Belgian Government Intensifies Scrutiny of Muslim Executive Amid Controversy

Schism, accusations of misappropriation of funds, freezing of the subsidy for the training of imams, accusations of three people close to the Grand Mosque of spying and interfering in the affairs of the Muslim faith on behalf of Morocco, formal notice, regionalization... Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD) is acting against the Executive of Muslims of Belgium (EMB) but is facing difficulties.

Regarding the request for the appointment of a provisional administrator at the head of the ASBL Collège de l’Exécutif des musulmans de Belgique, a purely administrative and financial tool, the French-speaking business court of Brussels must render a decision at the beginning of January 2022. The Turco-Moroccan agreement on the Executive of Muslims of Belgium is viewed with disfavor by the ministers who have succeeded each other at the head of the Department of Justice, Annemie Turtelboom (Open VLD), Koen Geens (CD&V), Vincent Van Quickenborne. This agreement was actually sealed under Turtelboom.

Regarding the accusations of espionage, a court decision is expected in June 2022. "Our objective is to reject these accusations of espionage in the right place and not through media games," comments Hélène Debaty, lawyer for Salah Echallaoui, manager of the security company accused of having spied on behalf of Morocco. We had access to the negative opinion of the State Security on which the Minister of Justice relied to launch accusations which, in our opinion, are unfounded."

"The responsibility of the State is engaged on several counts: the defamatory and slanderous remarks made by the minister, the negligence he has shown in relying on an unsupported opinion of the State Security and, in doing so, his interference in the affairs of the Muslim faith, since he forced Mr. Echallaoui to resign in particular from his position as vice-president of the Executive of Muslims of Belgium," she continues.

Van Quickenborne has also called on the regional Ministers of Worship to meet on the subject. "To help him," decodes Ramadan Gjanaj, president of the federation of Albanian mosques and advisor to Mehmet Üstün, "to empty the EMB of its federal powers and achieve a split, first of the Muslim faith, then of the other faiths. But if he wants to split the Faith, he must do so in Parliament. We agree to regionalize everything that the political world decides democratically. We can and know how to adapt. But Islam cannot be used as a guinea pig for experiments [...]"