The Man With The Wooden Cross

Recently I wrote a diary about how in Brussels they deal with a 9/11 memorial event. I just read a blog by a German Christian, Hajo J., about his personal experience that day in Brussels. He published his account on the 'Politically Incorrect' blog in German. An English translation of his account is here. Here is a portion of what he wrote.

On 11 September 2007, at 11.30 o’ clock, I arrived at Place du Luxembourg. There were lots of policemen and armoured vehicles. I met an acquaintance with two other like-minded people at a pub. There was only meant to be a “meeting of tourists” and no coordinated action. I then went to another part of the square. Stephen Gash of SIOE was giving many interviews as he sat quietly in a pub, i.e. he was not demonstrating.

A short while later several people were taken away in a prison-van, without there having been any indication that they had “demonstrated” or done anything in particular (I was to hear the same observation again and again). It was almost 12 o’ clock. A murmuring went through the crowd, we had to do something , now was the remembrance moment for the 9/11 terror victims in the USA.

I decided there and then to take out the wooden cross I had brought and to hold it high – defying any kind of unknown. In remembrance of the victims, as a sign of protest against the threatening, creeping islamization of Europe, the lack of resistance and the increasing appeasement. And of course in spontaneous protest against the unjust banning of the demonstration by the mayor of Brussels, Mr. Thielemans. All this accompanied by a prayer and in remembrance of many Catholic saints, who resisted the same danger of Islamic rule centuries ago. Think only of Saint Marco d’Aviano, a Capuchin friar who encouraged the troops as the Muslim hordes of the Ottoman Sultan descended upon them at the battle of Vienna on 12 September 1683.

My gesture was a purely individual act, I had freedom of speech according to Article 5 of the constitution and Article 11 of the European Charter of Human Rights. My action consisted only of holding up a wooden cross, praying silently and answering the questions of about 50 journalists in English, French and German as I walked.

At 13.00 hours the Brussels police grabbed hold of me, pushed me violently into a van...

At 7.30 pm I was set free, after a superficial procedure to retrieve our belongings. Nothing was taken from me, except for a while the contents of my bag, which were placed in a plastic bag and then everything was given back to me. I asked for a written confirmation of my detention but did not get one.

When one considers that the Place Royale in Brussels has a statue of the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Godfrey of Bouillon, who died in Palestine on 17 July 1100 during the first Crusade, I can only say: poor Belgium – how far you have drifted from your fundamental values and traditions...

This is a German Christian who knows world history, and he knows his rights under EU law. It does not matter. Here is an excellent quote from Bruce Thornton about this sickness:

He was arrested after he took out a wooden cross and started praying to himself. There you have the terminal sickness of EUtopia: publicly exercising your right of free speech and displaying the symbol of the faith that created Europe in the first place will get you arrested, even as the E.U. elite bend over backwards to profess their admiration for and to indulge the intolerant, imperialistic faith that for fourteen centuries their ancestors fought and defeated. That’s how EUtopia will end: with the terrorist’s bang followed by the appeaser’s whimper.

I can't say it any better than Bruce did.