The head of the Jewish community in Belgium on Sunday (June 1) welcomed the arrest of a man in France suspected of involvement in the shooting last weekend of three people at a Jewish museum in the Belgian capital but warned that militant Islamism posed a threat to Western societies.
"We feel relieved by the fact that this criminal has been caught," Maurice Sosnowski told Reuters Television.
"Of course, the Jewish community feels relieved. But I would say: 'partially'. Since we all know unfortunately this guy is not alone. And there are ramifications from Syria. It seems it's a Belgo-French group of integrists, of Islamists. They are unfortunately working together somewhere in Europe."
His comments followed the announcement by French and Belgian prosecutors that 29-year-old Frenchman Medhi Nemmouche had been arrested last Friday in Marseille, southern France.
An assault rifle, a pistol, large amounts of ammunition were found in his possession.
French and Belgian prosecutors said the suspect spent a year in Syria after becoming radicalised during the last of five stays in jail in France.
France announced new policies in April to stop citizens joining the Syrian civil war, aiming to prevent young French Muslims becoming radicalized and posing a threat to their home country. This is a growing worry in a country that is home to Europe's largest Muslim and Jewish communities.
France, which has been a staunch opponent of Assad, estimates the number of its nationals directly or indirectly involved in the Syrian conflict at about 700, of which a third are fighting against the Damascus government.
Jewish community officials have drawn parallels between the Brussels shooting and the 2012 killing of four Jews at a school in France by an al Qaeda-inspired gunman, Mohamed Merah.
Security around all Jewish institutions in Belgium was raised to the highest level after the shooting, and French authorities also stepped up security after two Jews were attacked the same day as they left a synagogue in a Paris suburb wearing traditional Jewish clothing.
About half of Belgium's 42,000-strong Jewish community lives in Brussels. At some 550,000, France's Jewish community is the largest in Europe, though violence such as the 2012 school murders and France's stagnating economy have prompted an increase in emigration to Israel or elsewhere.
AP