Khaled Diab24 december 2005 – 15:46

The news that a Belgian convert to Islam took her own life in a suicide attack and – according to some reports – that of five Iraqi policemen sent shockwaves across Belgium. That an ordinary ‘girl next door’, Muriel Degauque (38), should choose the path of death and destruction is understandably shocking in serene and safe European suburbia whose inhabitants feel a million miles away from the anarchy overtaking the streets of Baghdad.

According to one media report, a neighbour in Monceau-sur-Sambre on the outskirts of Charleroi remembered her as an “absolutely normal” little girl who liked to go for sled rides when it snowed. She converted to Islam when she married her first husband, who was a Belgian Muslim.

But it was when she married her second husband, Issam Goris – a Belgian of Moroccan origin who was apparently shot dead by US troops in Iraq on the day of her attack – that Muriel became “more Muslim than Muslims”. She veiled up completely and reportedly refused even to eat at the same table as her own father because he did not want to stop drinking beer in front of her and her husband.

That her attack should grab headlines is unsurprising. After all, ‘woman’, ‘Belgian’ and ‘suicide bomber’ are not familiar word combinations in the lexicon of conflict. But the loud sirens sounded in the Belgian and international media, the disproportionate reaction, is a cause for concern for converts, as well as non-converts in mixed relationships.

Despite media reports of a network of recruiters preying on the likes of Muriel, to suggest that this one, isolated incident represents some sort of significant turning point is massively overstretching the evidence, particularly as there are hundreds of thousands of converts across Europe who are living quiet and peaceful lives.

Radical role model

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