Halal Butcher Shop Opening Stalled in Anderlecht Amid Neighbor’s Opposition

Assem Aldilaimi has received from the municipality of Anderlecht all the necessary authorizations for the opening of his butcher shop. But he will still have to wait for his neighbor’s agreement. For the entrepreneur, this situation is beyond comprehension. "Five years and more that I am the owner here and everything is already ready. The showcases, the scales, the mincers. We are just waiting for one thing, to receive the meat and start cutting," reports bx1.

But first, the dispute with the co-ownership will have to be settled. It is an empty space considered as a parking lot and opens onto the service entrance of the business. For the store to open its doors, this small space would need to be converted into a delivery area, but a resident of the building opposes it and has been blocking the purchase process for years. "We have done everything to buy the area, but the syndic opposes it and that is the crux of the problem," laments the owner of halal butcher shops throughout Europe.

For the entrepreneur, the reasons put forward by the neighbor are purely racist. "He said that this type of business does not fit in the environment, it cannot open at the risk of altering the sector." At the level of the municipality of Anderlecht, the mayor acknowledges that everything is in order regarding the requested authorizations and that the two parties must make the effort to find a consensus. "It is not the role of the municipality to settle the dispute. I have made sure that the person concerned has all the required permits," stresses Alain Kestemont, mayor of Anderlecht.

No longer knowing how to prevail, Assem Aldilaimi turns to justice and hopes for a quick solution to this situation that dates back to October 2020, and which has made him lose a lot of money.

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