A Belgian story?
The question arises across Quiévrain.
An association called "Collective against Islamophobia in Europe" is suspected of wanting to continue from Brussels the activities of the CCIF recently dissolved in France, which earned the Belgian Minister of Justice to explain himself to the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday.
The CCIF (Collective against Islamophobia in France) was dissolved at the beginning of December by the French government, which accused this organization of making “Islamist propaganda” in the context of the mid-October assassination of teacher Samuel Paty, beheaded for showing his students caricatures of Muhammad.
The organization, which challenges the decision before the Council of State, the highest French administrative court, denounced a "relentlessness".
In Belgium, an association with almost the same title was created on November 1, 2020, with statutes officially published on January 13, 2021, Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne explained on Wednesday.
But “even if there are links between this organization and the one dissolved in France, the State Security (the Belgian civil intelligence service, editor's note) indicates that the association has so far not yet developed 'concrete activities', he added.
The minister insisted on the necessary respect for freedom of association, and recalled that in the current state of Belgian law the executive power was not empowered to dissolve an association, only the courts could deal with criminal acts. .
Mr. Van Quickenborne was questioned by several deputies judging "unacceptable" that such an association could settle in Belgium to "propagate radical Islam", according to them.
"None of us forgot that the terrorists who struck France on November 13 (2015) came from Belgium, had created a network here, had become radicalized from Belgium," said one of these deputies, Georges Dallemagne (centrist).
"This creates a particular responsibility for our country, particularly with regard to France"
"This creates a particular responsibility for our country, in particular with regard to France, but also in terms of coordination and European cohesion in relation to the radical Islamist threat," he continued.
The Minister of Justice said "understand the concern" about the CCIE, based in Brussels, and promised the vigilance of the Belgian state.
"The State Security will devote the necessary attention to this association if it were to develop activities in our country, and justice will intervene as it should", assured the Flemish liberal minister.
In France, the dissolution of the CCIF was announced by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin in the wake of the beheading, on October 16, of Samuel Paty by a young Islamist extremist.
Even before this measure, the collective had announced that it had dissolved itself and redeployed activities abroad.
