VLAAMS BELANG WANTS JEWS TO JOIN THEM IN FIGHTING ISLAM

Far-right party calls for Jews to join war on Islam
By Stephen Castle in Antwerp

One of Europe's most successful far-right leaders has appealed to Jewish voters to join forces against radical Islam and back a party denounced as xenophobic.

Filip Dewinter, leader of Belgium's Vlaams Belang, described Antwerp's large Jewish community as natural partners "against the main enemy of the moment, the radical Islam, fundamentalism".

Vlaams Belang is expected to win at least a third of the votes in local elections on Sunday and emerge as the largest party in Antwerp, a city with tense race relations and one which has suffered racial murders this year. Mr Dewinter has come to the threshold of political power by advocating strict limits on immigration, including the return of economic migrants who fail to integrate, as well as independence for Flanders, the northern, Dutch-speaking half of Belgium.

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In a series of interviews yesterday Mr Dewinter raised the temperature in Antwerp, which has a large Jewish community living alongside thousands of Muslim immigrants.

"In the Jewish community we have about 30 to 35 per cent of the vote," said Mr Dewinter. "That's official because we know our score over there in the Jewish neighbourhood." Mr Dewinter denied any responsibility for inciting racial attacks and said that his opponents had found that "demonisation is necessary to maintain the cordon sanitaire against us".

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1) Far-right party calls for Jews to join war on Islam