BRUSSELS // From a distance, nothing sets Les Beguines apart from countless other bars in the Belgian capital of Brussels.
In the arched windows of the austere building on the corner of a quiet street, one poster features croissants and cappuccino while others depict Toto, a Belgian cartoon hero.
On closer inspection, the bar is locked and deserted. Official notices explaining why this is the case have been posted on the front door and one window by the mayor of Molenbeek, a poor, immigrant-dominated area only a few Metro stops from the handsome city centre.
Les Beguines, formerly owned by one of the Paris suicide bombers, Brahim Abdeslam, and managed by his brother Salah, was closed by official decree less than two weeks before the ISIL-claimed attacks on November 13. Police raids in August had revealed traces of hallucinatory drugs, partly smoked cannabis joints and other evidence of narcotics activity.
Running a bar that legally sells alcohol and also promotes illegal drug use seems wholly at odds with support for the terrorist group and its viciously enforced philosophy. Yet this was where the brothers could regularly be found even as they plotted mass murder.
Along with others, also Belgians of Moroccan origin considered suspects or still detained after the atrocities that killed 130 people in France, Salah – who has been on the run ever since the Paris attacks – and Brahim Abdeslam were no strangers to criminality.
Like so many terrorist recruits, the brothers had criminal records: Brahim for traffic in false identity papers and arms; Salah for an armed robbery that saw him jailed with the alleged ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, another product of Molenbeek.
“Not very successful drug dealers,” is how one person described Salah and a friend, Ahmet Dahmani, now held in Turkey on charges of helping to select locations to attack in the French capital.
“I went into Les Beguines while in the area a couple of months ago,” said a young Belgian woman who prefers not to be identified. “It was not like a normal cafe or bar. No one was interested in serving. There was no obvious activity in the kitchen. When the coffee came, it tasted terrible. The toilets were disgusting. I thought it must be a front for money laundering.”
If only that had been all the Abdeslams were up to. What investigators say they were doing in, plotting in Belgium before acting in Paris, was on a vastly different scale of evil.
Despair in Molenbeek
The terrible loss of life it caused has led to anger, fear and despair in Molenbeek, the area of Brussels where they and others implicated in the attacks grew up. This is a district struggling to shrug off its image as a “hotbed of extremism”, with residents expressing indignation at the walking tours that make them, in the words of one, “feel like apes in a zoo”.
But even if the strident comments of government ministers and the media-fuelled stereotypes are disregarded, the evidence is hard to ignore.
A Moroccan-Belgian journalist, Hind Fraihi, found while living under cover as a sociology student in Molenbeek that extremist attitudes are commonplace among the young.
“The frustration over their lack of future, their solidarity with war victims and an ambition to be heroic is all swirling in their heads,” she wrote as long ago as 2006 on the IslaminEurope.com website. “They truly dream of their private hero tale. A few live with their head already in paradise. And yes, they truly believe in those virgins that wait there for them. It won’t surprise me if tomorrow a new suicide terrorist from Belgium will commit an attack in the Middle East.”
Fraihi was writing after Muriel Degauque, a Belgian woman who converted to Islam, blew herself up in a suicide attack on US forces in Iraq in November 2005. What has happened since, in Europe as well as conflict zones, vindicates her gloomy prognosis.
However, there are many ordinary Muslim residents of such districts who feel not the least connection to, or support for, terrorism. They see no obligation to apologise for acts committed, falsely, in the name of their faith. Yet they suffer a backlash as police raids disrupt daily life, discrimination grows and already strained community relations are damaged further.
Muslim backlash
In short, whether the Abdeslam brothers had the wit to appreciate it, their actions in Paris play directly into the hands of extremists presenting themselves less as callous butchers who tarnish the name of Islam, more as defenders of an oppressed people.
“They are always the first the first to suffer,” says Rachida Aziz, a Belgian-Moroccan activist who campaigns on behalf of the poor while also running a successful fashion design business.
“When these things happen, it allows the authorities to do what they always wanted to, but didn’t previously have an excuse for.”
Ms Aziz, 44, says thousands of Muslims are thinking of abandoning Belgium to move away from prejudice and hope for better lives elsewhere in the West or even back in Morocco.
There is similar disillusionment in other parts of Europe as political leaders grapple with problems caused by mass migration from the Middle East, Asia and Africa and parties of the broadly anti-Islam far right exploit public anxieties.
In France, the anti-immigration National Front made impressive gains in the first round of regional elections, arising in part from concerns about security and immigration. The party led by Marine Le Pen was routed in the second round but its continuing influence in France’s political direction is certain to be maintained.
