Belgians Waffle? A Ban to Worry About

The extreme right political party in Belgium has been shut down for being racist, but that isn't to say that Belgians are beginning to understand the growing threat to Europe by the inflow of radical muslims.

• Now that the Cold War is over Western European countries ought to be role models for the East. What a farce, then, that Belgium has taken a cue from Vladimir Putin. In true autocratic fashion the high court banned Vlaams Blok -- the nation's most popular political party. The party has since been refounded and renamed Vlaams Belang, meaning "Flemish Interest."

• Vlaams Blok isn't any party I'd want to belong to. They want to break Belgium in half along ethnic lines and completely shut down immigration. They even offered immigrants cash to leave and never come back. Still, banning a political party -- especially the one that's most popular -- is no way to behave in a democracy no matter how kooky the party in question may be. It's obviously, you know, undemocratic. And it will only make the targeted party (in whatever new form it takes) more popular than it was. Opinions can't be abolished by court order. Political grievances don't vanish just because party leaders have to slap a new label on an old bottle.

• One member of Vlaams Blok wrote a political tract denouncing female genital mutilation in Muslim countries. The high court says the tract is racist. Nevermind that "Muslim" isn't a race, the person who wrote it is not ethnically Belgian. She's a Muslim woman from Turkey.

• Denouncing female genital mutilation is the sort of thing liberals and feminists recently did -- and occasionally still find the courage to do. If the European ruling class wants to relegate this view to the right-wing lunatic fringe they'll only boost the clout of the real fringe by making it look more reasonable than in is.