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The Arab European League or AEL is a conservative Arab nationalist and Pan-Arabist organization in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Foundation

AEL was founded and is led by Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanese-born Shi'a Muslim living in Belgium. Jahjah, a former member of Hizbullah, left Lebanon in 1991 to begin university studies in Belgium.

Activities

AEL's creed can be described as Nasserite, Pan-Arabist and Arab Nationalist. While not Islamist, and eschewing violence itself, the group expresses support for the actions of Islamist resistance in Iraq and for militant groups in the Middle East. .

Salon.com reports that the group issued public approvals for the September 11, 2001 attacks and the organization's rallies have been reported by the Christian Science Monitor to end in chanting "jihad" and "Osama Bin Laden" . However, the group's English-language website has been critical of Al Qaeda, referring to the the September 11 attacks as "horrifying" and condemning al-Qaeda for alleged terrorist acts committed in Jordan .

The AEL strives to develop an Arab Muslim communalist movement in Europe. The group participated in the federal elections in Belgium in 2003 under the umbrella RESIST with the PVDA (Workers Party Belgium, a leftist political party). The party gained 0.15% in the election of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and 0.27% in the Dutch electoral college of the Belgian Senate.. These electoral results were too low to win a seat.

They also participated in the Flemish elections in 2004 under the denomination Moslim Democratische Partij (Muslim Democratic Party), reaching their highest share of votes (0.27%) in the province of Antwerp. This electoral result was too low to gain a seat in the Flemish Parliament.

Following the murder of a 27-year-old Arab by a Belgian man in Antwerp in 2002, the Arab European League began patrolling the streets of Antwerp with video cameras to monitor police activity. The AEL claimed that Belgian police were engaging in a racist "manhunt" of the city's Moroccan youth and that many police officers sympathized with the racist group Vlaams Blok . The AEL patrols were stopped after the Antwerp public prosecutor's office began an investigation into whether the activities violated Belgian laws against the organization of private militias.

Criticism

The organization has been accused of anti-semitism by an agency of the Belgian government and by a Belgian newspaper, De Standaard .

Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt blamed the group for inciting violence during street riots in Antwerp in 2002 and criticized it for creating patrols to shadow policemen with video cameras to monitor acts of anti-Arab racism.

Salon.com states that an AEL official called for the death penalty for homosexuals prior to assuming a leadership position within the group. In 2003, the political party Agalev (currently known as Groen!) attempted to place posters in Antwerp of homosexual and lesbian couples kissing while dressed in Islamic attire. The AEL considered it blasphemous and as an insult to Islam because according to them, the Qur'an explicitly forbids homosexuality. . In a recent statement on its website, the group encouraged readers "to illustrate every wall with graffiti making fun of ... Aids spreading fagots."

Response to Muhammad cartoons

In late September 2005, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published several controversial Muhammad cartoons in which Muhammad was associated with terrorism. In response, the AEL began posting cartoons on the subject of the Holocaust on its pages. The AEL website stated,

After the lectures that Arabs and Muslims received from Europeans on Freedom of Speech and on Tolerance. And after that many European newspapers republished the Danish cartoons on the Prophet Mohammed. AEL decided to enter the cartoon business and to use our right to artistic expression. Just like the newspapers in Europe claim that they only want to defend the freedom of speech and do not desire to stigmatise Muslims,we also do stress that our cartoons are not meant as an offence to anybody and ought not to be taken as a statement against any group, community or historical fact.

The first cartoon depicted Jews trying to falsely pad the number of Jewish Holocaust victims. The second cartoon depicted Hitler with Anne Frank in bed, presumably after sex, with Hitler remarking "Write this one in your diary, Anne." The third cartoon depicts Steven Spielberg holding a paper called "Holocaust Script". He is on the phone with Peter Jackson. Spielberg: "I need your help on this one, Peter". Jackson: "I don't think I have that much imagination Steven, sorry".

The cartoons were called anti-semitic and negationist by De Standaard, a Belgian newspaper. A Dutch Jewish organization "Center for Information and Documentation Israel" filed a formal complaint in Amsterdam against that AEL following the publication of the cartoons.

External links

• International website of the AEL
• Murder prompts riots by Khaled Diab
• Arab pride on the streets of Antwerp by Khaled Diab
• Arab panthers and Flemish lions by Khaled Diab
• Interview with the founder of AEL.

• Politics of Belgium
• European politics