Belgium intends to protect its Muslims from the influence of Wahhabism

Belgium expelled the imam of the Grand Mosque in Brussels for being a Wahhabi who poses a threat to the Muslim community.

The German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that the Belgian government is determined to confront any potential terrorist dangers in its country, by increasing control over Islamic practices and addressing the influence of Saudi Arabia on the Muslim minority in Belgium by financing and spreading the Wahhabi religion there.

According to the newspaper, the parliamentary commission charged with investigating the Brussels attacks in 2016, recommended not accepting Saudi Arabia’s continued funding of the central mosque in the Belgian capital.

The newspaper said that the report of the commission, which was issued, indicated that there was no evidence of the call for violence in the sermons and sermons given in the central mosque, but added that “the mosque presents Islam according to Salafi and Wahhabi perceptions that can contribute to the trend of violent extremism, and contradicts the Belgian constitution and the European Convention on the Rights of The human”.

The German newspaper pointed out that the commission’s report was issued after the Belgian government withdrew the legal residency granted to the imam of the Central Mosque, Abdel Hamid Soueif.

It quoted the Belgian Minister of State for Immigration and Asylum, Theo Francken, as saying, “Surf – an Egyptian – has his residency withdrawn from him because he is an extremist Wahhabi and represents a danger to society and public security, and everyone knows that there is a problem with the Central Mosque, which is supervised by Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi Arabia’s establishment and financing of the Central Mosque in Brussels was legalized through an agreement signed in 1969 between the late Saudi King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz and his Belgian counterpart Baudouin.

Under this agreement, Belgium obtained Saudi oil at a cheap price, in exchange for allowing Saudi Arabia to build a large mosque on a plot of land adjacent to the headquarters of European institutions, designated since 1880 as a world exhibition.

Sueddeutsche Zeitung explained that Belgian politicians have long expressed their opposition to Saudi funding of the Grand Mosque in Brussels and imams in their country, but they did nothing in the face of this because Riyadh is one of the largest buyers of Belgian arms.

The newspaper said that the report of the Parliamentary Commission did not direct accusations against the imam of the Central Mosque of Surf.

According to the same newspaper, ten of Belgium’s mosques – estimated at eighty – were placed under suspicion of involvement in Salafist activities by these security services.

Süddeutsche Zeitung quoted Belgian Minister of Justice Koen Geens as saying that mosques in Brussels were rarely used to recruit their pioneers in terrorist activities, and explained that spreading Wahhabi extremism.