Twin bomb attacks that rocked the capital of Belgium this morning have served to throw fresh light on comments made by Donald Trump back in January when he was criticized for labeling Brussels a jihadist “hellhole”.
Dozens of people were killed and many more injured after attacks at Brussels international airport and a city metro station.
The attacks were as predictable as they were tragic. Brussels is the jihadist capital of Europe, having supplied the highest number of foreign fighters per capita in Iraq and Syria.
Radicalized Muslim ghettos like Molenbeek serve as breeding grounds for Islamic terrorism, with Paris massacre culprit Salah Abdeslam having been able to hide in and around the area for four months with the help of “friends and neighbors,” proving once again that many Muslims are sympathetic to jihadist sentiment.
Republican front runner Donald Trump identified Brussels as a jihadist hotbed back in January, but he was criticized for ‘insulting’ the Belgian capital by numerous media outlets and pundits.
Asked by Fox Business Network anchor Maria Bartiromo about his plan to put a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, Trump cited Brussels as an example of how the failure of immigrants to assimilate was ruining Europe.
“There is something going on, Maria,” he said. “Go to Brussels. Go to Paris. Go to different places. There is something going on and it’s not good, where they want Shariah law, where they want this, where they want things that — you know, there has to be some assimilation. There is no assimilation. There is something bad going on.”
“You go to Brussels — I was in Brussels a long time ago, 20 years ago, so beautiful, everything is so beautiful — it’s like living in a hellhole right now,” Trump added.
