Paul Belien
Encyclopedia
Paul Belien, born 1959, is a Flemish
journalist and founder of the conservative-libertarian blog
The Brussels Journal
.
Belien is both known as both a pro-American and a prolific writer and author. Belien has written in several newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal
, The Independent
, The Washington Times
, The American Conservative
, The Daily Mail, The Spectator
, and in Belgium 't Pallieterke
, Gazet van Antwerpen
, Trends and De Tijd
. He was editor of the conservative
magazine
Nucleus.
He is an advocate of Flemish
independence
and free trade
and is an opponent of abortion
. Beliën strongly opposes immigration into Europe by Islamic fundamentalists
.
Belien has also published a book about Belgium and the "Belgianisation" of Europe entitled A Throne in Brussels.
Belien is a master of law with specialisations in European and social security
law from the University of Ghent and has a PhD
in international studies
from the University of Buckingham
. He is vice president of the International Free Press Society
and a senior editor at the Hudson Institute
.
Belien is married to Dr. Alexandra Colen
, a member of Belgian Federal Parliament
and the political party Vlaams Belang
. They have homeschooled
all of their children.
through the life and acts of the country's six kings. Contrary to mainstream historians, Belien depicts an artificial state, called into existence by the Belgian revolution
of 1830, and led by rather ruthless kings and a corrupt political elite ever since. The book touches controversial subjects such as Leopold II
's brutal colonisation of the Congo
, the relation to Nazi Germany
in World War II
and the numerous Belgian political scandals
in recent decades, including the pedophile Marc Dutroux
affair. He suggests that the real father of Queen Victoria's husband Albert, Prince Consort, was King Leopold I of Belgium
, Albert's maternal uncle, rather than Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
, as is otherwise believed.
Belien warns that the European Union
, if based on multi-ethnic Belgium as a model, will be an artificial construct without any national consciousness, prone to corruption and elitarian
government.
The book has ample source notes and was well-received by some eurosceptic
or conservative commentators, including philosopher Roger Scruton
, Lord Rees-Mogg, economist Lord Ralph Harris
, historian Hugo Vickers, and British Conservative MEP
Daniel Hannan
.
, until he got fired in April 1990.
Belien had received information in October 1989, that the Belgian King, Baudouin, would not sign the new abortion law. Although the editor in chief of the Gazet van Antwerpen, Lou de Clerck, found this information to be too sensitive to be published, Belien published it anyway in the Wall Street Journal on 1 November 1989 and also later in NRC Handelsblad
. In reaction to this, De Clerck refused to let Beliën write in foreign newspapers, mentioning his relationship to the Gazet van Antwerpen.
An op-ed of Belien for the NRC Handelsblad
(published 6 April 1990) mentioned that Belien was working "for a newspaper in Antwerp, which name he could not mention". A couple of days later Beliën was fired. Jos Huypens, deputy editor of the Gazet, said that the cause of Belien's firing was a "conflict that was dragging on for years". Shortly later, the Wall Street Journal published another Beliën piece, detailing the connections between political parties and the media in Belgium.
Leo de Haes, a former journalist at Humo, alleged that Belien was fired in order to rid the Gazet from "Vlaams Blok
elements".
Belien reflected on current Belgian
VLD
prime-minister Guy Verhofstadt
, saying that Verhofstadt brought Flemish Liberalism to the brink of the abyss. Beliën stated that he saw in Verhofstadt a transformation from adoring the economic liberalism of Ronald Reagan
and Margaret Thatcher
, and the laureling of Ludwig Erhard
of Verhofstadt in Belien's magazine Nucleus in 1990, to a Third Way position taken by Tony Blair
and Bill Clinton
, with Verhofstadt ultimately taking an Old Europe stance with Jacques Chirac
and Gerhard Schröder
in 2003. According to Belien, this last 'change of winds' by Verhofstadt prevented him to become the next President of the EU Commission
. Furthermore, Belien thinks that the vacuum left by Verhofstadt's failure to turn the VLD
into a broad people's party has been filled by the Vlaams Belang
.
asking him to remove the post Geef ons Wapens! ("Give us Weapons!") from his blog
, The Brussels Journal
. The agency falls under the responsibility of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
and is directed by Jozef de Witte. The agency claimed Beliën's blog post was a "call for violence against a group because of its ethnic or national origin" and that it violated the Belgian law of 1981 on racism and xenophobia.
