Vlaams Belang broke the agreement

The agreement said that no Flanders flags would be flown and Vlaams Belang told us that its members and supporters would, therefore, fly no flags.


We have read comments by posters on websites and blogs suggesting we are being too hard on Vlaams Belang.

People must understand that we consider that Vlaams Belang broke an agreement which said that no political party would use 11th September 2007 to promote its own political agenda.

The agreement said that no Flanders flags would be flown and Vlaams Belang told us that its members and supporters would, therefore, fly no flags.

In return SIOE would report and support any future Vlaams Belang anti-Islamism events.

It was also repeatedly reported that Schumann Square was the assembly point, completely contradicting SIOE’s instructions to assemble in Luxembourg Place.

This could have lead completely innocent SIOE supporters, with no interest in Belgium’s internal politics, into what developed into a nasty situation in Schumann Square.

SIOE considered the safety of its demonstrators to be of paramount importance and our Aims and Rules explained this.

At a press conference scheduled later in the afternoon within the EU Parliament, Vlaams Belang distributed a leaflet reporting only the Schumann Square incident, and which also condemned the police for its “brutality”.

Following Anders Gravers and Stephen Gash having heated discussions with Vlaams Belang about the content and tone of the leaflet, the SIOE organisers refused to sit on the same stage with that party’s representatives.

Vlaams Belang made it clear in their statement to the assembled press, that the SIOE demonstration in Luxembourg Place was separate to the Vlaams Belang demonstration in Schumann Square.

One reporter suggested that organising a second demonstration at the same time and date as SIOE’s was rather a stupid thing to do, and SIOE agrees.

Subsequent TV news reports juxtaposed pictures of Anders Gravers and Stephen Gash with violent scenes from the Schumann Square debacle, even though neither of them even went to Schumann Square.

They both resent that.

Events at Schumann Square actually prevented SIOE supporters progressing there from Luxembourg Place, as originally planned.

SIOE considers that Vlaams Belang played right into Thielemans’s hands, which he must now be rubbing together with glee with an “I told you so” look on his fat face.

Some female Vlaams Belang supporters jokingly wore niqabs in Schumann Square.

Well, if Vlaams Belang doesn’t get its finger out of its political ass pretty damned quick, such women may find themselves compelled to wear niqabs when outdoors, if they are allowed out of the house.

The only way Islamism will be defeated is by fighting it single-mindedly, but you have to have a brain to have a mind, and it’s pretty obvious some leaders of some political parties are brainless.