Belgium: "Jews avoid conflicts. That’s the difference with Muslims", says mayor of Antwerp

Via European Jewish Press:

The leader of the New Flemish Alliance (NVA), a governing Flemish nationalist party in Belgium, said that "Jews avoid conflict, that’s the difference with Muslims." 

In an interview with the Flemish weekly De Zondag, Bart De Wever, who is also Mayor of Antwerp, a city with large Jewish [not really large, around 12,000 Jews live in Antwerp] and Muslim communities, was responding a question on whether his views on migration have become tougher in recent years. 

"Analyze my discourse of the past thirty years. You will mainly see continuity. But because of the false humanitarianism of the left, every other discourse seems hard," he said. 

"The Left now embraces the headscarf as a symbol of equality. I find that very strange. People wanted to destroy Christianity, but they accept everything from Islam. I call that soumission," he said. De Wever said that he is just as critical for the Jewish as for the Islamic community.

"Orthodox Jews also attach great importance to external signs of their faith. But they do accept the consequences. I have not yet seen an Orthodox Jew at a counter. They avoid conflicts. That’s the difference. Muslims do require a place in the public space, in education, with their external beliefs. That creates tensions."