Extremism in Belgium
Belgium is home to more than 11 million people. While the numbers are small, the per capita rate for those leaving to fight with ISIL and similar groups in Syria and Iraq – 440, or 40 per million of the 2015 population figures, according to London’s International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence – is easily the highest for any European country.
Although French president Francois Hollande initially said the Paris attacks had been planned overseas, meaning Syria, and executed with help from within France, it quickly became clear that Belgium and in particular Molenbeek was the operational hub.
It is also common knowledge in Brussels that Kalashnikovs and other weapons favoured by terrorists as well as ordinary criminals can be bought from dealers in an area bordering Molenbeek and neighbouring Anderlecht.
Belgium’s prime minister Charles Michel undoubtedly caught the popular mood when he accepted after the Paris attacks that investigation of such events often led to Belgium. “I notice that each time there is a link with Molenbeek,” he said. “This is a gigantic problem. Apart from prevention, we should also focus more on repression.”
And in the vicious circle created by atrocities and an often heavy-handed official response, with dramatic raids on relatives and associates of suspects, the resentment described by Rachida Aziz deepens.
“They are suffering the impact of the sort of police violence that so alienates them,” she says. “If you think in terms of running from the police instead of towards them, that is a huge problem because the police are seen to represent the state.
Injustice and exclusion
Ms Aziz is convinced radicalisation feeds on the inequality and discrimination she sees at all levels of Belgian society. And she points to Dutch research suggesting more than 60 per cent of those radicalised have suffered psychological or psychiatric problems.
Whether terrorist candidates are deranged or depraved or both, most Brussels Muslims bitterly denounce the few who turn to violence, while also calling for action to tackle obstacles to social advancement, from glaring injustices in labour and housing to a widely felt sense of exclusion.
“We are a community,” says Hassan Al Hilou, at just 16 a forceful and articulate voice of Belgian youth who is an ambassador for the King Baudouin Foundation social enhancement charity and plans to launch an online platform, Youth Talks, next spring. “It’s not only an attack against the young Muslims in Belgium, it’s an attack against the whole world.
“Today it’s guys from Molenbeek, but tomorrow it can be guys from Sydney. Do we then forget Molenbeek and look to Sydney? We, the residents of Brussels are angry, not only the Muslims but we [are] all angry that those youth think about doing stuff like that.”
But not all young Muslims see themselves as part of a single community. A BBC report on radicalisation quoted the disturbing words of Anouar Abdellati, 24, a Moroccan-born Belgian who attends sessions in a prevention programme designed to protect young people from drifting towards radical ideologies. “I have a lot of friends thinking in a really bad way. They start to hate cops. They start to hate white people.”
Social initiatives
Bie Vancraeynest, 37, who runs a long-established youth project in the inner-city Brussels district of Chicago, insists hatred works much more powerfully in the opposite direction. “Institutional racism is a real problem and exists at all levels of society,” she says. “What we have been seeing are the consequences of years and years of intellectual and spiritual neglect of people.”
It is rarely easy to discern which of these embittered individuals will seek a violent escape from the deprivation of ghetto life. Dahmani, the alleged co-plotter in the Paris attacks now held in Turkey, was a promising fighter in the project’s successful boxing club until a drugs offence forced his exclusion from competition.
But Ms Vancraeynest, who studied Arabic and Islamic studies at university and spent a year in Damascus improving her linguistic skills, saw Dahmani taking a sparring session at the Brussels boxing club a few weeks before the Paris attacks. She insists he never cut an isolated, European-hating figure.
“[He was sparring] with a Belgian girl, wearing typically light sports kit and he had no problems with that, or the physical contact sparring involves,” she says. “The man who has been his trainer was so upset after his arrest that he wanted to give up. He hadn’t seen it coming. But how many people did his work stop becoming radicalised because it gave them a purpose in life and they will always remember how they were once helped?”
In difficult economic times, the Belgian government has cut the money it devotes to social initiatives.
In the conference room of Belgium’s coordination and crisis centre, where ministers and security chiefs met after the country became a clear focus of the post-Paris investigation, the agency’s communications chief, Benoit Ramacker, says the image of Belgium as a “weak link” in Europe’s fight against terrorism is unfair.
“Perhaps we have been too transparent about our problems,” he says. “But we have been working hard, for a long time, bringing together all the government departments and local authorities, on deradicalisation initiatives and this needs to be explained. Measures that are considered repressive are necessary in the current situation but we are also conscious of the need to address social issues.”
