Brussels: Muslim youth 're-Islamizing'
Via nieuwsblad (Dutch):
Young Muslims in Brussels don't go to the Turkish or Moroccan mosque like their grandparents. Rather, they choose their preacher for themselves, ULB sociologist Leïla El Bachiri says in her doctoral thesis, about which she was interviewed in Le Soir.
The Muslim youth of Brussels therefore re-Islamize to strict neo-Salafists, intellectual Muslim brothers or Muslim feminists.
The neo-Salafists, inspired by Saudi preachers, attract the most attention: men with beards, women with a long black or gray veil (jilbab). Neo-Salafists read the Koran literally and go to the grand mosque in Jubille park.
El Bachiri says that the neo-Salafists (Wahabbists) recruit mostly poorer Muslims who draw dignity from strictly following their faith, and therefore have more of a tendency to break with the rest of society.
This doesn't apply to the fans of the Muslim brotherhood, which see importance in civic and intellectual development. You don't recognize a brother by his appearance: no long beards, headscarves are a religion obligations that you can't impose. The most well-known Muslim Brother is Tariq Ramadan, a militant Swiss intellectual who regularly comes to Belgium to speak.
Muslim feminism - "I wear a headscarf because I want to" - emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood. El Bachiri says that Muslim feminists wear a headscarf as a symbol of freedom, a sign of emancipation. with the headscarf you see a woman instead of her body.
El Bachiri admits that Muslim feminists are a very small minority, also in Brussels, which with 17% Muslims is one of the most Muslim cities in Europe. One of the their heroes is Paris sociologist Malika Hamidi, manager of the Ukkel-based European Muslim Network think-tank.
