{"id":5557,"date":"2013-04-30T18:46:25","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T17:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soerenkern.com\/?p=5557"},"modified":"2014-05-24T18:54:33","modified_gmt":"2014-05-24T17:54:33","slug":"belgium-erasing-christianity-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/soerenkern.com\/web\/2013\/04\/30\/belgium-erasing-christianity-islam\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgium Erasing Christianity for Islam"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The move to \u201cde-Christianize\u201d the Christian holidays has been roundly criticized by those opposed to the relentless spread of multiculturalism in Belgium.<\/em><\/p>\n

Belgium Erasing Christianity for Islam<\/strong><\/p>\n

Soeren Kern | Gatestone Institute<\/a> | April 30, 2013<\/p>\n

Wallonia, the French-speaking southern region of Belgium, has officially renamed the four major Christian holidays on the Belgian school calendar with secular names.<\/p>\n

Critics of the move say it reflects an ongoing effort by politicians in Belgium to remove Christianity from public life to accommodate a burgeoning Muslim population.<\/p>\n

The French Community of Belgium — which has its own institutions, parliament and government, and has jurisdiction over the five provinces of Wallonia and over the Francophone population of Brussels in the areas of education and culture — adopted a framework decree that formally establishes the new secularized names in the interests of \u201cadministrative simplification.\u201d<\/p>\n

As reported by the center-right newspaper La Libre<\/em><\/a> on March 26, school calendars within Belgium\u2019s French speaking community will permanently use the following terminology: the Christian holiday previously known as All Saints Day (Cong\u00e9s de Toussaint) will now be referred to as Autumn Leave (Cong\u00e9 d\u2019automne); Christmas Vacation (Vacances de No\u00ebl) is now Winter Vacation (Vacances d\u2019hiver); Lenten Vacation (Cong\u00e9s de Carnaval) is now Rest and Relaxation Leave (Cong\u00e9 de d\u00e9tente); and Easter (Vacances de P\u00e2ques) is now Spring Vacation (Vacances de Printemps).<\/p>\n

Although these secularized appellations have been used intermittently over the past several years, the new decree formalizes their use on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n

The move to \u201cde-Christianize\u201d the Christian holidays has been roundly criticized by those opposed to the relentless spread of multiculturalism in Belgium.<\/p>\n

Some of the most vocal opposition has come from the Reformist Movement (Mouvement R\u00e9formateur, MR), an alliance of four center-right parties that together comprise the largest classical liberal political formation in French-speaking Belgium.<\/p>\n

MR leader Fran\u00e7oise Bertieaux accused the Wallonian Minister of Education, Marie-Dominique Simonet, of pandering to Muslims at the expense of Christians. \u201cMinister Simonet wants to push religion [Christianity] out the door, but the new decree actually opens the way for reintroducing religion [Islam] through the window. Under the guise of letting go of [Christian] religion and tradition, this text opens the way to new vacation days for other religions [Islam]. MR firmly regrets this new formula,\u201d Bertieaux said.<\/p>\n

According to Bertieaux, Article 9, Paragraph 3 of the new decree provides Muslims with a waiver that would allow them to add Islamic religious holidays to the official school calendar.<\/p>\n

The dust-up in Wallonia comes just months after city officials in Brussels removed the traditional Christmas tree in city\u2019s Gothic central square and replaced it with a politically correct structure of abstract minimalist art.<\/p>\n

Critics accused the Socialist mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielemans, of declaring war on Christmas by installing the \u201cmulticultural\u201d structure of lights to avoid offending the city\u2019s growing Muslim population.<\/p>\n

Historically, a 20 meter (65 foot) fir tree taken from the forests of the Ardennes has adorned the city\u2019s main square, the Grand-Place. In 2012, however, it was replaced with a 25 meter (82 foot) new-age-like structure of lighted boxes (see picture here<\/a>). In addition, the traditional Christmas Market in downtown Brussels was renamed as \u201cWinter Pleasures 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mayor\u2019s office, where more than half of the city\u2019s eleven councilors are either Muslim or Socialist or both, said the non-tree — which cost the taxpayers of Brussels a total of \u20ac44,000 ($57,000), compared to \u20ac5,000 for the traditional tree — was part of a theme celebrating \u201clight.\u201d<\/p>\n

City Councilor Philippe Close said the aim was to show off the \u201cavant-garde character\u201d of Brussels by blending the modern and the traditional to produce something new and different.<\/p>\n

But Bianca Debaets, a Brussels councilor from the Christian Democratic and Flemish party, told the Flemish newspaper Brussel Nieuws<\/em><\/a> that she believed an argument over Muslim religious sensitivities had prompted the Brussels City Council to put up the light sculpture.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suspect that the reference to the Christian religion was the decisive factor in replacing the tree,\u201d Debaets said. \u201cFor a lot of people who are not Christians, the tree there is offensive to them. What will be next? Will all Easter eggs be banned in Brussels because they refer to Easter?\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with the BBC News<\/a>, Erik Maxwell, a resident of Brussels, said: \u201cWe think the tree has been put up for cultural reasons. A tree is for Christmas and Christians but now there are a lot of Muslims here in Brussels. So to avoid discussions they have just replaced a tree with a couple of cubes!\u201d<\/p>\n

After all the efforts to make Belgium more Islam-friendly, however, many Muslims say they still feel alienated from Belgian society.<\/p>\n

According to a new survey of Muslim youth in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of Belgium, only 30% of Muslim males between the ages of 15 and 25 feel as though they are accepted by Flemish society. This figure drops to 25% for Muslim females in the same age group.<\/p>\n

The survey, which was published by the daily newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen<\/em><\/a>on April 19, shows that 60% of Muslim youth believe that they will never be integrated into Belgian society. One in three of those surveyed say that he or she has been discriminated against at school, and one in five say they have been discriminated against at work. More than 50% say they have been victims of racism. Although 93% of those surveyed have Belgian citizenship, 42% of them say they consider themselves to be foreigners.<\/p>\n

The results are virtually unchanged from a similar survey conducted in 2005, and imply that years of government efforts to make Belgium more multicultural have done nothing to change the minds of Muslim youth.<\/p>\n

According to the Flemish Minister for Integration, Geert Bourgeois<\/a>, Muslim youth should work harder and complain less. \u201cThat so many young people feel discriminated against and do not feel accepted means that our society still has a lot of work to do. It\u2019s actually an \u2018us-them\u2019 story. We as a society can and should still make an extra effort, but conversely, Muslim youth should do more as well. Perhaps an inverted research shows that we just think that young Muslims do not belong because they do not want to belong,\u201d Bourgeois said.<\/p>\n

If Belgian multiculturalists have their way, however, asking Muslims to do more to integrate into Belgian society may soon become a criminal offense.<\/p>\n

In February, six Belgian senators (three of whom are Muslim) introduced a draft resolution<\/a> in the Belgian Federal Parliament that would make \u201cIslamophobia\u201d a crime punishable by fines and imprisonment.<\/p>\n

The draft text — which, among other objectives, seeks to equate \u201cIslamophobia\u201d with anti-Semitism — is audacious in scope and if passed would pose a devastating blow to the exercise of free speech in Belgium.<\/p>\n

According to the authors of the resolution, a person would be guilty of Islamophobia if he or she:<\/p>\n