Belgian police on Wednesday detained 15 members of a radical Islamic group after they harassed passers-by in the city of Antwerp and shouted anti-Western slogans, police said.

The Sharia4Belgium militants distributed leaflets glorifying Islam and criticizing the Western way of life in a central street of the northern port city, Belga news agency quoted a police spokeswoman as saying.

"Organisers had made no request for a demonstration, which was therefore not authorised," said the spokeswoman.

"When officers asked the demonstrators to identify themselves they refused," she added. "This led to skirmishes but no one was injured."

The group was detained for causing a public disturbance and taken to a police station for identification and questioning.

They were expected to be released later Wednesday.

Sharia4Belgium wants Islamic law to be introduced in Belgium, whose second city of 480,000 inhabitants has a large Muslim community, mainly from Turkey and Morocco, and one of Europe's biggest Jewish Orthodox communities.