Philip Heylen, the Antwerp alderman of public worship, proposed an ambitious plan to do something about the half-empty churches in the city. Currently, some 80 churches await demolishment or possible use other than worship. Heylen sees the churches as an opportunity for Muslims to take over the barely used, but empty churches. Vlaams Belang reacted…
Antwerp has 36 mosques, and according to Monica De Coninck, the alderman in charge of diversity, this is 75% too much. De Coninck would like to see up to nine medium sized, well equipped and safe mosques. Currently, many of the mosques in Antwerp are small, located in old buildings, and unsafe in emergency situations…
The headscarf ban in Antwerp is now being extended to personnel in the social services (OCMW). Two employment counselors were given a choice to either remove their headscarves, or move to the complaints department, where citizens won’t see them. One woman refused to remove her headscarf and was transferred to the complaints department, while the…
About 7% of entrepreneurs in Belgium are not citizens of the country. In Brussels, the figure jumps to 27%, and in Antwerp, the figure stands at about 15%, making the city the most attractive to immigrant entrepreneurs in Flanders. This data comes from the Unizo organization, with data available from the national service for social…
Thirty-eight people appeared in front of a court in Antwerp for participating in driving exam fraud. Twenty-two of the suspects were accused of taking the exam for someone else. Prosecution spokesperson Dominique Reyniers said that the suspects were exclusively immigrants and of Moroccan or black-African origin. The suspects are believed to have paid upwards of…
