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30 Belgian mosques under Salafist influence: local media

Xinhua, February 13, 2016 Adjust font size:

About 30 mosques in Belgium have links to the Salafist branch of Islam, Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique reported on Friday, citing anonymous state security sources.

According to the report, the figure is double the estimate made in 2001 by Belgian intelligence watchdog "Comite R."

Belgian intelligence officials believe Salafism has "made its nest in the country," the newspaper said, with a number of imams, mosque directors and visiting preachers inspired by the hard-line conservative form of Sunni Islam.

Most of the mosques believed to be subject to a Salafist influence are not officially recognized and therefore escape the screening of police and intelligence agencies.

However, the report noted that the Great Mosque of Brussels had clearly reduced the number of fundamentalist sermons, according to police. Endit