Is the latest governmental panic about parental “extremism” in Belgium merely a means to justify suppression of traditionalists? And does it serve as a foreshadow of what the Left would love to carry out in America?
On Friday, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo declared he will work with government experts on “extremism” to combat a string of school arsons, which government officials allege is a reaction to a controversial sex education program that has been protested by conservative parents.
As the Associated Press noted, De Croo’s remarks were made during a speech made in response to news of the sixth school to be targeted this week. At the site of the school, located in the French-speaking Wallonia region, authorities say they discovered signs protesting the divisive Evras program, which is designed to help students “develop their relational and sexual lives.”
The Evras program has been around for years, but has now been made compulsory for students aged 11-12 and 15-16, provoking backlash from conservative families, including Muslims.
“This decision seems to confront the universal and inviolable values of the familial education framework, and the interests of the students and their families,” Muslim associations said in a statement.
Expressing concern about the “hypersexualization of children,” the Muslim community added: “We also fear that the EVRAS program could erode the religious freedom and parents’ rights to guide their children’s education according to their beliefs.”
Caroline Desir, education minister of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, was among the politicians to push back against criticism of the program from conservatives.
“I would like to call on everyone to calm down and try once again to cut through the lies circulating about the Evras system,” said Desir on Friday. “No, it does not prepare a pedophile system. No, it doesn’t plan to make children want to change gender. No, it doesn’t plan to teach children how to engage in sexual activities.”
De Croo added that “It’s not new, it’s the basis of sexual health, but also the basis for our children to be are [sic] aware of their rights and (physical) integrity.”
The prime minister also appealed to “tolerance” in his speech condemning the arson.
“In a democracy like ours, we will never allow our schools to be a target,” he said. “We live in a country of tolerance, and tolerance means we can have a debate, different points of view, but it can never lead to violence, especially in places frequented by our children.”
While police have thus far not established a link between the six incidents of arson, politicians have nonetheless quickly dubbed them acts of “terrorism.”
AP reports:
De Croo said he has asked the body in charge of processing intelligence on “terror, extremism and radicalization” to analyze the situation, and [Interior Minister Annelies] Verlinden said she’s asked the federal police to provide support to local forces in the affected region.
… De Croo said that sexual education has been provided in Belgium for half a century and warned that the country will not take steps backwards.
… Charleroi mayor Paul Magnette compared the arsons to a “form of terrorism.”
“These are arson attacks on schools, which are sacred places,” he told Sudinfo media. “They are places where children learn respect and tolerance.”
What is disconcerting about the situation is that the Belgian government has rapidly gone with the “terrorism” narrative despite police not yet knowing who is responsible for the arson, what the motive was, or if the six incidents are even connected.
Even the mainstream media are all too eager to jump on the bandwagon, as shown by the emphasis with which the Associated Press notes the presence of protest signs at one of the schools. Clearly, the objective is to sell a predetermined narrative — that those who oppose liberal “sex education” are “backwards,” violent terrorists who pose a threat to society.
It is the same narrative that has been repeated so often here in the United States. Remember when Biden’s Department of Justice said that conservative parents expressing their opinions at school board meetings were “terrorists”?
In Belgium and in America, the tactic employed by the Left is the same. The facts don’t matter to them. All that matters is leveraging emotion and headlines to demonize conservatives in order to justify the weaponization of the government against them. They don’t want to have to debate conservatives in the realm of ideas — it’s so much easier to dismiss debate by saying “we won’t argue with terrorists.”
In Belgium, citizens should be willing to examine the facts carefully as they are revealed through legitimate investigation, for rushed policy passed on the basis of false flags has always been a tactic of authoritarians to accumulate further power for themselves.
And in the United States, citizens should remain alert, for the Left is far from having given up on attempting to force sexualization, grooming, LGBT ideology, and anti-Christian attitudes on the nation’s youth by means of the public schools and universities.
