Canada can learn from Brussels on how to avoid home-grown extremism
Last week, the world watched police raids in the Molenbeek neighbourhood of Brussels, Belgium, linked to the Paris attackers. The mostly immigrant neighbourhood has been called Belgium's "jihad central." Today we look at how the community became isolated, and how that contributed to extremism.
Last week, the world watched police raids linked to the Paris attackers in the mostly immigrant Molenbeek neighbourhood of Brussels, Belgium.
Some media commentators have crowned it Europe's "jihad central."
But others are quick to note that Molenbeek and its residents have been neglected by the state.
Last week, we spoke with Michael Privot, the director of ENAR - the European Network Against Racism.
We don't see any response from the political level that would try to at least even likely shift the gears and say yeah we understand that there's something wrong with society right now, we might try something else. No answer. Just more ethnic profiling. Ok. I would say. Very good. Keep on doing what you do. Refuse to see the situation and then we will keep on counting our casualties.- Michael Privot, director of the European Network Against Racism
Doug Saunders is The Globe and Mail's international affairs columnist. For the past year, he has also been working with the World Bank, studying the most - and least - successful examples of immigrant integration. He was in our Toronto studio.
- Read Doug Sander's Integration: A New Strategy
This segment was produced by The Current's Julian Uzielli.