Speaking at a hearing into the Brussels attacks, Koen Geens said the European Community may not realise it “but this is the reality”.
His comments were followed by Belgian deputy prime minister Jan Jambon warning against Europeans “making an enemy of Islam” describing it as “the worst thing we can do”.
Speaking at the EU Parliament, Mr Geens said: “In Europe, very shortly we’re soon going to have more practising Muslims than practising Christians.”
“That is not because there are too many Muslims, it is because Christian are generally less practising¿ Europe does not realise this, but this is the reality.
Mr Jambon then added: “I’ve said a thousand times, the worst thing we can do is to make an enemy of Islam. That is the very worst thing we could do.
“We have 600,000 to 700,000 Muslims in Belgium and the overwhelming majority of those people share our values.
“To make an enemy of all of those people, we really will be creating problems. We need to see who the terrorists are, who supports the terrorists, what networks are there to support them.
“That is who we need to tackle and we need to get all of the rest of the Muslims on our side not working against us.”
Elsewhere in his speech, Mr Geens said: “terrorists are using Viber, WhatsApp, Twitter, Skype or Facebook to communicate with each other."
He told EU lawmakers that in the past governments could rely on telecommunications operators to cooperate with investigators, but that social media firms haven't been as forthcoming.
Mr Geens said "communication with these providers is far from optimal, and that has been a major obstacle for the investigations."
He said "the EU needs to step in urgently to coordinate national responses and a discussion with providers."
The March 22 suicide attacks on the Brussels airport and subway killed 32 people.
( Source )