What “Standing with Brussels” Should Mean

By Ed Hoffman

If you watched the news over the weekend, you may have noticed that the anti-terror demonstrators in Belgium were called “right wingers” by the media. Today, reports from major outlets such as the UK Daily Mail are amping up rhetoric by saying that peaceful weekend marches were “hijacked” by those groups. Our American media has been slightly more careful; NBC News clarified that a peaceful weekend march was interrupted by about 400 people rumored to be with a controversial group called The Nation. While the majority of them were holding anti-ISIS signs (a good thing), others were throwing explosive devices at police (not a good thing). So, was it fair to label this entire event as a “right wing hijacking” of a peaceful demonstration? Of course not. Here’s why this should matter to you.

By now, you should know that the media loves to classify anything excessively nationalist as right wing. It’s a convenient label because it enables them to deceive the audience into thinking that any violence erupting from a patriotic demonstration is condoned in the culture of conservatism. This is not a mistake; this is calculated. I was happy to hear Rush Limbaugh deride it this week, and I’m hoping other conservative voices will too. So as we are all encouraged to “stand with Brussels” this week, let’s do it for the right reason: because we hate terror, period. Not because we stand with the media’s way of narrating events, or the Belgian authorities’ way of handling this tragedy.

Speaking of the Belgian authorities, it would be nice if they hated terror enough to hold their suspects longer than 48 hours. Monday, law enforcement in Brussels released Faycal Cheffou – believed to be the “man in the hat” in airport surveillance footage – just two days after charging him with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist killings. Authorities claimed they had to release him because there was “insufficient evidence” he was involved. If you look at a photo of Cheffou next to the photo in the airport, it sure looks like the same person to me.

Furthermore, I doubt it’s a coincidence that Cheffou was arrested several times over the past few years for trying to recruit refugees in Brussels to turn to extremism with him. In fact, Cheffou had been called “dangerous” by the mayor of Brussels himself and the Belgium Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration described him as a “jihadist creep.” As if that wasn’t enough proof, he just happened to live next door to the European Union (EU) headquarters in Brussels. How much more evidence do the Belgian police need?

And then, there are the large holes in Belgian counterterrorism. The suicide bomber brothers, Ibrahim and Khalid El Bakraoui, were on our counterterrorism watch list in the U.S. – one before the Paris attack, one after. In fact, Ibrahim was deported by Turkey to the Netherlands in July after being arrested by Turkish authorities near the Syrian border – and yes, Turkey warned Belgium about him. Yet he was free to wander into the airport on March 22 and blow himself up, killing another 20 people along with him (the remainder of the victims died at the hands of his brother at the metro station).

When people ask you this week whether you stand with Brussels, you might consider telling them that you do stand with Brussels – you just don’t stand for this method of dealing with terrorism, which is to have your head buried in the sand. It’s Obama’s way, and it’s starting to spread around the world.

Ed Hoffman is host of The Main Event on AM590, which airs Saturday 9:30 AM- 10:30 AM and Sunday 4:00 PM- 5:00 PM. Follow him on Twitter @EdHoffman, and like him on Facebook by searching The Main Event 590.