The Centre against Racism didn't saw/overlooked the English written article from the hand of Paul Belien, two days earlier. Belien wrote : " For an entire week the police, the authorities and most of the media have tried to downplay the fact that the killers are Muslim youths. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Cardinal Godfried Danneels addressed the indignation, but gave it a spin of their own. How was it possible for such an atrocity to take place in a crowd with no-one interfering, they asked. Both Verhofstadt and Danneels said that Joe was a victim of “indifference in Belgian society.” “Where were you last Wednesday at 4 pm?!” the Cardinal asked the congration in Brussels Cathedral during his Easter sermon on Sunday. The Cardinal blamed the murder on the materialism and greed of Western society “where people get killed for an MP3 player.”
Belgian citizens realize, however, that the murder has nothing to do with “indifference in Belgian society,” but everything with a group of North African youths terrorizing Brussels and the “indifference” of the authorities to eradicate this scourge."
The blog post was written in the context of the Joe Van Holsbeeck
murder, which was originally thought to have been perpetrated by people of North African descent (but later found to be perpetrated by Polish immigrants of Gypsy
decent). Paul Belien denied all allegations of the Centre, but did remove the text. A translation of an extract from his text follows:
There is a problem with name Belien. In the French-Belgium language there is also Paul Beliën, ( see article Hans Van Themsche; On 12 April, Vlaams Belang MP Alexandra Colen's husband Paul Beliën, named a Vlaams Belang ideologist and a publicist, reportedly had called upon the Flemish people to get rid of people of Arab origin in a pamphlet titled 'Give us weapons'. That title referred to a 1963 –then obviously figurative– outcry refutedly ascribed to the later Prime Minister Martens that was related to disputes between Belgian speakers of Dutch and of French. Beliën withdrew his text upon an official complaint by the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Fight against Racism (CEOFR or CGKR).[1][24][26][27])
On 25 April 2006 Belien wrote a new article, which title differs from the post Geef ons Wapens! ("Give us Weapons!") from his blog
, The Brussels Journal
with a new title "En Geef Ons Dus Wapens" ("And, Give Us As Conclusion Weapons"
Belien made a lot of effort to remove any sign of the article Geef ons Wapens! ("Give us Weapons!"
A month later, Paul Belien re-iterated his stand from that article, after the death of Guido Demoor
in an Antwerp bus, saying:
After the conservative Washington Times
commented that "free speech is under attack in Belgium", the Flemish newspaper Het Nieuwsblad
complained about the Time's links to Reverend Moon.
, Paul Belien wrote on his blog that he expects the artificial Belgian state has come to an end:
's ideas about "Eurabia
", for instance by publishing Fjordman
in Brussels Journal.
of Belien's children. The Flemish Ministry of Education
had asked the judiciary to press charges on child neglect
by failing to educate his children adequately.
In 2003, the Flemish government adapted the executive order on compulsory education
, requiring homeschooling parents to sign an agreement about the education they give their children. The declaration contains the following statement, inspired by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child:
If the parents fail to provide an adequate education for their children, as estimated by two state inspectors, the courts may force the child to attend a school.
Paul Belien and his wife, MP Alexandra Colen
, have refused to sign the declaration, arguing that signing such a declaration "undermines the authority of parents and transfers it to the state".
John Kersey, an educational consultant and a British libertarian
, in a pamphlet supporting the Beliën family, has stated that the government educational inspectors are held to no objective standards, that "their questioning of children is reported as being random and arbitrary" and that there is no right of appeal against their verdict. He claims the inspectors only have the purpose of removing children from homeschooling and force them into state schools based on the "authoritarian socialist
views" of the Belgian powers in force.
