I think its pretty childish to suddenly drag in the Jewish community here. Same for the protester with the Israeli flag. Regardless of the alleged arrest for such vague grounds (which should be condemned), I think it weakens the point of such protest significantly to suddenly drag in all kinds of reference to who-knows-what we can think off. The Israeili case is only in very particular settings a relevant match (e.g. a pro-Palestine action or antisemitism)
I don´t know Detroit, but here in Europe it should still be possible to make a point about the islamization of Europe without dragging the Jews in. I´m sure they themselves will be happy to leave it that way too... 

And people in Europe are surprised when the Brits want to leave the E.U. 

The sooner the E.U. is brought tumbling  down,  the better for all of the people in Europe . Then we can say " free at last , thank God , we are free at last ".

I'm shocked.  As a Canadian who couldn't be there, I sent a flag that someone kindly agreed to carry at the demonstration.  When I first saw the videos coming out of the demonstration I couldn't believe it.  Had those tactics been used by the RCMP or any other police force here there would have been multiple enquiries and non-stop press hoopla.  Good grief, right now in Ontario the natives have physically taken control of a housing project in clear violation of several court injunctions, and beaten someone almost to death in the process, and yet the police are not allowed to stop it lest they tread on someone's rights.  During the G8 summit, the demonstrators rioted and the police were castigated for using teargas to break it up...never mind using physical force.

In Brussels, a group of people congregated peacefully and demonstrated against something they see, with good reason, to be a threat.  They were broken up and the leaders arrested by the use of obviously disproportionate and unnecessary force.  What "other side of the story" can there be? 

@ pvdh

 

I think you have a point about some of the language used here.  The comparison with the USSR is not a valid one, yet.  At the same time, the trend should be clear....even to you.  There is significant less freedom of political speech today in Belgium, than when I was growing up there over half a century ago.  And European integration has not helped IN THAT REGARD, because the same authoritarian forces that have captured 'education and media, and thus the political system' in several west-European countries, are mightily doing the same at the European level. Although I remain hopeful that some other European countries and cultures will prove in the end more resistant to the ongoing authoritarian-creep than Belgium has.

However, I think you are wrong to claim that the TBJ coverage has been "one-sided".  It apears certainly much more 'factual' than what one can read in most of the Belgian media (or worse, what one cannot find in those media).   Instead of being "one-sided", the Brussels Journal has helped illustrate and demonstrate that there is no genuine freedom of political speech in Belgium, and that judicial independence (always a very difficult ideal that PREsupposes certain cultural attainments) remains very much to be desired in Belgium. 

Your point about the one-sided coverage is well taken.  However, BJ is doing it's part while the vast majority of the Belgian and foreign media decline to do theirs - hence the perception of unbalanced coverage. Alternative media outlets like BJ (and many others) should neither apologize for showing up their mainstream competitors, nor reduce their coverage to create an even playing field. 

I don’t want to spoil your little party here, but please bear in mind that the Brussels journal was directly involved, and is thus showing only one side of the story here. And putting Belgium and Europe on the same level as the USSR is a big insult for all those dissidents that where tortured and eventually died in the Russian gulag. It’s like Palestinians that can’t enter Al Aqsa calling the Israeli police Nazi’s.   

 

Your last line made me laugh.  However, it is sad to see a citizen as yourself defend your yourself from robbery and then wind up in jail while your robber is freed.

 

Leshrac, do you belong to an organization that protests?

 

If not, pass this idea on to one...

 

The next time there is a protest, have protesters waving large signs that say:

"Bush, invade Belgium next-we want regime change!"

Remember it's belgium.

I myself was prosecuted (and still am) for voicing my opinion on various forums and internet outlets.

What happens when you criticize the establishment for it's violations free speech, right to defend yourself, right to a fair trial, etc... ?

They raid your house, steal your belongings (force you to "abandon" them, saying you'll go to jail if you don't), beat you up, lock you up for several hours while making enough noise to make sure you won't sleep (yes, it's true).

Then they present you in front of an ignorant magistrate, saying "what you do is evil and we can't allow you to spread anti-democratic propaganda"; while he/she can't even align 3 sentences in french without making 15 spelling and grammatical errors.

After that you're either "lucky", meaning you get to go home and have to "report" everything fucking thing you do to the police; or you get "unlucky" and the peace-loving, democratic, free-speech regime locks up you under some bullshit pretext.

I barely escaped the "unlucky" option.

What were my crimes ? Demonstrating belgium is viscerally corrupt, free speech inexistant and defending my life.

(Got mugged, pulled off a pellet gun, neutralized the attacker, got arrested for "illegal possession of weapon"... while the attacker was set free a few hours after his "arrest".)

Police here really hates the people, they're the lowest of the low (liège). They're like street scum with an uniform; they'll take every chance to hurt and harass you, all the while pretending it's "their job". Kinda the high school bully who had such low expectations in life he decided to sell it to the government.

I'm not for or against Vlaams Belang but i feel everyone should have a right to opine and state his opinions.

Unfortunately, the south is too far gone into being an ignorant, administrative, corrupt place.

This is socialism gone mad. Political correctness at all floors to make sure everyone is formatted into thinking the same bullshit about the same subjects, whereas different opinions are automatically labelled "anti-democratic extremist freak propaganda".

Most sad part of the story ? The majority of the south is dumb enough to buy it all without question... They're even proud of it !

A free thinker from liège.

You Europeans talk a good game, but nothing ever happens.  All talk and no action.

I wouldn't mind betting that if somebody was to do an analysis,they would find that this story has been (negatively) covered more comprehensively in the Muslim world than in our own Western media.It's a scandal!