How Belgium became a rear base for jihadism in Europe
This January 20, 2014, they are three in the plane dreaming of Syria. The aircraft has not yet taken off from Brussels to Istanbul, but they are no doubt already thinking about the next stage: a new route to the south of Turkey towards Gaziantep, where the border and Aleppo will reach out to them. Among them, one will quickly achieve worldwide fame. Younes just turned thirteen. “He was a kid like any other, he probably thought he was going to Syria like you go on vacation,” recalls the mother of a classmate.
A few weeks later, his photo will be everywhere in the international press. “The youngest foreign jihadist in Syria! His brother, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, managed to deceive the vigilance of their parents and delight Younes at the end of his school. The future instigator of the Paris attacks achieves his first coup within the Islamic State.
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On this plane, accompanied by a friend who dreams of jihad, we also find Yacine (* the first name has been changed at the request of his parents). He will know no macabre glory. Badly in his skin, he first thought of getting involved in an NGO defending the Palestinians, before becoming passionate about the Syrian cause at the age of 18. Once there, he will quickly become disillusioned. Violence is everywhere, free.
On the phone, his mother, who is trying to keep in touch at all costs, is worried about seeing him fall into this morbid spiral. “You know mom, I might be dumb enough to come to Syria, but not that dumb. He tries to flee Syria, in vain.
Young people referred to as "Beljiki"
In February 2015, he was assigned to monitor Deir es-Zhor airport, which was bombed by the American army. Three days later, his mother, Géraldine Henneghien, received an SMS from a friend Yacine had made in Syria. Her son is dead. A short and pithy message. "I have nothing, I have no body to cry," laments his mother. Since then, Yacine's room has remained as it was, as if he hadn't left.
On January 20, 2014, three young Belgians are therefore preparing to fly away to join this Syria they fantasize about. A sadly banal journey across Quiévrain, as the whole world discovered after the attacks in Paris. "They were decided in Syria, organized in Belgium and perpetrated in France", insisted François Hollande at the Congress meeting in Versailles last week. And here is the Kingdom designated as one of the rear bases of jihadism in Europe.
These young people who have denied their country are referred to as “Beljiki” the Belgian in the ranks of the Islamic State that they joined. Relative to the number of inhabitants, Belgium has the largest number of foreign fighters in Europe. "These young people come from all over the country, with a high concentration in the municipalities of Brussels, but also in Flanders between Vilvoorde, Maline or Antwerp", explains Alexis Deswaef, lawyer for the association "Les parents concerned". representing affected families.
"Belgium is a small country where you get in and out quickly"
And when it's not the Belgians themselves, the presence of Mehdi Nemmouche in 2014 then of Ayoub El Khazzani, the Thalys shooter, came as a reminder that foreign jihadists were not afraid to invite themselves as well. "Belgium is a small country where you enter and leave quickly, it is likely to attract all those immersed in illegal activities," said Brice De Ruyver, the former security adviser of the former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, and professor at the University of Ghent. Especially since the organization of this country of administrative mille-feuilles – where the federal power must cohabit with strong regions (Wallonia, Flanders, Brussels) and the municipalities – complicates police cooperation.
The ease with which weapons can be obtained there is undoubtedly another “competitive advantage” in the eyes of the jihadists. Amedy Coulibaly, the terrorist of the Hypercacher, had come there to buy his. This feature is not new. Until 2006, the authorities dared not touch some of the most permissive legislation in Europe. The jobs generated near Liège by one of the largest arms manufacturers in the world, FN Herstal, obviously did not encourage governments to look too closely at it.
“It was easy to obtain an authorization to have rifles or pistols, with a flexible classification which sometimes put certain weapons of war in the category of sporting weapons”, notes Brice De Ruyver. In 2006, things finally changed, but a black market had already developed enormously due to the abundant supply. When weapons from the war in the former Yugoslavia began to be exported to the rest of Europe, it was quite naturally to Belgium that they headed, since "the reputation of our black market was already well established “, notes the university.
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Molenbeek, a special place
In this landscape, Molenbeek occupies a special place. Abdelhamid Abaaoud and the Abdeslam brothers, perpetrators of the Paris massacres, were from there, as was one of the actors in the Madrid attacks eleven years earlier. "It was already hard to find a job before when you marked Molenbeek on your CV, but now our reputation is global," laments Abdel, an educator for adolescents for 20 years in this municipality of Brussels.
Like all the inhabitants, he saw microphones and cameras arrive last week. One of the meeting points: the home of the Abaaoud family, a stone's throw from the town hall. The little white three-storey house has the curtains drawn, with hanging from the window a small paper Belgian flag where the yellow has completely faded, like a vestige of a distant past.
In front, the journalists take turns tirelessly, waiting for the house to come back to life. Ben, an 85-year-old Moroccan, shakes his head as he leans on his cane. “It's useless, they've been gone for a long time. We must stop speaking ill of our city”
The old man is part of the first wave of immigration that arrived after 1964 from Morocco. At the time, “Little Manchester” was industrious, work was easy to find. Soon, other countries send their offspring to Molenbeek, which today has around a hundred nationalities.
