A Brussels square that has been a memorial site turned agitated on Sunday when black-clad men started shouting slogans and carrying a banner with an expletive against the Islamic State group.
Hundreds of people were remembering the 31 victims of Tuesday’s attacks when dozens of men, some in balaklavas and anonymous masks, barged to the center of Place de la Bourse and mounted the steps of the stock exchange building.
Riot squads joined plainclothes policemen to move the protesters away from the square. A water cannon sprayed the protesters.
The anti-IS rally came despite government appeals not to hold a march against fear Sunday in Brussels since the security forces were stretched too thinly to provide security.
Thought this might be of interest: Syrian forces retake the city of Palmyra from ISIS.
And Iraqi forces are ready to go at Mosul, the biggest prize in cities held by ISIL outside of Syria…
Obama’s strategy of shrinking the territory it holds via American support for local troops (in the case of Palmyra, Russian support for their local troops) is now shown to be working.
It may not seem that way to the European and other non Middle Eastern victims of ISIL, since when they lose big on the battlefield they “answer” with a spectacular attack …
I will repost this from another thread because I consider it relevant here.
Especially since that story refers to the more recent attack in Pakistan which killed more people than the Brussels attack.
"One of the unfortunate byproducts of the current climate of world affairs is that the heavy preponderance of terrorist attacks in the Third World get short shrift amongst western media, while attacks against so called First World targets get blanket, relentless, in depth, coverage.
I doubt that the Third World is totally oblivious to this profound discrepancy, or the difference in level of caring that it reflects. It seems unlikely that it does anything to mitigate the resentment that so many in the Third World feel about the West, but rather contributes greatly to fertilizing the soil in which terrorist attitudes and activity have bred so virulently.
It is ironically true that the Muslim world has suffered far more from terrorism than the West, but unfortunately the West screams far more loudly, and that tends to diminish our ability to even acknowledge, let alone mitigate the pain felt in the Third World.
We might not be the primary instigators of that pain, but it would be in our best interest to both acknowledge and attempt to mitigate that pain as much as possible."
Purely from an existential view, an Anti-IS rally seems quite self-defeating.
It’s a sad day when many, many normal people find themselves actually agreeing with the far-right on some basic things.
After all, it’s the very substance of Democracy and Freedom which the Islamic Terrorists are utilizing to maximize their damage.
Hugging a suicide bomber closer only makes their vest go off.