Paul Belien, Alexandra Colen and others have speculated about a possible political agenda of dissident
persecution behind what they call the state's "crackdown on homeschoolers". They argue that Belien was summoned to a police station to give a statement on 13 June 2006, shortly after the above mentioned incident with the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism
. Kersey claims outright that "Dr Belien has incurred the wrath of the authorities as a result of expressing opinions that they find inconvenient, and as a result, any cause is being found to make his life difficult."
which combats the ideas and institutions of radical Islam in the United States and other Western countries. According to the Middle East Forum's website, Beliën received this appointment because of his emergence as "one of Europe's leading experts on lawful Islamism, particularly in his role as founder and editor of The Brussels Journal
."
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
journalist and founder of the conservative-libertarian blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
The Brussels Journal
The Brussels Journal
The Brussels Journal is a conservative blog, founded by the Flemish journalist Paul Beliën. It was founded in 2005, and has both an English language section with various international contributions, and a Dutch section...
.
Belien is both known as both a pro-American and a prolific writer and author. Belien has written in several newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
, The American Conservative
The American Conservative
The American Conservative is a monthly U.S. opinion magazine published by Ron Unz. Its first editor was Scott McConnell, his successors being Kara Hopkins and the present incumbent, Daniel McCarthy....
, The Daily Mail, The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
, and in Belgium 't Pallieterke
't Pallieterke
t Pallieterke is a satirical Flemish weekly. It is part of the Flemish movement and advocates Flemish independence. It is largely conservative in its editing, and although officially non-partisan, it is a close supporter of the far-right party Vlaams Belang....
, Gazet van Antwerpen
Gazet van Antwerpen
The Gazet van Antwerpen is a Belgian newspaper in Antwerp and Flanders, published by Concentra.-History:...
, Trends and De Tijd
De Tijd
De Tijd , formerly De Financieel-Economische Tijd , is a Belgian broadsheet newspaper that mainly focuses on business and economics...
. He was editor of the conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
Nucleus.
He is an advocate of Flemish
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
independence
Independence
Independence is a condition of a nation, country, or state in which its residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory....
and free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
and is an opponent of abortion
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
. Beliën strongly opposes immigration into Europe by Islamic fundamentalists
Islamic fundamentalism
Islamic fundamentalism is a term used to describe religious ideologies seen as advocating a return to the "fundamentals" of Islam: the Quran and the Sunnah. Definitions of the term vary. According to Christine L...
.
Belien has also published a book about Belgium and the "Belgianisation" of Europe entitled A Throne in Brussels.
Belien is a master of law with specialisations in European and social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
law from the University of Ghent and has a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in international studies
International relations
International relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations , international nongovernmental organizations , non-governmental organizations and multinational corporations...
from the University of Buckingham
University of Buckingham
The University of Buckingham is an independent, non-sectarian, research and teaching university located in Buckingham, Buckinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Great Ouse. It was originally founded as Buckingham University College in the 1970s and received its Royal Charter from the...
. He is vice president of the International Free Press Society
International Free Press Society
The International Free Press Society , founded on January 1, 2009, is a creation of the Danish Free Press Society. The stated purpose of IFPS "is to defend freedom of expression wherever and by whomever it is threatened".-History:...
and a senior editor at the Hudson Institute
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...
.
Belien is married to Dr. Alexandra Colen
Alexandra Colen
Alexandra Maria Catherine Colen is a Belgian politician. She is member of the Belgian Federal Parliament for the Vlaams Belang party since 21 May 1995...
, a member of Belgian Federal Parliament
Belgian Federal Parliament
The Belgian Federal Parliament is a bicameral parliament. It consists of the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate . It sits in the Palace of the Nation .- Chamber of Representatives :...
and the political party Vlaams Belang
Vlaams Belang
Vlaams Belang is a Belgian far-right political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels that advocates the independence of Flanders and strict limits on immigration, whereby immigrants would be obliged to adopt Flemish culture and language...
. They have homeschooled
Homeschooling
Homeschooling or homeschool is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school...
all of their children.
