Belgians protest for and against Islamophobia

Belgian police detained some two dozen protesters at Brussels’ Bourse square Saturday, breaking up a banned demonstration to protest Islamophobia.

Other protesters booed at what they called a double standard after a group of hooligans invaded a demonstration last Sunday.

Brussels native Violette Fertimel said, “We should not fall into hatred, not give in to terror and not give in to fascists.”

Meanwhile, at least one person was detained in the Molenbeek neighborhood, where a far-right France-based group planned to demonstrate.

Witnesses saw several minor clashes between police and youth. Molenbeek, with a large Muslim population, was a stomping ground point for many of those who attacked Paris in November and Brussels in March — attacks that left over 160 dead.

According to the Daily Mail, several hundred people tried to demonstrate in the neighborhood but were prevented by police.

A car that evaded the police blockade entered the neighborhood and ran over a Muslim woman crossing a street. The driver sped off, leaving the woman seriously injured. The report did not say if the driver of the vehicle was apprehended.

Last Sunday, Belgian riot police clashed with hundreds of right-wing soccer hooligans at a temporary shrine honoring victims of the Brussels suicide bombings the previous week.

Police used water cannons when scuffles broke out in front of the Bourse, which has become a symbolic rallying point for people to pay their respects to those who died in attacks at Brussels airport and the Maalbeek metro station, which killed 32 people and injured over 300. Black-clad men carrying an anti-Islamic State group banner with an expletive on it trampled parts of the shrine, shouting Nazi slogans. Ten were arrested and two police officers were injured.