“It’s a nightmare,” says Zaki Chairi.
Chairi, a 27-year old Belgian comedian who performs with a humorous theatrical group that calls itself the “Muslim Raiders,” was speaking several days after a deadly gun battle erupted last week between suspected jihadists and police in the eastern Belgian town of Verviers.
News of the suspected Belgian terror cell immediately sent ripples of fear through this small European country’s Muslim community.
“I was freaking out. Really scared,” said Chairi, who fears young Belgian-born Muslims could become victims of a backlash after the raid.
“My mom said no one can go out tonight because of what happened,” said Camelia Lakhdar. The 19-year old waitress said her frightened mother made her skip work the night of the anti-terror raid.
Both Chairi and Lakhdar were speaking in the lounge of a Muslim youth center, Espace Poincare.
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“People radicalize themselves,” said El Hajjaji, director of Point Espace.
El Hajjaji says he has taken to social media, to denounce online propaganda urging volunteers to join ISIS. But he confesses the jihadi message can be tempting to vulnerable youths.
“The speech to get you to go to Syria is very simple: you have your enemy, you want to have the power to build your future, and you don’t need to find a solution to the complexity of your life that we have here in Belgium,” El Hajjaji said.
It is this toxic mix of unemployment, marginalization and the clarion call of jihad, that have helped make Brussels, the capital of Europe, a recruiting ground for terrorism.
Journalist Carmen Paun contributed to this report
