Antwerp - Belgium: Europe and the Arabs
The Belgian Islamic Council, the representative body of the Islamic community, nominated its Flemish Chamber to be the new competent body for Islamic education in Flanders, which is the Flemish-speaking half of Belgium, which is close to the border with the neighboring country, the Netherlands.
The Belgian Islamic Council (MRB), the representative body of the Islamic community since June 26, appointed its Flemish Chamber to be the new competent body for Islamic education in Flanders. It takes this step as a result of the task assigned to it of organizing a transparent electoral process for the worship service and all its internal bodies. Within the framework of this mission, the Religious Research Council also has the authority to appoint teachers and inspectors of the Islamic religion. With this decision, the Islamic Council wants to pursue the long-awaited establishment of the two language chambers, which will assume regional and communal authorities.
With this decision, the MRB also wishes to put an end to the scope of subordinate bodies and wants to prepare a bicameral system within the worship service in the period preceding the assigned task of renewal, said a statement distributed in Brussels.
Without compromising this ambition, the Islamic Council offered the Center for Islamic Education in Flanders (CIO), previously authorized and nominated by the previous representative body of Islamic worship, the opportunity to participate in the process of renewal and democratization. However, the body in question was unilaterally separated by law and granted itself powers that could only be granted after the nomination or authorization of the representative body of Islamic worship. This meant that the Flemish Migration Council could not begin its renewal mission with regard to Islamic education in Flanders within this body and felt obliged to protect its mission within the Flemish Chamber.
Ensuring continuity
Therefore, the MRB, as a recognized representative body, has nominated its Flemish Chamber as the new competent body for Islamic education in Flanders for the Flemish Minister of Education and the mandate of the previous body will expire on 31 December 2023. This step has resulted in the fact that it has been taken in accordance with its statutory powers, and administrative simplification With the aim of continuously improving Islamic education in Flanders.
The Flemish Chamber of the MRB attaches great importance to the continuity of teachers and inspector inspectors, and will therefore adhere to the Flemish Decree on the inspection and guidance of philosophical subjects, as well as the Decree on the legal status of certain community education personnel.
Education Committee
The Flemish Chamber will involve an educational committee of experts in this field to ensure continuity in the future. She keeps all doors open and communicates about it
The formation of the Interim Belgian Islamic Council was announced in Brussels, and it came in the form of an association that includes four figures active in the field of Islamic work, and they will be led by Ms. Esma Oshan, who was born in northern Belgium but of Turkish origins. With her is a Belgian academic who studied the Arabic language and Islamic philosophy, and he is from the French-speaking Walloon part, called Michael Prevot, and also two Moroccans with Belgian nationality, one of whom is from Flanders, Mimoun Akshouh, and the other is a resident of Brussels, called Taha Zaki.
The association will make extensive preparations for the establishment of a new Islamic council in Belgium, according to what the Ilami preacher in Belgium, Sheikh Nour al-Din al-Taweel, said. He added in statements to the “Europe and Arabs” website that the association was established after two years of the vacuum caused by the decision of the Belgian Minister of Justice to freeze the activity of the executive body that It was taking care of the affairs of the Islamic communities in Belgium, including administrative affairs, appointing Islamic education teachers, and others. Islamic preacher Nour al-Din al-Tawil added that the association will consult with all segments of the community to find solutions because the current vacuum cannot continue given that the government cannot take decisions related to Muslims and needs someone to You consult them, give them this mission, and give them a budget from the state. That is why the association was established, which consists of four people. Their goal is to expand this council and search for a way to represent Muslims.
  In December 2020, the debate erupted again around the Grand Mosque, or the Islamic Center Mosque, in Brussels, and in light of accusations against members of the new administration of spying for Morocco, Belgian Justice Minister Van Quickenborn said that the executive authority bodies that take care of Muslim affairs and that had been in charge of managing the mosque’s affairs since then must be renewed. last year
But these statements angered the Vice-President of the Executive Body of Muslims, Salah Al-Shalawi, who is of Moroccan origin, and he submitted his resignation. According to local media, he denied the accusations, and stressed that the body’s files are managed with the utmost transparency, without any external influence. Members of the Belgian legislative councils also discussed Turkey’s influence on some mosques and Islamic associations in Belgium.
Belgium recognized Islam as one of the country's official religions in 1974, and these religions are also recognized by the Ministry of Justice in accordance with the Belgian Constitution. There are about one million Muslim citizens in Belgium, which has a population of 11 million and 400 thousand people. About 450,000 of the country's Muslims are of Moroccan origins and 300,000 are of Turkish origins.