A Throne in Brussels
In 2005 Belien published A throne in Brussels : Britain, the Saxe-Coburgs and the Belgianization of Europe. The book explains Belgian historyHistory of Belgium
The history of Belgium, from pre-history to the present day, is intertwined with the histories of its European neighbours, in particular those of the Netherlands and Luxembourg...
through the life and acts of the country's six kings. Contrary to mainstream historians, Belien depicts an artificial state, called into existence by the Belgian revolution
Belgian Revolution
The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....
of 1830, and led by rather ruthless kings and a corrupt political elite ever since. The book touches controversial subjects such as Leopold II
Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remained king until his death.Leopold is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free...
's brutal colonisation of the Congo
Colonisation of the Congo
Colonization of the Congo refers to the period from Henry Morton Stanley's first exploration of the Congo until its annexation as a personal possession of King Leopold II of Belgium .-Early European exploration:...
, the relation to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the numerous Belgian political scandals
Belgian political scandals
This is a list of political scandals in Belgium:* Guy Jespers affair * KS affair * Marc Dutroux affair * Albert Canal pipeline affair * Superclub affair * Cools assassination...
in recent decades, including the pedophile Marc Dutroux
Marc Dutroux
Marc Dutroux is a Belgian serial killer and child molester, convicted of having kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused six girls during 1995 and 1996, ranging in age from 8 to 19, four of whom he murdered. He was also convicted of having killed a suspected former accomplice, Bernard Weinstein,...
affair. He suggests that the real father of Queen Victoria's husband Albert, Prince Consort, was King Leopold I of Belgium
Leopold I of Belgium
Leopold I was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians, following Belgium's independence from the Netherlands. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...
, Albert's maternal uncle, rather than Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, formerly Ernest III, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was the duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and from 1826, the first sovereign duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha....
, as is otherwise believed.
Belien warns that the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, if based on multi-ethnic Belgium as a model, will be an artificial construct without any national consciousness, prone to corruption and elitarian
Elitism
Elitism is the belief or attitude that some individuals, who form an elite — a select group of people with intellect, wealth, specialized training or experience, or other distinctive attributes — are those whose views on a matter are to be taken the most seriously or carry the most...
government.
The book has ample source notes and was well-received by some eurosceptic
Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism is a general term used to describe criticism of the European Union , and opposition to the process of European integration, existing throughout the political spectrum. Traditionally, the main source of euroscepticism has been the notion that integration weakens the nation state...
or conservative commentators, including philosopher Roger Scruton
Roger Scruton
Roger Vernon Scruton is a conservative English philosopher and writer. He is the author of over 30 books, including Art and Imagination , Sexual Desire , The Aesthetics of Music , and A Political Philosophy: Arguments For Conservatism...
, Lord Rees-Mogg, economist Lord Ralph Harris
Ralph Harris, Baron Harris of High Cross
Ralph Harris, Baron Harris of High Cross was a British economist. He was head of the Institute of Economic Affairs from 1957 to 1988...
, historian Hugo Vickers, and British Conservative MEP
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
Daniel Hannan
Daniel Hannan
Daniel John Hannan is a British journalist, author and politician who is currently a Member of the European Parliament, representing South East England for the Conservative Party and the European Conservatives and Reformists political group...
.
1990 Baudouin abortion question
Belien was editor at the foreign desk of the Gazet van AntwerpenGazet van Antwerpen
The Gazet van Antwerpen is a Belgian newspaper in Antwerp and Flanders, published by Concentra.-History:...
, until he got fired in April 1990.
Belien had received information in October 1989, that the Belgian King, Baudouin, would not sign the new abortion law. Although the editor in chief of the Gazet van Antwerpen, Lou de Clerck, found this information to be too sensitive to be published, Belien published it anyway in the Wall Street Journal on 1 November 1989 and also later in NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad, often abbreviated to NRC, is a daily evening newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. The newspaper was created on October 1, 1970, from merger of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and Algemeen Handelsblad . In 2006 a morning newspaper, nrc•next, was launched...
. In reaction to this, De Clerck refused to let Beliën write in foreign newspapers, mentioning his relationship to the Gazet van Antwerpen.
