Duly elected and state-sanctioned General Assembly of the Muslim community almost unanimously opposed to the royal decree imposing general elections to renew its composition
At a press conference held on Thursday July 1, Mohamed Boulif, president of the Executive of the Muslims of Belgium, and Boubker Ngadi, president of the General Assembly, announced that the members of their institutions were in an overwhelming majority, and even almost unanimously, opposed to anticipated elections meant to fully renew the Assembly that the minister of Justice and Religious Affairs wants to impose on them through a royal decree. They added that their position was supported by the local communities which they had widely consulted.
Tensions between the state and the Muslim community flared up again in February 2004 after the minister of Justice lent a willing ear to complaints voiced by leaders of mosques’ unions and Muslim groups or individuals linked to the Turkish and Moroccan embassies.
“The minister’s decision is not substantiated by any solid arguments. Internal readjustments can improve the representation of the various components of the Muslim community and general elections are not necessary to achieve this goal,” Boubker Ngadi said.
Boubker Ngadi complained about repeated interference of the federal authorities in their internal affairs: creation of a “follow up commission” of the Muslim representative bodies in the aftermath of the 1998 elections, elimination of many duly elected candidates through the screening procedure by the state security, imposition of linguistic quota (French-speaking and Dutch-speaking) and gender criteria, creation of a two-senator commission of enquiry about alleged conflicts in the Muslim institutions and now general elections against the will of a wide majority of Muslims. “All these measures are totally discriminatory and unacceptable; none of them has ever been applied to other recognized religions,” Boubker Ngadi said.
“The royal decree which purposefully targets the sole Muslim institutions has not even been communicated to us despite our insistent demands. I have however managed to see a copy of it through an unofficial channel,” said Boubker Ngadi. According to the decree, an electoral committee will be set up. It will comprise two magistrates emeritus, a representative of the Ministry of the Interior and two Muslim representatives, selected by the minister of Justice on the basis of two lists of candidates (French-speaking and Dutch-speaking) to be provided by the Executive. “Once more, we will have to do with a screening procedure,” commented Boubker Ngadi. “Screening will also be enacted for the elections although none of the elected candidates barred in 1998 by the then minister of Justice has up to now got into trouble with the police or the judiciary.