Rabat – The Brussels Criminal Court has sentenced 54-year-old woman to three years in jail for attacking her 19-year-old daughter. The woman had stabbed her daughter in the abdomen and under the chin after she had converted to Islam and secretly married a Muslim.
The judge stated that the sentence would show the mother that her behavior was “unacceptable,” reported Belgian news outlet DH.be.
The Muslim convert married a Muslim man without telling her Orthodox Christian family.
The mother said that she had lost control because she was afraid she would not see her daughter anymore. The daughter does not want to see her mother again, according to the mother’s lawyer, Olivier Martins.
Read also: Kansas Anti-Muslim Victim’s Family Speaks Out Against Islamophobia
While an exact figure of Belgium’s Muslim population is not available, Muslims make up an estimated 4 to 6.5 percent of the country’s population.
The main religion in Belgium is Christianity, primarily Roman Catholicism, followed by Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
Islamophobia in Belgium
Late in December, a hooded passerby assaulted a veiled Moroccan woman on a street in Anderlecht near Brussels, by punching her in the face and fleeing.
The woman called for Belgian authorities to bring the assailant to justice. Social media users described the violence as “a shameful Islamophobia,” after they had watched a viral CCTV footage of the attack.
Read Also: Moroccan Hijabi Demands Justice After Islamophobic Attack in Belgium
The Muslim Executive of Belgium (EMB) has strongly condemned the attack and expressed solidarity with the Moroccan woman.
Islamophobic attacks are not uncommon in Belgium.
According to data gathered from victims by a local anti-Islamophobia association, 76 percent of Islamophobic attacks in Belgium targeted women in 2017.
