“In tomato, what are the letters?”, asks a woman of a child, sitting at the table, doing his homework. It looks like a school, but we are in fact in the former cafe of the Abdeslam brothers, members of the commando of the attacks of November 13, 2015, in the district of Molenbeek in Brussels (Belgium). This place has become a local, shared by several associations. One of them offers in particular tutoring. “It was precisely this room that we had to invest to maybe also repair, to say ‘well no, we’re not going to stop there, it can’t stay that way, it’s not us’ , “ believes Director Assetou Elabo.
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“We”, they are the inhabitants of Molenbeek, well aware of the suspicious gaze placed on them since the attacks. “There is a stain on Molenbeek, it will take time to be able to clean it, recognizes Meryam Fellah. It is especially at the level of reputation that it will be more difficult. “ At 27, she founded an association to help high school students who would like to pursue higher education because, for young people, especially those who go abroad, the neighborhood’s image is a problem. “When I went to France, they told me ‘but how are you going, to live there?’, Yes it’s going very well”, she says with a laugh. “There was a lot more prejudice than anything else.”
Indeed, Molenbeek is also a lively place, in some respects pleasant. There are even “sores” which are beginning to settle in this district where more than one inhabitant in two is of Moroccan origin.
This town, there is one who knows it perfectly: the mayor who was in office at the time of the attacks. Françoise Schepmans is now the first deputy of Molenbeek-Saint Jean, also a member of the Parliament of Brussels. “When some in France said that it was necessary to bomb Molenbeek rather than Raqqa, it was still quite particular to hear for the Molenbeekois”, she blurted out. Who said that ? “A certain Eric Zemmour.”
It is therefore the past that remains in the throat. Since then, Françoise Schepmans explains that security has been greatly strengthened with more police officers and cameras, and a decrease in delinquency, which confirms the local police chief for whom, since these attacks, “There was a before and an after.” Associations, for example, are subject to very strict control and training has completely changed. “I think that there is a better awareness on the part of the police force, of the prevention services in relation to the phenomenon of radicalization, judge Françoise Schepmans. Me, this is the big change that I saw: there are also more controls, but in such an important municipality with such a high population density, it remains complicated. “
The public body that identifies cases of radicalization in Belgium estimates that there are still 70 worrying profiles in this town of 100,000 inhabitants. The proof with this inhabitant of the district who, six years after the attacks, takes up the cause for the terrorists. This man, who did not wish to reveal his identity, came, on his own, to meet us, near the central square. “These people you just named, I know them personally, I grew up with them, he says. They didn’t litter the neighborhood, they didn’t leave for a salary or anything, they just left for religion. They wanted to please God by doing this. Concretely, in the depths of my heart, they have done well, and inshallah they will be rewarded on the day of judgment. ”
Quite clearly, this man is defending terrorists. But this speech is widely condemned in the neighborhood. “It does not exist with us, in the Koran, in Islam, in our religion, it does not exist to kill people like that, an inhabitant protests. I don’t know what religion he has but really I’m sorry for him, that’s rubbish. “
So, it is important to clarify: this debate that we hear there does not really exist in Molenbeek. Moreover, the trial of the attacks is not a concern. It is because I asked questions that the inhabitants brought up this subject. In Molenbeek at the moment, we are talking more about Covid-19 and the economic situation. In this district of Brussels, the unemployment rate is 20%, against 5% nationally.