GETTY*GETTY FILE PICTURE The claims were made in the New York Times

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Those working in the areas of Molenbeek and Schaerbeek have made the shock claim up to "90 per cent of their students, 17, 18 years old" use the term when speaking about the attackers. It was revealed by a Belgian policymaker in an article in the New York Times.

GETTY The Paris attacks killed 130 people last November

Yves Goldstein, chief of staff for Rudi Vervoort, the leader of the local government in Brussels, said friends who teach in the predominantly Muslim districts of Molenbeek revealed the figures to him. He said: "Our cities are facing a huge problem, maybe the largest since World War Two.

GETTY People are evacuated after an explosion in a Brussels airport

"How is it that people who were born here in Brussels, in Paris, can call heroes the people who commit violence and terror?" Speaking about the attackers, Mr Goldstein claimed "religion for them is a pretext" and they "believe in nothing".

GETTY The teachers work in the Molenbeek and Schaerbeek areas of Brussels

He added: "We have neighbourhoods where people only see the same people, go to school with the same people. "What connection do they have with the whole society, what connection do they have with real diversity?

Brussels terrorist attacks Wed, March 22, 2017 The Brussels airport and Metro bombings in pictures, including the aftermath of the tragic scenes. Play slideshow AFP/Getty Images 1 of 61 A member of the civil protection holds his face in his hands as he come back from the Maalbeek metro station in Brussels

"It’s the establishment of the ghetto. And it’s the thing in our urban development that we have to tackle.