Terrorism in Belgium: We are Guided by Overpowering Fear | Laura Liebens

Isis has spread a new threatening video with footage of a jihadi wandering towards the train station of Antwerp in Belgium. Their message is ‘we are still here and planning to attack’. The police believes that everyone should take this very seriously and right after the release, measures were taken. Ever since the attacks in Brussels, almost a year ago, the bigger cities are full of military because of the terror threat. Home sweet home, but what to do if even home isn’t that sweet? Why are we guided by that overpowering fear?

What if?

Right before the attacks in a nightclub in Istanbul, Isis did something comparable. They also made a chilling video with the same music. Belgians now think that the same might happen in their country. “What if this is the same warning?”, “What if we don’t take this too serious?”, “What if something will happen while I’m in Antwerp next week?”

If we’d always think like that, we aren’t even safe to get out of our houses, while we could even die by falling in our showers. 

I’ve noticed that the atmosphere changed since 22th of March, the day of the attacks in Brussels. As we are so proud of our free western society, we now see streets with policemen on the watch, heavily armed soldiers on each corner and security cameras at every square making our world less and less free. When you come in the train station of Antwerp and you pass a soldier, you feel so uncomfortable. You wonder if you should look at them, but then it feels like they will arrest you. When you look to the floor and try to avoid eye contact, you’re scared that they might think you’re suspicious. For commuters it became something ‘normal’. The fact that they think about them as something ‘normal’, means that the world is completely changing and not in a good way.

‘Je suis Belgique’

I do have a really strong opinion about the fact that we all have to change our profile picture on Facebook in a flag of the European country that got attacked, while people in Syria and around suffer every day and night. While everyday women and children are abused. This doesn’t mean I have something against people who want to show their compassion. I just think that we have to live with the fact that we will never live in a complete peaceful world. No one ever did and no one ever will. Changing our profile pictures will not save the world. The strongest signal against fear, is showing that we are moving on with our lives. We should not live the way they want us to live.  


Laura is a writer for Student Voices and Erasmus student in Plymouth.  Read her other articles >