An op-ed of Belien for the NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad
NRC Handelsblad, often abbreviated to NRC, is a daily evening newspaper published in the Netherlands by NRC Media. The newspaper was created on October 1, 1970, from merger of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and Algemeen Handelsblad . In 2006 a morning newspaper, nrc•next, was launched...
(published 6 April 1990) mentioned that Belien was working "for a newspaper in Antwerp, which name he could not mention". A couple of days later Beliën was fired. Jos Huypens, deputy editor of the Gazet, said that the cause of Belien's firing was a "conflict that was dragging on for years". Shortly later, the Wall Street Journal published another Beliën piece, detailing the connections between political parties and the media in Belgium.
Leo de Haes, a former journalist at Humo, alleged that Belien was fired in order to rid the Gazet from "Vlaams Blok
Vlaams Blok
The Vlaams Blok was a Belgian far-right and secessionist political party with an anti-immigration platform. Its ideologies embraced Flemish nationalism, calling for the independence of Flanders. From its creation in 1978, it was the most notable militant right wing of the Flemish movement. Vlaams...
elements".
Guy Verhofstadt and Flemish liberalism
In an article (23 June 2004) for the business newspaper De TijdDe Tijd
De Tijd , formerly De Financieel-Economische Tijd , is a Belgian broadsheet newspaper that mainly focuses on business and economics...
Belien reflected on current Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
VLD
Flemish Liberals and Democrats
' , commonly known as Open VLD and also simply as the VLD, is a Flemish liberal political party in Belgium, created in 1992 from the former Party for Freedom and Progress and a few other politicians from other parties. The party led the government for three cabinets under Guy Verhofstadt from 1999...
prime-minister Guy Verhofstadt
Guy Verhofstadt
Guy Verhofstadt is a Belgian politician who was the 47th Prime Minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament and leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.- Early career :...
, saying that Verhofstadt brought Flemish Liberalism to the brink of the abyss. Beliën stated that he saw in Verhofstadt a transformation from adoring the economic liberalism of Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
, and the laureling of Ludwig Erhard
Ludwig Erhard
Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard was a German politician affiliated with the CDU and Chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. He is notable for his leading role in German postwar economic reform and economic recovery , particularly in his role as Minister of Economics under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer...
of Verhofstadt in Belien's magazine Nucleus in 1990, to a Third Way position taken by Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
and Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, with Verhofstadt ultimately taking an Old Europe stance with Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
and Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor...
in 2003. According to Belien, this last 'change of winds' by Verhofstadt prevented him to become the next President of the EU Commission
President of the European Commission
The President of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission ― the executive branch of the :European Union ― the most powerful officeholder in the EU. The President is responsible for allocating portfolios to members of the Commission and can reshuffle or dismiss them if needed...
. Furthermore, Belien thinks that the vacuum left by Verhofstadt's failure to turn the VLD
Flemish Liberals and Democrats
' , commonly known as Open VLD and also simply as the VLD, is a Flemish liberal political party in Belgium, created in 1992 from the former Party for Freedom and Progress and a few other politicians from other parties. The party led the government for three cabinets under Guy Verhofstadt from 1999...
into a broad people's party has been filled by the Vlaams Belang
Vlaams Belang
Vlaams Belang is a Belgian far-right political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels that advocates the independence of Flanders and strict limits on immigration, whereby immigrants would be obliged to adopt Flemish culture and language...
.
Immigrant crime issues and censure controversy
In May 2006, Belien received a letter from the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to RacismCentre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism
The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism , also referred to as Centre for Equal Opportunities and Fight against Racism or translated as Centre for Equal Opportunities and Struggle against Racism The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR), also referred...
asking him to remove the post Geef ons Wapens! ("Give us Weapons!") from his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, The Brussels Journal
The Brussels Journal
The Brussels Journal is a conservative blog, founded by the Flemish journalist Paul Beliën. It was founded in 2005, and has both an English language section with various international contributions, and a Dutch section...
