By The European Times | Created at 2026-09-03 08:36:41 | Updated at 2026-09-03 09:20:51
45 minutes ago
As shootings multiply, city officials direct their scrutiny at one of the few visible drug-education initiatives
Brussels is confronting an entrenched cycle of drug trafficking, territorial conflict and gun violence. Yet when volunteers operated a drug-prevention booth at the Percusounds festival, the swift political response was not support for reducing demand. City officials instead concentrated on the religious affiliation of some of the initiative’s supporters. The contrast raises a serious freedom of religion or belief concern and exposes a wider failure to give primary drug prevention the institutional backing it requires.
Seven shootings in five days
By 28 August, Brussels public prosecutor Julien Moinil had counted 69 shootings in the capital since the beginning of 2026. Seven had occurred within five days.
The latest violence affected Saint-Gilles, Molenbeek and Anderlecht. Masked assailants fired an automatic weapon at an Anderlecht neighbourhood police station. Other incidents injured residents, sent bullets into homes and forced people in public places to seek cover. The attacks followed approximately 100 shootings recorded in Brussels during 2025.
Moinil warned that any resident could be struck by a stray bullet. He also repeated demands for more investigators, prosecutors and approximately €10 million in additional judicial resources. His unusually direct intervention reflected growing frustration within the justice system, with the prosecutor saying that political leaders had not treated his requests seriously.
Authorities have announced new police deployments, mobile cameras, additional judicial personnel and closer coordination among Brussels’ six police zones. A major operation on 28 August involved more than 450 police officers and over 60 military personnel.
These measures may disrupt individual dealing sites and improve the immediate response to armed incidents. They have not yet prevented criminal groups from replacing arrested street dealers, moving between neighbourhoods or fighting over a consumer market that remains highly profitable.
Prevention remains the neglected pillar
Belgium’s own public-expenditure monitoring illustrates the imbalance. Figures for 2021, the latest detailed national breakdown available, attributed 48% of drug-policy spending to security. Primary prevention received approximately 0.84%.
The figures are not exhaustive and do not include every local expenditure. Nevertheless, they demonstrate the marginal position occupied by prevention within the overall response.
Police operations act after a trafficking network has formed. Courts intervene after offences have been committed. Treatment generally begins after drug use has already caused difficulties. Primary prevention works earlier: it seeks to reduce initiation, challenge the normalisation of consumption and give young people reasons and skills to refuse drugs before dealers acquire another customer.
This is also a security intervention. Demand finances the illicit market. The money paid for cocaine, cannabis, MDMA and other substances travels through distribution networks that compete for territory, recruit minors, launder proceeds and obtain firearms. Enforcement against supply is indispensable, but it will remain incomplete while demand is allowed to reproduce itself.
The Percusounds booth
Against this background, volunteers from “Non à la drogue, Oui à la vie” operated an information booth during the Percusounds festival at Place de la Monnaie from 14 to 16 August. The event brought together 14 musical groups and more than 15,000 visitors.
The booth offered educational materials from the Foundation for a Drug-Free World under the “Truth About Drugs” campaign. The materials describe commonly used substances and encourage readers to make an informed decision not to take them.
The Belgian “Non à la drogue, Oui à la vie” association dates to 2000. The Foundation for a Drug-Free Europe was established in Brussels in 2004, while the present international Foundation for a Drug-Free World was founded in 2006 (even if the initiative of drug prevention booklets starts already in the late 90ies). The international foundation received special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2024.
That consultative status establishes that the foundation is an NGO with recognised standing to contribute to relevant UN discussions, including and specifically drug prevention. Its European network has conducted public outreach, school and community presentations and activities connected with the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs. The European Times previously documented two decades of work by the Foundation for a Drug-Free Europe.
Scrutiny based on religious association
The Percusounds booth rapidly became the subject of hostile political and media attention because the Foundation for a Drug-Free World is sponsored by the Church of Scientology and Scientologists internationally.
The office of Brussels Culture Councillor Nawal Ben Hamou said that the City would not have permitted the booth had the Scientology connection been identified in advance. Green councillor Lotte Stoops announced that she would question its presence in the municipal council. Reports repeatedly described the prevention activity as Scientology “infiltration”.
Yet the published allegations concerning the festival booth did not identify religious literature, recruitment, commercial activity, coercion or unlawful conduct. No specific inaccuracy in the drug-prevention material was cited as the reason for the political objection.
The public response therefore focused principally on who supported the initiative, rather than what the volunteers actually did.
Municipal authorities are entitled to require participating organisations to identify themselves and their financial supporters. These are neutral safeguards that can be applied to every organisation. On the other hand, how many drug prevention initiative have these politicians carried out? Would they be able to compete with the amount of children, youth and adults that Non a la drogue touches in a weekly basis?
So… refusing a secular (or even religious for tat matter) drug-prevention activity solely because Scientologists support it is a different matter. It treats religious identity as evidence of wrongdoing and risks discriminating against volunteers because of their beliefs or associations.
Belgium’s court record matters
The legal history is also more nuanced than some coverage suggested. In March 2016, the Brussels Court of First Instance declared the prosecution of the Church of Scientology of Belgium, its European human-rights office and individual Scientologists inadmissible.
The court found that the lengthy investigation had been biased and that the defendants’ right to a fair trial had been seriously and irreparably breached. It criticised a presumption of guilt based on adherence to Scientology and found that offences had not been established. The prosecution did not appeal.
Scientology operates lawfully in Belgium and throughout Europe. Scientologists are entitled to their individual rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, expression and association enjoyed by other residents.
A public authority should judge a prevention booth by its conduct. The religious beliefs of volunteers, donors or supporters should not become a political veto.
Managing consequences is not enough
Brussels’ drug debate frequently turns to measures intended to manage the consequences of consumption after it has begun. Such policies have not prevented the illicit market from expanding, stopped visible drug use or removed the criminal profits driving territorial violence.
Primary prevention has a different objective: preventing first use and reducing future demand. It should be followed by treatment and rehabilitation for people already facing dependency, as well as firm enforcement against traffickers, weapons suppliers and money-laundering networks.
An information booth cannot reverse Brussels’ drug market by itself. Effective prevention requires repeated work through families, schools, sports organisations, cultural events and local communities. That is an argument for helping grass-roots initiatives expand and demonstrate their results, not for excluding them because some participants follow a growing minority religion.
The speed with which officials challenged the Percusounds volunteers contrasts sharply with the years of warnings about shootings, understaffed investigative services and inadequate prevention. Brussels residents need authorities capable of confronting armed networks. They also need leaders willing to support lawful citizens who are working to reduce the demand that keeps those networks profitable.
Freedom of religion or belief is not reserved for popular communities. Nor should drug prevention be reserved for organisations whose supporters satisfy a political test. Brussels should apply transparent standards to every initiative, examine the actual materials and conduct, and direct its urgency towards preventing drug use and protecting the public from violence.
After all, with the huge drug (and shootings) problem in Brussels, there is no place for discriminating against the few who take drug prevention seriously, and even less when it is with their very own funds.
