Last weekend in the Belgium city of Antwerp, the third ever Muslim Expo was held—a lifestyle fair for Muslims. Like pretty much any other lifestyle fair in the world, the Muslim Expo had stalls, discussion panels, workshops, shows, and a keynote on time management. But according to the Flemish right-wing nationalist party Vlaams Belang, something much shadier was going on here. "This Islam fair is an apartheids fair, where they preach segregation instead of integration," according to Filip Dewinter—one of the leading members of Vlaams Belang. "People here want only one thing: to expand the influence of Islam in Belgium. If you want to know how young people become radicalized, I advise you to visit this expo."
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About 40 Vlaams Belang supporters gathered on Saturday at two in the afternoon across the street from the expo center, with signs saying "No headscarf" and "Stop Islam." Some members of the militant nationalist group Voorpost joined them and handed out slices of pork sausage to passersby. According to Belgian newspaper De Standaard some local residents yelled profanities at the Vlaams Belang supporters from their window sills and threw eggs in their direction.Back on the other side of the street, visitors to the Muslim Expo didn't really involve themselves much with the protesters—aside from one girl, who decided the best way to deal with these people was to take some selfies with them. Photographer Jurgen Augusteyns was there and saw Zakia Belkhiri happily taking some snaps with the protesters and Filip Dewinter.The rest of Jurgen Augusteyns' pictures from the protest are below. You can see more of his work on his website.
