Fox News visited Brussels.
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FOX News visited one of those neighborhoods, called Molenbeek, which looks more like North Africa than the heart of Europe.
For some Belgians, that's not a problem. The mayor of Molenbeek, Socialist Philippe Moureaux, has worked hard to help Muslims try to integrate over the past decade and a half.
Moureaux believes multiculturalism is a good thing. He says even those who disagree with him should get used to life as it is in Brussels today: "Be realistic. They're here. They're relatively numerous and they're growing."
Many Moroccans have been in Belgium for decades and are now citizens, as are their children. The imam of one of the main mosques, which thousands of young Moroccans attend each Friday, stressed that Muslim immigrants have starting blending in around Brussels.
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During FOX News' brief visit, there were no fiery demonstrations of the kind that have wracked the Netherlands, though the municipality is sometimes considered dangerous to traverse at night.
Yet Molenbeek remains disconcerting. Belgian police assigned three plainclothes officers to watch over a FOX News team shooting street scenes one morning in Molenbeek. When FOX News returned in the afternoon as more people were out and about, the police said it would be safer not to get out of the car. It wasn't even dark yet.
Part of that fear stems from particularly nasty street crime, something that can happen in bad neighborhoods in any big European — or American — city. But part of it is due to strong anti-Western sentiment among Belgium's Muslims, which suggests that true integration is still a long way off.
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Moureaux [Molenbeek mayor, dubbed]: In my job as mayor I have to reassure the Muslim community that you're at home here, and explain to the others - with only relative success, since some don't even want to hear it - there's a new group here, and you have to accept them, and respect them and understand them.
Dewinter: That's not a Flemish, Belgian, European neighborhood anymore. It's not a Brussels neighborhood anymore. It's a kasbah, it's something like a kasbah in northern Africa.
Moureaux: Differences are always somehow scary for people. If you go down the street in Molenbeek, it's an Arab street with veiled women. Many people are used to it, but for some it's a shock to see this kind of thing in the heart of Europe.
Dewinter: The majority of the Muslims don't want to integrate into our society. The majority of the Muslims don't want to accept fundamental values of Western society. They don't want to accept the separation of State and Church, they don't want to accept the equality of men and women.
Moureaux: The mix of cultures is something positive. I think that in a Europe that's gotten a little old, for the young population, not only Muslim, but of different kinds, it's a positive contribution.
Dewinter: Brussels will be a Muslim city. Brussels will be the capital of Eurabia. Brussels will look like a city in northern Africa or in Saudi Arabia.
Moureaux: I think Brussels will certainly be the European city in which the Muslim population is more and more important. To say 'majority' is quite relative. Not everyone who says he's a Muslim goes to the mosque. Not everyone is signed up, as it were. But it's true that there's a very strong presence today.
Source: Fox News (English)
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