People are flocking, cramming into these little brick houses no higher than three floors, with a very Brussels character, some three kilometers from the Grand'Place. “It's not a ghetto like you have in France. This city is worth more than its label, it exudes real positive energy,” defends Yasmina Ben Hammou, a family counselor in her thirties.
“This high density with a very poor and immigrant population makes it easier prey for Islamists”
The economic crisis that began in the 1980s spared part of the city. Not the one stuck near the canal. In these districts, where there are 23,000 inhabitants per km2, the unemployment rate now affects 40% of young people. Poverty quickly leads communities to withdraw into themselves.
At the "Nieuw Royal", rue de l'Ecole, the tea room welcomes an exclusively male clientele, who sip their mint tea in front of "Al-Arabyia", the Saudi continuous news channel, in the middle of a special broadcast on the Paris attacks.
"This high density with a very poor and immigrant population makes it easier prey for the Islamists," said Dave Sinardet, political scientist at the VUB. Sarah Turine, the current deputy mayor (Ecolo) in charge of social cohesion, qualifies this observation. “The former mayor, Philippe Moureaux, used to say that by giving a job to a young person, you solved 80% of the problem. But that's forgetting the question of identity, ”she explains.
Géraldine Henneghien, Yacine's mother, converted to Islam years ago. "I am a practitioner, but my faith is private: I don't wear a headscarf, I just do Ramadan," she explains. In January, after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, one of her colleagues turned to her. "But what else did you do there?" “Last week, when everyone was talking only about the attacks in Paris, she was on vacation. “Fortunately, I escaped the remarks this time. I already live in Molenbeek…”, she laughs. This decline, his son born to a Moroccan father was not capable of it. Identified as Moroccan in Belgium, and Belgian in Morocco. "For these children of immigrant origin, it's hard to find their place," says Géraldine Henneghien.
A quest for identity
It was not poverty that drove Karim to ISIS. Their family belongs to the middle class. “We are normal Belgians! Abdelhamid Abaaoud's family were not in distress either, the father having a successful clothing store. "Jihadism has less to do with the socio-economic situation than with the future prospects of young people", assures Rik Coolsaet, professor at the University of Ghent and specialist in Islamist terrorism.
In Belgium, this quest for identity is made even more complicated by the influence of Saudi Arabia on local Islam. In 1967, King Baudouin made a gift of choice to King Faisal: the building of the great Mosque of the Cinquantenaire, the oldest in the city. No doubt he imagines that the oil windfall would be generous in return. Saudi Arabia is taking the opportunity to set up the Islamic and Cultural Center of Belgium there, which will help to spread Wahhabism in the country.
The influence of this rigorous current remains strong even today. When she goes to the Muslim bookstores of Molenbeek, the elected Sarah Turine is upset by what she sees there. "Everything is centered on Wahhabism, it's poverty compared to the richness of Muslim literature," she laments. Without local training centers, many imams also pass through Saudi Arabia, without always speaking French or Dutch. “They are disconnected from reality, young people are increasingly looking elsewhere,” continues the elected Ecolo.
Elsewhere precisely, the offer becomes abundant. “The mosque is over. Now for young people, there is Youtube”, explains Abdel, the educator for teenagers. In the streets, we also saw new preachers arriving. They accost people at the exit of the shops, on the square in front of the Mosque. Jean-Louis Denis, known as "The Submissive", was one of them. This tall, red-haired scoundrel roamed the streets of certain Brussels municipalities for more than three years.
In Molenbeek, you could meet him in the parking lot of Aldi, haranguing young people. “Democracy and Islam are not compatible”, hammered everywhere this member of the Salafist organization “Sharia 4 Belgium”. He seduces young people, who soon join him at the "resto du Tawhid", an organization he founded to distribute food to the needy. But in 2013, the police arrested him.
Under the guise of charity, Jean-Louis Denis is suspected of having served as a tout to send young people to Syria. “It is Allah who chooses his army, we throw the seed,” he explains in a video shot at the time, and broadcast at his trial last week. Fifteen years in prison were required against him, even if the responsibility of one of his accomplices remains unclear. Abdelkader El Farssaoui obviously bought the plane tickets for the young people enlisted by Jean-Louis Denis. But the prosecution refused to let him be heard on the grounds that he would also be a police indicator…
Géraldine Henneghien does not know how her son Yacine was enlisted. Everything happened very quickly, a few weeks, and suddenly the anguish that her son would do something stupid and leave for Syria. To avoid the worst, with her husband, they ended up filing a complaint, in the hope that the police would prevent her from flying away. "We can't do anything ma'am, he's an adult", we answer him.
"For several years, until 2014, there was denial from the Belgian authorities, who refused to tackle the problem," said Alexis Deswaef, the families' lawyer. Two weeks later, Yacine flew with Abdelhamid Abaaoud's brother.
