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Marsipulami
21-04-05, 17:20
Belgian King Renews Support for Hijab-clad Worker


Amzil's son presented the King and Queen a painting portraying the tragic situation his family lives since the series of the tragic events began.


By Nasreddine Djebbi, IOL Correspondent

BRUSSELS, April 20, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Belgian King Albert II and Queen Paola have made a rare visit to a factory where a hijab-clad woman was forced to quit her job over death threats, to express their support for the Muslim employee and her factory colleagues against extremist threats.

Naimi Amzil, of a Moroccan origin, was forced to quit her job in the Remmery seafood factory on March 3, after receiving death threats from an extremist group for no reasons other than being a veiled Muslim.

Expressing outrage at the extremist threats, the Belgian monarch decided to visit the factory to back the Muslim employee and other factory workers against the extremist death threats.

During a reception party held on the sidelines of the King's visit Tuesday, April 19, Rick Remmery, the factory owner, said the visit represents a powerful sign of support for the Muslim employee and the factory workers.

He expressed hope that King Albert II's visit to the factory will bring an end to the extremist death threats against the factory staff.

“Arresting the culprits is not a priority for me. All I do care about is to see an end to the series of death threats,” said Remmery.

The latest in a series of death threats against the Muslim woman was a letter containing two bullets signed by an extremist group calling itself “New Free Flanders”.

The fundamentalist group said that an execution was being prepared, threatening to poison produce made at the delicatessen factory in west Flanders where she worked.

Amzil and her employer Rick Remmery hit the newsstands after they were received by King Albert II, following their refusal to bow to death threats against them.

The tragic chain of events became known last November when the “New Free Flanders”, demanded that Remmery sack 31-year-old Amzil if she insists on wearing hijab, accusing him of being “a bad Belgian who collaborates with Muslims.”

The group threatened Remmery and his family in case of noncompliance.

Amzil offered to take off her hijab during working hours or resign, but a brave Remmery shrugged off both options.

Sympathy


Naimi Amzil with her husband and children.


During the reception party, one of Amzil’s sons presented the Belgian King a painting portraying the tragic situation in which the Muslim family lives since the series of the tragic events began.

The Belgian Monarch and Queen also met with hundreds of students of the primary school in which Amzil’s sons are studying to show their sympathy.

Afterwards, King Albert and Queen Paola toured the factory, ending with the packing department, where Amzil was working, and listened to an explanation from her colleagues on the role the Muslim employee used to play.

The number of Belgian Muslims amounts to 400,000 of the country’s 10 millions, represented before the state bodies by the Islamic Executive Council, which is officially recognized by the king and government.

There are hundreds of mosques as well as cultural and social societies in major Belgian cities.

Several political activists, of Muslim origin, have managed to sit in the Federal Parliament and provincial parliaments as well as municipalities.

The recent government has included the first Muslim minister, Anisa Timsmani, of Moroccan origin, who had to resign under the pressures of Belgian press and media.

The issue of hijab has recently taken a central stage in several European countries.

France triggered a controversy by adopting a bill banning hijab and religious insignia in public schools, a decision dismissed by the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) as “discriminatory.”

Last year, Belgian ministers locked horns over whether they should follow the French example by passing a law banning hijab in state schools.

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations – unlike the symbolic Christian crucifixes or Jewish Kappas.

http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2005-04/20/article04.shtml