Molenbeek Seeks New Identity Six Years After Brussels Terror Attacks

In Molenbeek, the former Café des Béguines run by Brahim Abdeslam, the brother of Salah Abdeslam, where Daesh videos were watched, has given way in 2018 to the Maison des Béguines. It is a collective that brings together several associations, including the one for which Assetou Elabo, director of Atouts – Jeunes, an AMO (Open Environment Action), a reception, listening, information, guidance, support and support center for young people from 0 to 22 years old and their families, works.

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"Fundamentally, I believe that little has changed," Assetou Elabo told moustique.be. I would say, however, that the Molenbeek communitarianism is less virulent and that the phenomenon of ghettoization is less strong. This is undoubtedly, in part, the consequence of what happened administratively after the attacks. There was a takeover and increased control of the associative sector. People in Molenbeek and other Brussels municipalities with terrorist tendencies or developing other illegal activities were doing so under the cover of non-profit organizations."

Since then, the sector has first undergone a cleaning up. "Then, there was a reinvestment in terms of finance and resources in the sector to support projects such as the Maison des Béguines. Social cohesion had to be strengthened. Certainly, it has evolved a bit, for the better, but the audiences and demands are generally still the same," she explained.

According to Loredana Marchi, director of "Le Foyer", one of the oldest social integration NGOs in the country, the people of Molenbeek "really want to turn the page". "Wanting that doesn’t mean minimizing what happened. What happened is serious. It’s very serious. But the people here are tired of being considered as curiosities," added the one who has been working for more than thirty years in the most difficult neighborhoods in Molenbeek and in the Canal area. Today, those who were 10 years old at the time express "an absolute desire to distance themselves" from Islamism, from radicality," the manager continued, saying that they "do not want to be "involved in this story."