News from Vlaams Belang -- and, if Western-style liberty is your bag, it isn't good. A sharia court now presides in beautiful Antwerp. Of course, NATO and the US have enthusiastically supported the ascension of sharia in Libya, so will this news be welcome in the capitals of Europe and the US? The answer is two-fold, It will be welcome because it will be willfully, suicidally misunderstood, as the insipid response of Anwterp's "Alderman for Diversity" (below) attests. The dhimmification of the West is nigh complete. Thanks to resolute parties such as Vlaams Belang, however, resistance continues. The flame of liberty still flickers.

But for how long?

In a press release, the VB lion Filip Dewinter writes:

As we announced yesterday, a sharia court has been established in the north of Antwerp. This ‘court’, located within the so-called ‘Center for Islamic Services’, is an initiative of the extremist Muslim group Sharia4Belgium.

The opening of a sharia court in Antwerp is, after the presence of numerous mosques and Koran schools, the establishment of a department of a fundamentalist Yemenite school and the islamization of the Antwerp education, a new step in the islamization of Antwerp. What’s next? Organizing public stoning on the Antwerp Market Square?

In the Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, Antwerp’s Alderman for Diversity Monica De Coninck has stated that “it’s good that religious instances mediate in their communities”.

What on earth is De Coninck thinking? A sharia court bases its rulings on the sharia, the Islamic law. According to the website of the ‘Center for Islamic Services’, this Muslim court has authority over, for example, matters of marriage and inheritance.

Vlaams Belang advises Alderman for Diversity De Coninck to urgently learn about the nature of sharia law. This law prescribes that women can only inherit half as much as men. Polygamy and child marriages are allowed. Testimonies of women are only worth half as much as men’s. It is utterly simple for men to divorce, but women need to provide very profound reasons. Conclusion: sharia does not correspond with European values such as human rights, people’s dignity and the equality of men and women.

In theory, Muslims address voluntarily the sharia court. But all too often –especially for women and children – the Muslim community forces them into accepting the ruling of a sharia court.

Vlaams Belang demands the immediate closure of the sharia court. Our constitution gives the courts a monopoly on settling disputes. Article 144 of the constitution states: “Disputes about civil rights belong exclusively to the competence of the courts”. You certainly can’t have a parallel system of Sharia courts developing besides the official judicial bodies, which judges based on principles which clash with the values of our democratic constitutional state. Vlaams Belang will definitely ask the Minister of Justice and the Antwerp city council to take measures.