Two Antwerp residents of Moroccan origin are setting up a leftist Islamic party. They want to participate in the 2012 municipal elections with the name MOSLIM.
"The tradition parties have forgotten that we exist," says Mohamed Sidi Habibi. "We are only good during election time, after that we don't exist anymore." He was formerly a member of the Flemish Green party, then called Agalev, and was in the district council of the Antwerp Borgerhout neighborhood for six years. In 2007 he tried going on independent lists in the Antwerp neighborhoods, but got no more than 1800 votes.
He thinks he'll have more success with the name MOSLIM. He's still both left-wing and Green. "We are a democratic party that has respect for the law. The law of Belgium and the law of Islam. The spirit of Islam has respect for everything that lives, and that is the heart of Green."
The new party will oppose the Antwerp ban on headscarves for civil servants. "That ban just hinders the emancipation of women," says Sidi Habibi. "A completely emancipated woman, a doctor of chemistry, was rejected by the University of Antwerp when they saw that she wore a headscarf."
The future party is not related to a similar initiative in the Netherlands by Mohamed Rabbae (formerly of the Dutch Green party).
Source: Trouw (Dutch)
"The tradition parties have forgotten that we exist," says Mohamed Sidi Habibi. "We are only good during election time, after that we don't exist anymore." He was formerly a member of the Flemish Green party, then called Agalev, and was in the district council of the Antwerp Borgerhout neighborhood for six years. In 2007 he tried going on independent lists in the Antwerp neighborhoods, but got no more than 1800 votes.
He thinks he'll have more success with the name MOSLIM. He's still both left-wing and Green. "We are a democratic party that has respect for the law. The law of Belgium and the law of Islam. The spirit of Islam has respect for everything that lives, and that is the heart of Green."
The new party will oppose the Antwerp ban on headscarves for civil servants. "That ban just hinders the emancipation of women," says Sidi Habibi. "A completely emancipated woman, a doctor of chemistry, was rejected by the University of Antwerp when they saw that she wore a headscarf."
The future party is not related to a similar initiative in the Netherlands by Mohamed Rabbae (formerly of the Dutch Green party).
Source: Trouw (Dutch)
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