"There is a need for a Belgian Islam" Head Belgian State security.

"There is a need for a Belgian Islam" Head Belgian State security.(HLN).[GoogleTranslate].


A Belgian Islam "with in our country formed imams and mosques functioning autonomously from foreign state intervention, according to Jaak Raes, head of the Belgian state security, this can counteract radicalization.

A week after the action against terror suspects in Verviers, the head of the Belgian state security, Jaak Raes, gives the first interview since taking office.

"Like everyone, we must save and make cuts. But if that is a wise decision in the current context, I doubt, very much" he says in De Standaard .

After the action in Verviers our staff at state security runs overtime. "We can not be naive: if you find a group, you can also expect retaliation It is quite possible that there are still cells from the same organization active in our country, these sleeper cells of terrorists really exist, this is why we are now extra vigilant... "says Raes.

101 returned fighters

Raes believes there is a need for a "Belgian Islam. With our in country formed imams and mosques who function autonomously without any of foreign state intervention, this could could be used to counter radicalization.

Raes also releases the info that the Belgian security services are aware of 101 returned fighters.

"A third of those we consider as a risk. But it is obviously not easy to separate the dangerous ones from the 'non dangerous' ones. And tracking all of them continuous is impossible," it seems. (Belga / TE)