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Belgium police raided a Brussels neighborhood Monday in their search for Salah Abdeslam, who is suspected of taking part in the attacks in Paris on Friday that killed at least 129 people and wounded more than 300, dozens of them critically.
Like scores of fighters who have left Belgium and joined the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Abdeslam spent time in Molenbeek, a gritty Brussels suburb where French investigators suspect the Paris attacks were planned.
Molenbeek has long provided a haven for aspiring and returning foreign fighters. City officials have long ignored the suburb, leaving some returning fighters free of significant surveillance, a government official who requested anonymity told Al Jazeera. He added that in some pockets of Molenbeek more than 80 percent of the population is Muslim, and many live near or below the poverty line.
Molenbeek is a “problem," according to Jan Jambon, Belgium’s internal affairs minister. On Sunday he told the TV news show De Zevende Dag: “We don’t have control over the situation there. We need to step up our game.” He blamed a persistent neglect of the neighborhood by city politicians, who he said often turned a blind eye to social ills in the suburb.
French media over the weekend dubbed Molenbeek the European capital of “terrorism.”
Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a fugitive who is the subject of a massive search, was raised in Molenbeek and allegedly joined armed groups in Syria. Believed to be the mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abaaoud was also linked to a foiled attack plot in Verviers in January, when two policemen were killed in a shootout in the city.
Bilal Hadfi, believed to be a suicide bomber who struck near the Stade de France national stadium in Paris on Friday, was also raised in Molenbeek, according to Belgian newspaper De Standaard.
Mehdi Nemmouche, a Frenchman blamed in an attack that killed three people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May 2014, reportedly bought his guns in Molenbeek. So did Amedy Coulibaly, who killed four people in a Jewish supermarket in January this year on the day of the attacks in Paris on the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Among Western European countries, Belgium is believed to have the highest number of foreign fighters per capita in Syria. About 200 remain in the Mideast conflict, according to Jambon, who recently said that about 130 fighters have returned to Belgium. Jambon said it is “impossible” to keep an eye on all suspected foreign fighters, since 10 to 12 security personnel are needed to monitor suspects continually.
Montasser AlDe’emeh, a social worker who counsels former foreign fighters in Molenbeek, expressed disbelief and shock at the Paris attacks. He told Belgian media on Sunday that after witnessing Friday’s attacks, he would stop counseling foreign fighters who return to Belgium. “We need to give them a sign that if they leave [for Syria], they're making a definite choice and can't return,” he told Het Nieuwsblad, a Belgian daily.
On Sunday, he called on policymakers to improve prevention efforts and outreach to the Muslim community, noting that most imams in Belgium only speak Arabic, leaving youth vulnerable to ISIL recruiters and radicals who are fluent in Dutch and French, and who indoctrinate youth with theological treatises and videos in their native languages.
In Vilvoorde, another Brussels suburb struggling to overcome the effects of radicalization, social workers and policymakers have pursued a community-based anti-radicalization program, national security experts said. No fighters have left for Syria since May 2014, mayor Hans Bonte said in an interview with Al Jazeera in June.
Saliha Ben Ali, mother of a foreign fighter called Sabri who was killed in Syria and the founder of SAVE (Society Against Violent Extremism), a nonprofit organization that aims to prevent radicalization, told Al Jazeera on Monday that Molenbeek is experiencing a “catastrophic” radicalization.
Ben Ali works with Molenbeek officials on violence prevention efforts. She spent several years in the town as a teenager, and says it has changed in recent years as many unregulated mosques have started popping up in impoverished neighborhoods.
One day years ago, foreign fighter recruiter Khalid Zerkani, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison in July, showed up in Molenbeek and radicalized many youth there.
Ben Ali said young men continue to leave from the town for Syria, with one more leaving about two weeks ago.
“Molenbeek was the hard node of recruitment in Belgium,” Ben Ali said. “Youth called [Zerkani] ‘St. Nicholas,’” for the many presents — money and PlayStation games — he carried for them.
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