Losing hope
The Paris attacks, coming amid the challenge of coping with thousands of migrants arriving from the Middle East, Africa and the Indian subcontinent, have posed questions Europe cannot answer with a unified voice.
Hassan Al Hilou, whose family background is Iraqi, may only be 16, and the Youth Talks forum he plans may be months from launch, but Mr Ramacker’s government could usefully pay heed to his central theme.
“It’s easy,” Hassan says. “Young guys in Europe lose their hope, there isn’t work for them, the education system is from the old model, then there is discrimination with examples like headscarf ban in schools and work.
“That can be the biggest argument for Daesh to create hate in the youth, against this nation. ”
This leaves the West the massive challenge of finding ways to stop young men like the Abdeslam brothers – and the French-born Muslims involved in the attacks – from turning, apparently unknown to relatives, to a cause that requires them to kill and be killed.
On the evidence of Molenbeek, and comparable districts of Europe devoid of any sense of belonging, this is unlikely to be accomplished by security measures alone.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
Dolittle
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Michael Sheen
One-and-a-half out of five stars
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
THE%20JERSEYS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERed%20Jersey%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EGeneral%20Classification%2C%20sponsored%20by%20Fatima%20bint%20Mubarak%20Ladies%20Academy%3A%20Worn%20daily%2C%20starting%20from%20Stage%202%2C%20by%20the%20leader%20of%20the%20General%20Classification.%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EGreen%20Jersey%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EPoints%20Classification%2C%20sponsored%20by%20Bike%20Abu%20Dhabi%3A%20Worn%20daily%2C%20starting%20from%20Stage%202%2C%20by%20the%20fastest%20sprinter.%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EWhite%20Jersey%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EYoung%20Rider%20Classification%2C%20sponsored%20by%20Abu%20Dhabi%20360%3A%20Worn%20daily%2C%20starting%20from%20Stage%202%2C%20by%20the%20best%20young%20rider%20(U25).%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBlack%20Jersey%3C%2Fstrong%3E%0D%3Cbr%3EIntermediate%20Sprint%20Classification%2C%20sponsored%20by%20Experience%20Abu%20Dhabi%3A%20Worn%20daily%2C%20starting%20from%20Stage%202%2C%20by%20the%20rider%20who%20has%20gained%20most%20Intermediate%20sprint%20points.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The Scale for Clinical Actionability of Molecular Targets
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
MATCH INFO
Champions League last 16, first leg
Tottenham v RB Leipzig, Wednesday, midnight (UAE)
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 194hp at 5,600rpm
Torque: 275Nm from 2,000-4,000rpm
Transmission: 6-speed auto
Price: from Dh155,000
On sale: now
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
Lowest Test scores
26 - New Zealand v England at Auckland, March 1955
30 - South Africa v England at Port Elizabeth, Feb 1896
30 - South Africa v England at Birmingham, June 1924
35 - South Africa v England at Cape Town, April 1899
36 - South Africa v Australia at Melbourne, Feb. 1932
36 - Australia v England at Birmingham, May 1902
36 - India v Australia at Adelaide, Dec. 2020
38 - Ireland v England at Lord's, July 2019
42 - New Zealand v Australia in Wellington, March 1946
42 - Australia v England in Sydney, Feb. 1888
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
If you go:
The flights: Etihad, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin all fly from the UAE to London from Dh2,700 return, including taxes
The tours: The Tour for Muggles usually runs several times a day, lasts about two-and-a-half hours and costs £14 (Dh67)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is on now at the Palace Theatre. Tickets need booking significantly in advance
Entrance to the Harry Potter exhibition at the House of MinaLima is free
The hotel: The grand, 1909-built Strand Palace Hotel is in a handy location near the Theatre District and several of the key Harry Potter filming and inspiration sites. The family rooms are spacious, with sofa beds that can accommodate children, and wooden shutters that keep out the light at night. Rooms cost from £170 (Dh808).
Scoreline
Real Madrid 1
Ronaldo (53')
Atletico Madrid 1
Griezmann (57')
England v South Africa Test series:
First Test: at Lord's, England won by 211 runs
Second Test: at Trent Bridge, South Africa won by 340 runs
Third Test: at The Oval, July 27-31
Fourth Test: at Old Trafford, August 4-8
FIXTURES
Monday, January 28
Iran v Japan, Hazza bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Tuesday, January 29
UAEv Qatar, Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium (6pm)
Friday, February 1
Final, Zayed Sports City Stadium (6pm)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Places to go for free coffee
- Cherish Cafe Dubai, Dubai Investment Park, are giving away free coffees all day.
