2023-12-14 21:23:00
Around 9 p.m. this Thursday evening, the Charleroi firefighters and police were urgently called to one of the buildings in a housing estate in Mont-sur-Marchienne, allée Champ de Gernevaux. A significant release of smoke coming from the elevator shaft forced the residents of the building to evacuate.
A Koran burned in Mont-sur-Marchienne ©FVH
Upon responding, firefighters forced open the elevator door to find an item of clothing and a book burning, emitting thick smoke which triggered the fire alarm. It is not known what it is regarding the clothing, but the book in question is written in Arabic and appears, according to initial reports, to be a Koran. That is to say the Islamic equivalent of the Bible for Muslims, their sacred book.
The local Charleroi police were able to arrest a suspect, but are not commenting at this stage on the Islamophobic nature of the incident or the motivations of the person. Residents were able to return home a good half hour following the start of the alert. The building’s elevator is out of service.
A Koran burned in Mont-sur-Marchienne ©FVH
Editor’s note: Burning the Koran, in Belgium, or any other book considered sacred by believers – an “auto-da-fé” of a book – is not a crime as such. On the other hand, depending on the circumstances, this may well fall under the yoke of incitement to hatred, racial violence or religious discrimination.
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