Wasn't sure where to put this but I think this is the most relevant place. Over the weekend an infant Jesus icon from a Christmas Nativity scene was stolen from the Grand Place in Brussels. The theft happened either late on Friday night or in the early hours of Saturday morning following the Christmas light switch-on in the Grand Place which happened at 6pm on Friday. It's got added relevance to me as I've just spent the whole weekend in Brussels and was at the switch-on with the other half.
I didn't actually hear anything about the theft until after I got home last night - after all I wasn't there to catch up with the news and was too busy getting pissed on all those fantastic Belgian beers amongst other things - when I saw someone on FB share a GB News story about it. Unsurprisingly, GB News are trying to link it to a pro-Palestinian demo that took place on Friday night following the Christmas lights switch-on (I didn't see the protest myself as we left the main square around 7-ish), yet their report states that the theft happened hours after the demo, not during it (some pretty desperate straw-clutching right there). The report also stated that it had been beheaded but this has now been confirmed as not being true and it was an outright theft. GB News are clearly trying to imply that someone who was at the demo was responsible so I've done some more digging. It turns out that this particular nativity scene has been hugely criticised by many Christians because the characters lack eyes, noses, and mouths. The head of one of Belgium's centre-right parties has been amongst the critics and while he's far from the only one it starts to paint a different picture to the angle GB News are running with. Now I'm not saying that it definitely wasn't one of the protestors who was responsible but given the level of outrage amongst many Christians in the lead-up to the theft, surely it's just as likely or more likely that the perpetrator came from that community:
By trying to modernise a familiar Christmas symbol, the city has sparked a broader argument that now pushes Brussels to reconsider how the nativity scene should be presented in future.
www.brusselstimes.com
Belgian authorities are puzzled by the theft of an infant Jesus icon from a Nativity scene in Brussels
abcnews.go.com
