- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Belgium Has Home-Grown Islamic Radicalization - Scottish Lawmaker

© REUTERS / Francois LenoirBelgian troops search people entering a subway station following Tuesday's bomb attacks in Brussels, Belgium, March 23, 2016
Belgian troops search people entering a subway station following Tuesday's bomb attacks in Brussels, Belgium, March 23, 2016 - Sputnik International
Subscribe
The member of the European Parliament for Scotland stated that there is a real problem with the so-called “home-grown” terrorists in Brussels that the Belgian authorities are failing to deal with.

Broken windows of the terminal at Brussels national airport after the March 22 terrorist attacks - Sputnik International
Blunders That Burned Brussels: Belgium's Six Main Security Failures
EDINBURGH (Sputnik) There is a real problem with the so-called “home-grown” terrorists in Brussels that the Belgian authorities are failing to deal with, the member of the European Parliament for Scotland, Ian Duncan, told Sputnik on Thursday.

“It is clear to me that there is a problem in Brussels itself. A lot of the terrorists themselves were home grown, radicalized within the city of Brussels itself and gone to Syria and gained terrible experiences there and have brought them back,” Duncan said.

On Tuesday, at least 31 people were killed and some 300 injured in two bomb blasts in Brussels' Zaventem airport and an explosion at a metro station in the city center. The Daesh jihadist group, outlawed in many countries, including Russia and the United State, has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

The lawmaker was in Brussels at the time of the attacks and witnessed events from his European Parliament office. The Maelbeek metro station, the site of the most deadly Tuesday attack, is located just hundreds of meters away from the European Parliament building, as well as other major EU institutions.

“The point is that there is something rotten in a part of Brussels that no one is addressing. That’s the real problem. It is nothing to do, in my mind, with a bigger question about whether we are safer, or not safer inside or outside the EU,” Duncan said, adding that the United Kingdom has also faced a home-grown terrorist threat for many years.

Both the United Kingdom and Belgium have been significant sources of IS recruits. Belgium has contributed the most IS recruits per capita than any other Western country, with the total number coming to over 500 in 2015, according to the International Center for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence (ICSR). The United Kingdom has contributed over 700 IS recruits, ICSR figures show.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала