(Salma, a 22-year-old French national living in Belgium who chooses to wear the niqab after converting to Islam, gives an interview to Reuters television outside the Belgian Parliament in Brussels April 26, 2010. REUTERS/Yves Herman)
The leader of a Belgian Islamist group, Sharia4Belgium, was arrested on Thursday for posting an Internet video urging attacks on non-Muslims after a woman was detained in Brussels for wearing a face veil. Fouad Belkacem, also known as Abu Imran, was detained at his home in the northern Belgian city of Antwerp and remanded in custody on suspicion of breaking anti-discrimination laws and inciting violence.
“He posted a video message on YouTube in which he called on his brothers and sisters to fight against non-believers,” said a spokesman for the Antwerp prosecutor.
Last week protesters threw metal barriers and bins at a police station following the arrest of a Muslim woman for refusing to remove her face veil.
Women in Belgium risk a maximum fine of 150 euros ($190) if they wear a full face veil in public. Belgium and France banned the wearing of full veils in public last year.
