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Anti-Islamophobia Group’s Office in Brussels Burglarized and Vandalized
Wednesday 12 April 2023, by
The Collective for Inclusion and against Islamophobia in Belgium (CIIB) was the target of a burglary on Wednesday morning, between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. The premises, located on Boulevard du Neuvième de Ligne in Brussels, were vandalized and computers, video production equipment and archives were stolen. According to Mustapha Chairi, co-founder and executive director of the CIIB, the damage amounts to around 7,000 euros.
What most worries Chairi is the Islamophobic nature of this burglary. The CIIB rents an office in a business center and according to him, the individual responsible for the burglary first broke the entrance door of the center before directly attacking the CIIB office, the only one identifiable of the lot. For the executive director, it is an Islamophobic act. The CIIB is currently in the midst of a fundraising campaign and this could have drawn the attention of some.
The investigators looked for fingerprints, but without success. However, they recovered the surveillance camera images to advance their investigation.
The co-founder of the CIIB, who is used to living under threats, claims that physical and verbal threats as well as physical and verbal attacks are part of the daily life of all activists and associations fighting against discrimination and racism.