Global Courant
BRUSSELS
According to one expert, a loophole in the Belgian Constitution prevents cases of Islamophobic discrimination from being prosecuted.
Patrick Charlier, Director of the independent public institution UNIA (Federal Center for Equal Opportunities), said in a statement to Anadolu that Muslims and headscarved women are the victims of discrimination based on religion the most in Belgium.
“The real issue is racism. Most of the cases we’ve opened over the past 15 years are about racism, racial discrimination, but also hate speech and hate crime,” he said. “The second criterion is disability. The third is health. The fourth is religion and belief.”
Charlier said Muslims, and especially veiled women, are the main victims of religious discrimination.
“When a community wants to build a mosque, it gets very negative reactions. We know that it is a very nationalist and very discriminatory movement,” he said.
Charlier was upset that cases were almost never investigated, primarily due to a lack of evidence.
“We have a particular problem with Article 150 of the Constitution when talking about racial hate speech allows it to go to correctional courts,” he said. “But if the issue is not racism, if it is religion, you have to go to the high criminal court. It is also very difficult and there is no prosecution in this case. And it is almost impossible to bring a lawsuit because of this procedural problem. There is a gap in the law. There is a gap in the Constitution. We emphasize that it should amend the 150th article of the Constitution. But to change the Constitution, a two-thirds majority is required, which is not easy.”
However, Charlier observed that Belgian society was increasingly accepting of religious diversity.
“Companies and schools reach out to us and say, ‘We want diversity and an inclusive policy. Help us promote it,’ and we support it,” he said.
*Written by Nur Asena Ertürk in Ankara
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