Memorial Ceremony for the victims of the Copenhagen attack

Ladies and Gentlemen, 
Dear Friends,

On my turn, I also would like to offer my sincere condolences to the victims’ families of the heinous attack in Copenhagen on behalf of the Belgian Government and the Belgian people.

We are united in grief with the families and friends of filmmaker Finn Nørgaard and Dan Uzan, who was on security duty at the Great Synagogue in Copenhagen the day of the attack.

To the family of Finn and Dan I say: we feel your loss. And we carry your pain.

The attacks in Copenhagen were a painful reminder of the events here in Brussels at the Jewish Museum during which four innocent people died.

In both cases, it were brutal acts of barbarity trying to hurt the freedoms we hold so dearly. Our freedom of expression. Our freedom of religion. Our freedom of assembly. Our freedom of thought.

Dark forces want us to give up these freedoms. They want us to live our lives in anxiety. They want to tear our society apart by injecting us with their hatred and brutality.

But let us resist.

Let us not shroud in darkness and give in to those who want to send us into obscurity.

What we share is so much stronger than the negative forces that are trying to undermine our freedoms and our fundamental rights.

Let us give preventive medicine to our children, to our societies, in order for them to resist the temptation of becoming involved in the dark matter that caused these attacks.

And let us unite and reunite. To bring homage to lives lost, but also to celebrate and to strongly reaffirm the universal values on which we have built our society.

Values of respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, equality and the rule of law. Respect for human rights, pluralism, tolerance, justice and solidarity.

Our countries should be an edifice built on these values of Enlightenment. Our societies must be safe havens where we defend these freedoms. Where we stand up against every attempt to destroy us from within or from without. 

This means we have to invest in inclusiveness and in the empowerment of our society, so that people of all faiths and philosophical traditions can co-exist in peace. It also means confronting hatred in all its forms, including racism and anti-Semitism. For none of those, there is a place in Belgium and in Europe. 

Our European continent has always been a home to people of different faiths – and it should remain that way. 

We are all different. But we never should forget that this diversity makes us stronger, richer, more prosperous. When respect guides us, this diversity makes us more human. It widens our view and it even carries the power to strengthen our common humanity. As Emmanuel Levinas indicated, it is the onset of the other that opens us to goodness. It is the face of the distinct other that initiates the most basic mode of responsibility.

Dear friends, 

To honour Finn and Dan who were murdered in Copenhagen, 
Emmanuel, Miriam, Amir and Alexandre who were killed here in Brussels, 
To honour all the innocent victims of Paris, Tunis and elsewhere, 

Let us avert hatred. And defend respect.
Let us choose and protect diversity.
Let us never give in to fear and to those who want to undermine our freedoms and our beliefs.