Amzil found no other way but to resign to save her life. (Courtesy of BBC)

BRUSSELS, March 4, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A hijab-clad Muslim woman in Belgium was forced to quit her job after no longer being able to stand up to death threats from a fundamentalist group.

“I have decided to quit, to let it drop, to take some time off so that things calm down,” said 31-year-old Naimi Amzil, according to Agence France Presse (AFP) Thursday, March 3.

Amzil, of a Moroccan origin, has been receiving death threats for no reasons just because she is a Muslim and wears hijab.

The latest in a series of death threats was a letter containing two bullets signed by an extremist group calling itself “New Free Flanders”.

The fundamentalist group said that an execution was being prepared, threatening to poison produce made at the delicatessen factory in west Flanders where she worked.

Amzil and her employer Rick Remmery, who runs a successful worldwide famous seafood firm based in western Belgium, hit the newsstands after they were received by Belgian King Albert II following their refusal to bow to death threats against them.

The tragic chain of events became known last November when a group calling itself “New Free Flanders”, demanded that Remmery sack 31-year-old Amzil if she insists on wearing hijab, accusing him of being “a bad Belgian who collaborates with Muslims.”

The group threatened Remmery and his family in case of noncompliance.

Amzil offered to take off her hijab during working hours or resign, but a brave Remmery shrugged off both options.

Official Shock

Verhofstadt said he was disappointed at Amzil's resignation and vowed to bring those behind the threats to justice.

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said he was disappointed at Amzil's resignation, vowing to bring those behind the threats to justice.

“I am shocked. We will do everything we can to find those behind this.”

Similar reactions were expressed by other Belgian officials.

Belgian Equal Opportunities Minister, Christian Dupont, stressed that “it is a scandal that the person making these threats remains comfortably at home.”

“It is unacceptable and inhuman that a worker who wears a headscarf... should be driven to resign after a series of threats,” said Dupont.

The number of Belgian Muslims amounts to 400,000 of the country’s 10 millions, represented before the state bodies by the Islamic Executive Council, which is officially recognized by the king and government.

There are hundreds of mosques as well as cultural and social societies in major Belgian cities.

Several political activists, of Muslim origin, have managed to sit in the Federal Parliament and provincial parliaments as well as municipalities.

The recent government has included the first Muslim minister, Anisa Timsmani, of Moroccan origin, who had to resign under the pressures of Belgian press and media.

Remmery backed her against the threats, but that was not enough.

The issue of hijab has recently taken a central stage in several European countries.

France triggered a controversy by adopting a bill banning hijab and religious insignia in public schools, a decision dismissed by the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) as “discriminatory.”

Last year, Belgian ministers locked horns over the issue of following the French example by passing a law banning hijab in state schools.

In an effort to contain the French hijab-ban law from extending to more European states, human rights activists and EU parliament members championed a campaign aimed at issuing a declaration demanding EU countries to respect the freedom of faith and dressing, including the right to wear hijab and other religious symbols.

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations – unlike the symbolic Christian crucifixes or Jewish Kappas.