- La Terrace, Four Points by Sheraton Bur Dubai, are serving their first 50 guests one coffee and four bite-sized cakes
- Wild & The Moon will be giving away a free espresso with every purchase on International Coffee Day
- Orange Wheels welcome parents are to sit, relax and enjoy goodies at ‘Café O’ along with a free coffee
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
Neglecting personal, social, or academic responsibilities.
Losing interest in other activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed.
Having withdrawal symptoms like feeling anxious, restless, or upset when the technology is not available.
Experiencing sleep disturbances or changes in sleep patterns.
What are the guidelines?
Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
Aged 2-5 years: Limit to one-hour per day of high-quality programming, with co-viewing whenever possible.
Aged 6-12 years: Set consistent limits on screen time to ensure it does not interfere with sleep, physical activity, or social interactions.
Teenagers: Encourage a balanced approach – screens should not replace sleep, exercise, or face-to-face socialisation.
Source: American Paediatric Association
The biog
Born: High Wycombe, England
Favourite vehicle: One with solid axels
Favourite camping spot: Anywhere I can get to.
Favourite road trip: My first trip to Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan. The desert they have over there is different and the language made it a bit more challenging.
Favourite spot in the UAE: Al Dhafra. It’s unique, natural, inaccessible, unspoilt.
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
Titan Sports Academy:
Programmes: Judo, wrestling, kick-boxing, muay thai, taekwondo and various summer camps
Location: Inside Abu Dhabi City Golf Club, Al Mushrif, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Telephone: 971 50 220 0326
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
UAE SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Ali Khaseif, Fahad Al Dhanhani, Mohammed Al Shamsi, Adel Al Hosani
Defenders: Bandar Al Ahbabi, Shaheen Abdulrahman, Walid Abbas, Mahmoud Khamis, Mohammed Barghash, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Hassan Al Mahrami, Yousef Jaber, Salem Rashid, Mohammed Al Attas, Alhassan Saleh
Midfielders: Ali Salmeen, Abdullah Ramadan, Abdullah Al Naqbi, Majed Hassan, Yahya Nader, Ahmed Barman, Abdullah Hamad, Khalfan Mubarak, Khalil Al Hammadi, Tahnoun Al Zaabi, Harib Abdallah, Mohammed Jumah, Yahya Al Ghassani
Forwards: Fabio De Lima, Caio Canedo, Ali Saleh, Ali Mabkhout, Sebastian Tagliabue, Zayed Al Ameri
A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
What are NFTs?
Are non-fungible tokens a currency, asset, or a licensing instrument? Arnab Das, global market strategist EMEA at Invesco, says they are mix of all of three.
You can buy, hold and use NFTs just like US dollars and Bitcoins. “They can appreciate in value and even produce cash flows.”
However, while money is fungible, NFTs are not. “One Bitcoin, dollar, euro or dirham is largely indistinguishable from the next. Nothing ties a dollar bill to a particular owner, for example. Nor does it tie you to to any goods, services or assets you bought with that currency. In contrast, NFTs confer specific ownership,” Mr Das says.
This makes NFTs closer to a piece of intellectual property such as a work of art or licence, as you can claim royalties or profit by exchanging it at a higher value later, Mr Das says. “They could provide a sustainable income stream.”
This income will depend on future demand and use, which makes NFTs difficult to value. “However, there is a credible use case for many forms of intellectual property, notably art, songs, videos,” Mr Das says.
Major honours
ARSENAL
BARCELONA
- La Liga - 2013
- Copa del Rey - 2012
- Fifa Club World Cup - 2011
CHELSEA
- Premier League - 2015, 2017
- FA Cup - 2018
- League Cup - 2015
SPAIN
- World Cup - 2010
- European Championship - 2008, 2012
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
The biog
DOB: March 13, 1987
Place of birth: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia but lived in Virginia in the US and raised in Lebanon
School: ACS in Lebanon
University: BSA in Graphic Design at the American University of Beirut
MSA in Design Entrepreneurship at the School of Visual Arts in New York City
Nationality: Lebanese
Status: Single
Favourite thing to do: I really enjoy cycling, I was a participant in Cycling for Gaza for the second time this year
Company profile: buybackbazaar.com
Name: buybackbazaar.com
Started: January 2018
Founder(s): Pishu Ganglani and Ricky Husaini
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech, micro finance
Initial investment: $1 million
Zayed Sustainability Prize