A large number of police officers were called in to deal with a mass brawl between Syrian nationals in the Brussels district of Molenbeek on Friday that is said to have involved fifty to a hundred participants.
The mass brawl took place in Albert Park on Friday evening at the crossroads of Joseph Baek avenue and Edmond Machtens boulevard and saw the mob fight among themselves and continue to fight in a house of the Rue d’Ostende.
Police were present at both mass brawls in large numbers and reinforcements had to be called from other areas due to the scale of the conflict, Sudinfo reports.
“These police interventions have given rise to four judicial arrests. The suspects were interviewed before being released. The investigation is ongoing,” spokesman of the Brussels prosecutor’s office Martin François said.
According to Sudinfo, the brawl likely stemmed from a dispute between two Syrian families regarding marriage issues and comes just months after another Syrian was stabbed in the Brussels district of Schaekbeerek in June over another marriage-related conflict.
The location of the mass braw, Molenbeek, has become well known internationally for its links to radical Islamic extremism, with 2015 Paris Bataclan attacker Salah Abdeslam hiding in the district for months before he was finally arrested by police.
Earlier this year, the imam of the Al Khalil Grand Mosque in Molenbeek Mohamed Toujgani was stripped of his residency permit by the Belgian government who deemed him to be a serious threat to the country’s security.
“In the past, we have given radical preachers too much leeway. This man was probably the most influential preacher in Belgium. With this decision, we are making a difference and giving a clear signal: we will not tolerate those who divide and threaten our national security,” the Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Mahdi said.
Others have also commented on the area, including openly gay Belgian MP Gilles Verstraeten, a member of the centre-right New Flemish Alliance, who claimed he was fearful of holding hands with another man in the area.
“The problem is that in some Brussels neighbourhoods because the integration of migrants has been poorly managed, some live alongside the rest of society,” he said.
“I will give the example of homosexuality. I am a gay man. Marriage was approved in 2003, and adoption in 2006. In some villages in Flanders, this is obvious. But personally in my neighbourhood in Cureghem, at the bottom of Molenbeek, I dare not walk hand in hand with a man,” he added.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.