. The agency falls under the responsibility of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
Guy Verhofstadt
Guy Verhofstadt is a Belgian politician who was the 47th Prime Minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament and leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.- Early career :...
and is directed by Jozef de Witte. The agency claimed Beliën's blog post was a "call for violence against a group because of its ethnic or national origin" and that it violated the Belgian law of 1981 on racism and xenophobia.
The Centre against Racism didn't saw/overlooked the English written article from the hand of Paul Belien, two days earlier. Belien wrote : " For an entire week the police, the authorities and most of the media have tried to downplay the fact that the killers are Muslim youths. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Cardinal Godfried Danneels addressed the indignation, but gave it a spin of their own. How was it possible for such an atrocity to take place in a crowd with no-one interfering, they asked. Both Verhofstadt and Danneels said that Joe was a victim of “indifference in Belgian society.” “Where were you last Wednesday at 4 pm?!” the Cardinal asked the congration in Brussels Cathedral during his Easter sermon on Sunday. The Cardinal blamed the murder on the materialism and greed of Western society “where people get killed for an MP3 player.”
Belgian citizens realize, however, that the murder has nothing to do with “indifference in Belgian society,” but everything with a group of North African youths terrorizing Brussels and the “indifference” of the authorities to eradicate this scourge."
The blog post was written in the context of the Joe Van Holsbeeck
Joe Van Holsbeeck
Joe Van Holsbeeck was a 17-year-old Belgian teenager who was murdered on April 12, 2006 at Brussels Central train station. This murder, following the attempted theft of an MP3 player, took place at approximately 4:30 in the afternoon, during rush hour...
murder, which was originally thought to have been perpetrated by people of North African descent (but later found to be perpetrated by Polish immigrants of Gypsy
Sinti
Sinti or Sinta or Sinte is the name of a Romani or Gypsy population in Europe. Traditionally nomadic, today only a small percentage of the group remains unsettled...
decent). Paul Belien denied all allegations of the Centre, but did remove the text. A translation of an extract from his text follows:
The predators have teeth and claws. The predators have knives. Starting when they're small, they learn at their yearly offerings how to cut the throats of warm-blooded livestock. We get sick at the sight of blood, but they don't. They're trained and they're armed. We can't even carry pepperspray in our pockets. They have switchblades and butchers knives and they know how to use them.
There is a problem with name Belien. In the French-Belgium language there is also Paul Beliën, ( see article Hans Van Themsche; On 12 April, Vlaams Belang MP Alexandra Colen's husband Paul Beliën, named a Vlaams Belang ideologist and a publicist, reportedly had called upon the Flemish people to get rid of people of Arab origin in a pamphlet titled 'Give us weapons'. That title referred to a 1963 –then obviously figurative– outcry refutedly ascribed to the later Prime Minister Martens that was related to disputes between Belgian speakers of Dutch and of French. Beliën withdrew his text upon an official complaint by the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Fight against Racism (CEOFR or CGKR).[1][24][26][27])
On 25 April 2006 Belien wrote a new article, which title differs from the post Geef ons Wapens! ("Give us Weapons!") from his blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, The Brussels Journal
The Brussels Journal
The Brussels Journal is a conservative blog, founded by the Flemish journalist Paul Beliën. It was founded in 2005, and has both an English language section with various international contributions, and a Dutch section...
with a new title "En Geef Ons Dus Wapens" ("And, Give Us As Conclusion Weapons"
Belien made a lot of effort to remove any sign of the article Geef ons Wapens! ("Give us Weapons!"
A month later, Paul Belien re-iterated his stand from that article, after the death of Guido Demoor
Guido Demoor
Guido Demoor was a Belgian NMBS/SNCB Thalys train driver and father of two children. He died on 24 June 2006 after an incident of violence in an Antwerp public transport bus.The exact circumstances under which Demoor died remain disputed in the media....
in an Antwerp bus, saying:
The Belgian state is no longer able to guarantee the security of its citizens. [...] Belgians do not have a constitutional or legal right to bear arms, not even purely defensive arms such as peppersprays. With the police and the government failing to protect law-abiding citizens the latter are, however, totally unprotected. Saturday's murder has shocked bus drivers and train conductors, but they stress that they are not in the least surprised. Violence on public transport has become a fact of life.
