Paul Beliën

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Paul Beliën

Paul Belien
(courtesy of Luc van Braekel)
Born 1959
Occupation journalist
Spouse Alexandra Colen

Paul Beliën (b. 1959) is a Flemish journalist and editor of the conservative-libertarian blog The Brussels Journal.

Beliën is both known as both a pro-American and a prolific writer and author. Beliën has written in several newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, The Independent, 't Pallieterke, Gazet van Antwerpen, Trends, De Tijd, The Washington Times or The American Conservative. He is an advocate of Flemish independence, free trade and supports the pro-life movement, which is opposed to abortion. Beliën strongly opposes immigration into Europe by Islamic fundamentalists. He was editor of the conservative magazine Nucleus. He is also an adjunct fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Beliën has also published a book about Belgium and the "Belgianisation" of Europe entitled A Throne in Brussels.

Beliën is married to Dr. Alexandra Colen, a member of Belgian Federal Parliament for the Vlaams Belang party. They have homeschooled all of their children.

Contents

[edit] 1990 Baudouin abortion question

Beliën was editor at the foreign desk of the Gazet van Antwerpen, until he got fired in April 1990. Beliën had received information in October 1989, that the Belgian King, Baudouin, would not sign the new abortion law. However, editor in chief of the Gazet van Antwerpen, Lou de Clerck, found this information to be too sensitive to be published. Beliën published this information in the Wall Street Journal of November 1, 1989, though, and later in NRC Handelsblad. In reaction to this, De Clerck refused to let Beliën write in foreign newspapers, mentioning his relationship to the Gazet van Antwerpen. An op-ed of Beliën , for the NRC Handelsblad, of April 6, 1990, mentioned that Beliën was working "for a newspaper in Antwerp, which name he could not mention." A couple of days later Beliën was fired. Jos Huypens, deputy editor of the Gazet, said that the cause of Belien's firing was a "conflict that was dragging on for years." Shortly later, the Wall Street Journal published another Beliën piece, detailing the connections between political parties and the media in Belgium.[1][2][3]

Leo de Haes, a former journalist at Humo, alleged that Beliën was fired in order to rid the Gazet from "Vlaams Blok elements."[4]

[edit] Opinions

In an article (June 23, 2004) for the business newspaper De Tijd Beliën reflected on current Belgian VLD prime-minister Guy Verhofstadt, saying that Verhofstadt brought Flemish Liberalism to the brink of the abyss. Beliën stated that he saw in Verhofstadt a transformation from adoring the economic liberalism of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, and the laureling of Ludwig Erhard of Verhofstadt in Beliën's magazine Nucleus in 1990, to a Third Way position taken by Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, with Verhofstadt ultimately taking a Old Europe stance with Jacques Chirac and Gerhard Schröder in 2003. According to Beliën, this last 'change of winds' by Verhofstadt prevented him to become the next EU President. Furthermore, Belien thinks that the vacuum left by Verhofstadt to make the VLD in a broad people's party has been filled by the Vlaams Belang.[5]

In May 2006, Beliën removed a post "Geef ons Wapens!" (Give us Weapons!) from his blog, The Brussels Journal, after receiving a letter from the Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism, an agency that falls under the responsibility of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and directed by Jozef de Witte, asking him to remove the text, because, they claim, it violates the Belgian law of 1981 on racism and xenophobia.[6] The text, originally in Dutch, was written in the context of the Joe Van Holsbeeck murder, which was originally thought to have been perpetrated by people of North African decent (but later found to be perpetrated by Polish immigrants of Gypsy decent). Paul Beliën denied all allegations of the Centre, but did remove the text.[7] A translation of an extract from the text follows:

The predators have teeth and claws. The predators have knives. Starting when they're small, they learn at their yearly offerings how to cut the throats of warm-blooded livestock. We get sick at the sight of blood, but they don't. They're trained and they're armed. We can't even carry pepperspray in our pockets. They have switchblades and butchers knives and they know how to use them.[8]

A month later, Paul Beliën re-iterated his stand from that article, after the death of Guido Demoor in an Antwerp bus, saying:

The Belgian state is no longer able to guarantee the security of its citizens. [...] Belgians do not have a constitutional or legal right to bear arms, not even purely defensive arms such as peppersprays. With the police and the government failing to protect law-abiding citizens the latter are, however, totally unprotected. Saturday’s murder has shocked bus drivers and train conductors, but they stress that they are not in the least surprised. Violence on public transport has become a fact of life.[9]

[edit] Appointment

As of December 2006, Beliën was appointed director of Islamist Watch. Islamist Watch is a new project of the Middle East Forum which combats the ideas and institutions of nonviolent, radical Islam in the United States and other Western countries. According to the Middle East Forum's website, Beliën received this appointment because of his emergence as "one of Europe's leading experts on lawful Islamism, particularly in his role as founder and editor of The Brussels Journal."[10]

[edit] Publications

  • Beliën, Paul, Abortus, het grote taboe, Roularta Books, Zellik, 1992 (ISBN 90-5466-015-5)
  • Beliën, Paul, A throne in Brussels : Britain, the Saxe-Coburgs and the Belgianization of Europe, Imprint Academic, Charlotteville (VA), 2005 (ISBN 1-84540-033-X)

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ (Dutch) "Paul Beliën ontslagen bij Gazet van Antwerpen", NRC Handelsblad, 1990-04-11. 
  2. ^ (Dutch) Wilma Cornelisse. "De nauwe banden tussen pers en politiek in België", NRC Handelsblad, 1990-04-27. 
  3. ^ (English) Paul Belien. Belgium's Press Ignored a King's Abortion Views.
  4. ^ (Dutch) "De Frut, ons moeilijk lief", Knack, 2005-04-20. 
  5. ^ (Dutch) "Verhofstadt bracht Vlaams liberalisme aan de rand van de afgrond", De Tijd, 2004-06-23. 
  6. ^ (Dutch) "Wij hebben dat haatartikel wel; Centrum tegen Racisme spreekt kritiek tegen", Het Nieuwsblad, 2006-05-16. 
  7. ^ (Dutch) "Niet minder racisme voor rechtbank dan vroeger", De Standaard, 2006-05-16. 
  8. ^ (Dutch) Paul Beliën (2006-04-21). Geef ons wapens!. The Brussels Journal.
    The original text is removed though, but partially available in Dutch Dutch Wikiquote
  9. ^ (English) Paul Beliën (2006-06-26). "Youths" Kick Man to Death on Crowded Antwerp Bus. The Brussels Journal.
  10. ^ Paul Belien Appointed Director of Islamist Watch
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