
(Brussels Times) The Flemish government will not accredit any new mosques in the region for the next five years, according to home affairs minister Liesbeth Homans. Homans (photo) had commissioned a study from the university of Leuven, which she now says justifies […]
(Brussels Times) At the start of the trial of Mehdi Nemmouche, the man accused of carrying out an armed attack on the Jewish museum in Brussels in May 2014 in which four people died, the defence laid out its main five-point defence […]
(Brussels Times) Some 182 terrorists, terrorist accomplices, hate preachers and radicalized individuals that have been sentenced since the rise of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and the beginning of the war in Syria, have been released. These figures have been requested […]
(Brussels Times) Questioned about the fact that he had told the investigating judge that he would speak in the Assise Court, terror suspect Mehdi Nemmouche said on Wednesday that he would do so at the end of his trial. “I shall express […]
(Brussels Times) Mehdi Nemmouche, the man accused of carrying out the attack on the Jewish Museum in Brussels in which four people died in May 2014, spoke briefly at his trial in Brussels yesterday, as we report elsewhere, and then took a […]
(Brussels Times) Out of 100 foreign fighters who have returned to Belgium from Syria, the Organ for Coordination of Threat Analysis (known as “OCAM”) believes that only one-quarter still present a serious terrorist threat. The finding is reported in the daily Het […]
(Brussels Times) Concerning the trial of Mehdi Nemmouche and Nacer Bendrer, Alexander Strens’s mother expects Nemmouche “to explain himself, and say what he did, who his accomplices are, and what his motives are,” his lawyer, Mr. Dalne, said on Monday upon arrival […]
(Brussels Times) At least 369 persons have been convicted of infractions of a terrorist nature in Belgium in the past four years, La Dernière Heure reported on Friday, quoting official data. The figures were provided by the federal Office of the Public […]
(Brussels Times) The Belgian intelligence services have warned of a growing trend for Muslim parents to take their children out of [the] schools system, for home-schooling which exposes the children to extremist Salafist propaganda. The state security was announcing its latest annual […]
(Brussels Times) Charity sector organisations, including mosques, are required by law to deposit their accounts at the Commercial Court Registry. On Friday, the Sudpresse publications are reporting however that very few of the Walloon and Brussels mosque charities fulfil this statutory obligation. […]
(Brussels Times) The Islamic and Cultural Center of Belgium (CICB) contests before the State Council the decision of Interior Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) to cancel the concession agreement for the Great Mosque of Brussels, Sudpresse newspapers report Thursday. The oral arguments were […]
(Brussels Times) There were no incidents during Geert Wilders’ visit to Antwerp. Geert Wilders is the leader of the extreme right in the Netherlands. Accompanied by members of Vlaams Belang, he left flowers at the foot of the statues of William of […]
(Brussels Times) The hijab — the headscarf worn by Muslim women as the minimum form of coverage — should be the subject of a ban in schools under the next legislature, according to federal secretary of state Zuhal Demir. “The headscarf has […]
(Brussels Times) The two rulings handed down by the lower court in Ghent against banning the burkini in swimming pools are a first and thus constitute a precedent, the Interfederal Centre for Equal Opportunities, UNIA, stressed on Friday. The court ruled that […]
(Brussels Times) The secretary of state for equal opportunities, Zuhal Demir, said on Wednesday that she wanted the possibility of banning burkinis from swimming pools to be studied. Demir said she saw the wearing of the garment in swimming pools as a […]
(Brussels Times) The Mediahuis publications are reporting on Friday that in two judgments, the court in Ghent overturned the prohibition of the burkini. The cases related to two swimming pools in the north of the country, which had instigated the rule. Prohibiting […]
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