After the conservative Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
commented that "free speech is under attack in Belgium", the Flemish newspaper Het Nieuwsblad
Het Nieuwsblad
Het Nieuwsblad is a Belgian newspaper that mainly focusses on "a broad view" regarding politics, culture, economics, lifestyle, society and sports.-Mission statement:...
complained about the Time's links to Reverend Moon.
The Belgian unitary state
On 26 June 2008, in light of the lasting Belgian political crisis2007–2008 Belgian political crisis
The 2007–2011 Belgian political crisis is an enduring period of tense communal relations and political instability in Belgium rooted in the differing opinions on state reform, and in the continued existence of the controversial electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde...
, Paul Belien wrote on his blog that he expects the artificial Belgian state has come to an end:
Belgium is slowly unravelling, like a Yugoslavia in slow motion. The supranational country is in a situation of political limbo since the elections of 10 June 2007. Belgium, which is often described as a miniature version of the European Union with which it shares its capital, is made up of Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north and French-speaking Wallonia in the south. Politicians in Wallonia are preparing for the moment when Flanders secedes from Belgium. Some Flemings fear that French-speaking extremists are planning to take over the Flemish towns surrounding Brussels by force.
Since its conception in 1830-31 when Walloon and French revolutionaries tore the country away from the Netherlands, its French-speaking minority has dominated the Dutch-speaking majority, which was denied higher education in its own language until the 1930s. As a result the linguistic frontier gradually shifted northwards, as historically Dutch-speaking towns and villages, such as Waterloo, were annexed by Wallonia, and as Belgium's capital, Brussels, originally a Dutch town, developed into a bilingual enclave within Flanders.
This process was exacerbated since the 1970s when the massive influx of North-African immigrants, from formerly French colonies, turned Brussels into a predominantly French-speaking city. [...]
The 10 June 2007 elections were a clear signal that the Flemings have had enough. They want newcomers, whether these be Walloons or immigrants, to respect the Dutch identity of Flanders. This demand for respect on the part of the Flemish as well as the refusal of the French-speaking Belgians to renounce their "acquired rights" have led to a political stalemate. For six months it was impossible to form a government, then an "interim government" was formed, and after that a "real" government which, however, quarrels on all issues and has not been able to agree on policies. The result is that legislative work in Belgium has come to an almost complete standstill. The stalemate has led to a hardening of the positions, with a majority of the Flemings declaring in opinion polls that they favour Flemish independence if Belgium proves to be no longer viable.
Both Flemings and Walloons are now preparing for the post-Belgium age. [...]
Eurabia theory
Belien supports some aspects of Bat Ye'orBat Ye'or
Bat Ye'or is a pseudonym of Gisèle Littman, née Orebi, an Egyptian-born British writer and political commentator who writes about the history of non-Muslims in the Middle East, and in particular the history of Christian and Jewish dhimmis living under Islamic governments.She is the author of eight...
's ideas about "Eurabia
Eurabia
Eurabia is a conspiracy theory about the alleged Arabization and Islamization of Europe, and the European leaders' alleged capitulation to Islamic influences.-Origin of the term:...
", for instance by publishing Fjordman
Fjordman
Peder Are Nøstvold Jensen is a Norwegian far-right anti-Islamic blogger who writes under the pseudonym Fjordman. Jensen wrote anonymously as Fjordman starting in 2005, until he disclosed his identity in 2011. He has been active in the counterjihad movement, which argues that multiculturalism,...
in Brussels Journal.
Homeschooling persecution
In June 2006 a judicial enquiry was conducted regarding the homeschoolingHomeschooling
Homeschooling or homeschool is the education of children at home, typically by parents but sometimes by tutors, rather than in other formal settings of public or private school...
of Belien's children. The Flemish Ministry of Education
Flemish government
The Flemish Government is the executive branch of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region. It consists of up to a maximum of eleven ministers, chosen by the Flemish Parliament...
had asked the judiciary to press charges on child neglect
Child neglect
Child neglect is defined as:# "the failure of a person responsible for a child’s care and upbringing to safeguard the child’s emotional and physical health and general well-being"...
by failing to educate his children adequately.
