Explosions at Brussels Airport and Metro

Yet more mis-reporting from the BBC, I just switched on to see a reporter walking around deserted streets in the EU district.
It is a holiday today and tomorrow for all EU institutions.
They always get the Thursday and Friday before Easter as their holidays are linked to holidays of the various countries.

If they connot check that fact what else is wrong.

Is all this tv reporting not helpful to the terrorists, I doubt watching people bereft is going to cause guilt, they must be glued to the screens watching and listening , they hear countries don't share information gleaned , they see people weeping, hear tragic stories , not going to make them develop regret or guilt

Obione, it's put me off visiting Belgium I can tell you!

They have different languages in Belgium too. So they dont even communicate well with each other.

I think it will affect their tourist and visitor numbers.

Early on yesterday the news reports were saying the Belgian security services did not share intelligence with the police.

It doesn't surprise me about Poland. The political environment there has been changing there for several years now.

It doesn't bode well for the EU as a whole passing and sharing information is vital. I believe Germany neglected to pass some data on to France regarding comings and goings of the Paris terrorists, prior to the bombings there.

It was quoted on the channel 4 news that the Belgiums have a 'cultural aversion to Data gathering' that doesn't bode well considering that we are now told that Brussels is the terrorist hub of Europe.

Turkish president advised that one of the bombers was arrested in Southern Turkey near the Syrian border last summer, he was deported back to Belgium and they were advised that he was a terrorist, but it seems that didn't act on the information they were given.

What's to be done? The world's in a mess. A very scary mess.

Poland have refused to take their quota of 7,000 migrants. The reason being:
Because of the atrocities in Belgium they don't know who's coming into their country.

Stansgran it was pretty obvious you were not referring to the cartoon as rubbish. ( )

Divide and conquer. Man has being doing this for thousands of years.

Stansgran can you not see that the Islamic terrorists are doing the same thing as the groups Riverwalk listed?

As trisher says extremists are never typical of the people they claim to represent. Never.

We can't afford xenophobia.that is what these people want. I think Riverwalk you summed up the thoughts I was having.
I have heard that it was very hard being Irish in Birmingham after the pub bombings.

These communities are large and mostly create no problems.

In my career I met many Muslims. The majority just want a good life for their kids and want what everyone else wants.

I did meet a few who had very worrying views. They are the ones causing problems and I am not sure how Pandora's box is to be resealed. I fear it will take a very long time.

The temptation to demonise the Muslim faith and its followers should, I feel, be avoided. This is exactly what these terrorists want - to cause a backlash against Muslims in general and make them feel even more disliked by, and apart from, the rest of the population.

In my opinion, punishing whole communities in the belief that each member of that community is in some way responsible for all the violence and economic and social ills of a country will only make the situation worse - as has been proved throughout history.

Every country tries to get it right,,, unfortunately most do not. I may not live in the UK but have family and friends who do and it certainly is not perfect.

There is racial, sexual and disabled discrimination everywhere. Even fattist discrimination if that is a word.

My DBFs' partner is black, not an insult, and they get homophobic and racial discrimination on a regular almost daily basis, they live in the UK.

It is peoples mindset which needs to change, and with the likes of Trump around that is not going to happen I think.

Felice I do apologise. I was not referring to the cartoon as rubbish at all. I have pm'd an apology to you. I was referring back to my previous post that I think the Sharia laws etc are rubbish.
Riverwalk the people you list are not Christians are they?They are using Christianity as a cover for their nasty habits.

Yes. I appreciate not all of Brussels is like Molenbeek. But there are bridges to be built. Maybe some of the answer is local, as well as worldwide. I think, on the whole, we do try to get it right in this country.

Jings, Molenbeek is not a good example for Brussels, most of the city is very integrated, DGS class is about 25% Muslim, it is a Catholic school and the parents are very happy with that.

Like a lot of places Molenbeek has got out of control, there are places in the UK which have similar problems, where race relations are strained and there can be a lot of poverty.
The recent sex abuse scandals in England are just one example.
When a lot of people from a different culture congregrate in a particular area is is common to have problems.

It is a world wide problem, and the extremists are playing on the xenophobic nature of many people, and using religion as an excuse for their violence. I will not say mindless as these people are educated and articulate, why do you think so many of the spokesmen are Europeans.
They use the fear factor of hearing your own language to raise suspicion and fuel unrest.
For instance, the family next door, can they be trusted now.
The fear of refugees, how do we know who they really are, we do not, there are many here in Belguim. What do we do, punish little children just because there may be a bad apple in the barrel.

I can remember when the Irish were treated with the same suspicion.

I have no idea what the solution is, perhaps it is time for world leaders to put aside petty sqabbles and try to get it sorted out.

Stansgran do you judge Christians/Christianity by the actions of say the Ku Klux Klan, Ian Paisley, or paedophile priests?

And what about the goings-on in some of the Pentecostal churches in London which seem to specialise in corrupt pastors, sham marriages, and voodoo. Not to mention the Christian Militias in Lebanon during the 1980s who were involved in many a massacre in that country's civil war.

Extremists are never typical of the people they claim to represent. Many branches of religions segregate and separate women, not just Muslims. Many condemn and discriminate against people who are not of their faith. Religion as always has a lot to answer for.

And how do you think turning against all Muslims in this country will help? I think that's a lot of the trouble with Brussels. They have allowed too many people, especially the Muslims, to become marginalised. When that happens the decent people turn against the 'host'.

A lot of our security intelligence in this country, comes from members of the Muslim community.

Synogogues are also segregated are you going to close them down too?

I shall pass your comments on to the family of my DDs' friend who was killed yesterday morning.
I am sure they will be happy to know that you feel the expessions of sympathy coming from around the world, make you angry and are,,,rubbish.

I'm angry that we put up with this rubbish.