In 2003, the Flemish government adapted the executive order on compulsory education
Compulsory education
Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all persons.-Antiquity to Medieval Era:Although Plato's The Republic is credited with having popularized the concept of compulsory education in Western intellectual thought, every parent in Judea since Moses's Covenant with...
, requiring homeschooling parents to sign an agreement about the education they give their children. The declaration contains the following statement, inspired by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child:
The undersigned bind(s) themselves to give education that is aimed at the development of the full personality and talents of the child and at the preparation of the child on an active life as an adult, and that promotes the respect for the basic rights of man and for the cultural values of the child itself and of others.
If the parents fail to provide an adequate education for their children, as estimated by two state inspectors, the courts may force the child to attend a school.
Paul Belien and his wife, MP Alexandra Colen
Alexandra Colen
Alexandra Maria Catherine Colen is a Belgian politician. She is member of the Belgian Federal Parliament for the Vlaams Belang party since 21 May 1995...
, have refused to sign the declaration, arguing that signing such a declaration "undermines the authority of parents and transfers it to the state".
John Kersey, an educational consultant and a British libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
, in a pamphlet supporting the Beliën family, has stated that the government educational inspectors are held to no objective standards, that "their questioning of children is reported as being random and arbitrary" and that there is no right of appeal against their verdict. He claims the inspectors only have the purpose of removing children from homeschooling and force them into state schools based on the "authoritarian socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
views" of the Belgian powers in force.
Paul Belien, Alexandra Colen and others have speculated about a possible political agenda of dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
persecution behind what they call the state's "crackdown on homeschoolers". They argue that Belien was summoned to a police station to give a statement on 13 June 2006, shortly after the above mentioned incident with the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism
Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism
The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism , also referred to as Centre for Equal Opportunities and Fight against Racism or translated as Centre for Equal Opportunities and Struggle against Racism The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism (CEOOR), also referred...
. Kersey claims outright that "Dr Belien has incurred the wrath of the authorities as a result of expressing opinions that they find inconvenient, and as a result, any cause is being found to make his life difficult."
Islamist Watch
As of December 2006, Belien was appointed director of Islamist Watch. Islamist Watch is a new project of the think tank Middle East ForumMiddle East Forum
The Middle East Forum is an American conservative think tank founded in 1990 by Daniel Pipes, who also serves as its director. MEF became a 5013 non-profit organization in 1994...
which combats the ideas and institutions of radical Islam in the United States and other Western countries. According to the Middle East Forum's website, Beliën received this appointment because of his emergence as "one of Europe's leading experts on lawful Islamism, particularly in his role as founder and editor of The Brussels Journal
The Brussels Journal
The Brussels Journal is a conservative blog, founded by the Flemish journalist Paul Beliën. It was founded in 2005, and has both an English language section with various international contributions, and a Dutch section...
."
Publications
- Belien, Paul, Abortus, het grote taboe, Roularta Books, Zellik, 1992 (ISBN 90-5466-015-5)
- Belien, Paul, A throne in Brussels : Britain, the Saxe-Coburgs and the Belgianization of Europe, Imprint Academic, Charlotteville (VA), 2005 (ISBN 1-84540-033-X)
External links
- The Brussels Journal (English and Dutch)
- Secessie (Dutch)
- Message for the Belgian Government National ReviewNational ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr., in 1955 and based in New York City. It describes itself as "America's most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."Although the print version of the...
's Stanley Kurtz on the Belgian government's harassment of The Brussels Journal. - Belgian beef Washington Times op-ed about Paul Belien and free speech in Belgium.
- Intifada in France? A Pajamas Media Profile in Courage: Paul Belien Richard MiniterRichard MiniterRichard Miniter is an investigative journalist and author of two New York Times best-selling books, Losing bin Laden and Shadow War....
of Pajamas Media interviews Paul Belien.