Inside Scandinavia's First Women-only Mosque

Copenhagen Imam Accused of Calling for Killing of Jews

BBC: A video of an imam appearing to call for the murder of Jews in a sermon during Friday prayers at a Copenhagen mosque has caused outrage in Denmark.

Mundhir Abdallah was reported to police after being filmed citing in Arabic a hadith - a teaching of the Prophet Muhammad - considered anti-Semitic.

The hadith says the Day of Judgement "will not come unless the Muslims fight the Jews and the Muslims kill them". A Jewish community leader said his words were a "thinly-veiled" threat.

Videos of the sermon were posted on YouTube and Facebook by the Al-Faruq Mosque on Sunday, although Mr Abdallah reportedly gave it on 31 March. » | Thursday, May 11, 2017

Danish Muslims Urged Not to Vote

THE LOCAL – DENMARK: Two radical Islamic groups in Denmark argue that democracy is incompatible with their religion and have told Muslims to boycott the June 18 election.

The controversial Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir has urged Danish Muslims to stay away from the voting booths on the upcoming June 18th election as a form of protest against the democratic system.

“We are committed to being active participants in our society, but it has to be on Islam’s terms, without compromising our own principles and values. Democracy is fundamentally incompatible with Islam, and it is a sinking ship,” the organisation wrote in a press release, adding that the way forward for Muslims in Denmark is to oppose the country’s "Islamophobic" integration policies. » | Friday, June 05, 2015

Danish Nationalists to Help Muslims Leave Islam

SPUTNIK NEWS: The anti-immigration Danish People’s Party calls for a national program to help Muslims leave Islam.

Danish People's Party spokesman Martin Henriksen wants to see the state step in and offer help to Muslims who want to give up on their religion but feel bullied into staying, The Local reported. » | Tuesday, March 17, 2015

'Copenhagen Gunman' Shot Dead

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Danish police shoot dead man they believe was responsible for two 'Charlie Hebdo-style' attacks in Copenhagen that left two people dead and several injured


Copenhagen police said on Sunday they believe a man shot dead by officers was responsible for two fatal attacks that shocked the normally peaceful Danish capital.

The killings, coming little more than a month after bloody Islamist attacks in Paris that left 17 people dead, were described by Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt as "a cynical act of terror".

The man believed to be behind the shootings was shot dead after he opened fire on police at a rail station, a spokesman said.

It came after a 55-year-old man was killed at a panel discussion about Islam and free speech on Saturday attended by the Swedish cartoonist behind controversial caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

In the second attack, a Jewish man was killed and two police officers were wounded outside Copenhagen's main synagogue early on Sunday.

"We believe the same man was behind both shootings and we also believe that the perpetrator who was shot by the police action force at Noerrebro station is the person behind the two attacks," Torben Moelgaard Jensen told a press conference. » | AFP | Sunday, February 15, 2015


Copenhagen shooting during debate on Islam: live »

Danish Imam: Death to Jews

Speaking in Berlin, the imam of an Aarhus mosque prays for God to "destroy the Zionist Jews".

HT: Roberts Spencer @ Jihad Watch

Copenhagen is Diversifying

ELAN: Since 2007 various entities within the extended Copenhagen community were striving to build a “Grand Mosque of Copenhagen.” As with most large-scale cultural/institutional projects a competition was held for design proposals and from the submission pool various winners were selected. Copenhagen is an interesting place within the context of the Muslim community in Europe, so much so that even The New York Times ran an article on their website titled, “Push to Build Mosques is met with Resistance,” in 2009.

There’s no denying that various forces within the Danish political and social sphere have a tense relationship with the Muslim Danish community (we all remember the Danish Cartoon fiasco back in 2005). Therefore history simply isn’t on the side of the growing congregations within the city of Copenhagen. Regardless, Copenhagen is sure to receive not one but two Grand Mosques within the next several years (a large Shiite congregation has already approved plans to build a center in a relatively industrial quarter of town on the site of a former factory) and a Sunni congregation has started the process by acquiring a site with the help of Abu Dhabi-based Muslim consultancy group, the Tabah Foundation.

Although a brewing institutionalized Islamophobia is simmering all across Europe (with France recently banning public prayer and the wearing face coverings), Denmark is quite the extreme case study. Immigrant hate among the people is one of the main factors in the propulsion of the Danish People’s Party, which more or less ran on a nationalistic platform of re-establishing Denmark as entirely “Danish.” They’ve successfully passed new legislation in their tenure that makes it much harder to obtain citizenship or even enter the country in the first place. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume that this social disconnect with Islam is what propelled various groups to work together to make the Grand Mosque become a reality. » | Ehsaan Mesghali | Thursday, November 17, 201

Islam in Denmark: Of Mosques and Meat

THE ECONOMIST: Denmark’s largest religious minority gets its first proper prayer house

ISLAM and immigration have slipped out of Denmark’s political discourse since the centre-left government led by Helle Thorning-Schmidt came to power two years ago and dismantled the ministry for refugees and immigrants. Now they are back in the news, because the country’s first big purpose-built mosque is soon to open its doors.

The mosque, jammed between a railway line and a back street in Copenhagen’s gritty north-west, comes complete with a dome and a minaret, even though local by-laws prohibit any noisy call to prayer. The news of its opening took many Danes by surprise. Denmark’s Muslims have tried for years to have a proper place to worship, but previous attempts failed or were foiled. » | Saturday, August 17, 2013 | Copenhagen | From the print edition

Denmark Bans Meatballs to Accommodate Muslims

GATESTONE INSTITUTE: "The next thing could be that Danish nurses are forced to go under cover as Muslim women in order to please Muslim patients." — Martin Henriksen, Spokesman, Danish People's Party [DF]

One of the largest hospitals in Denmark has admitted to serving only halal beef -- meat that is slaughtered in accordance with strict Islamic guidelines -- to all of its patients regardless of whether or not they are Muslim.

The revelation that Danes are being forced to eat Islamically slaughtered meat at public institutions has triggered a spirited nationwide debate about how far Denmark should go to accommodate the estimated 250,000 Muslim immigrants now living in the country.

The halal food row erupted in July when the Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet reported that Hvidovre Hospital near Copenhagen has been secretly serving only halal-slaughtered meat for the sake of its Muslim patients, for the past ten years. The hospital serves more than 40,000 patients annually, many (if not most) of whom presumably are non-Muslim.

Halal -- which in Arabic means lawful or legal -- is a term designating any object or action that is permissible according to Islamic Sharia law. In the context of food, halal meat is derived from animals slaughtered by hand according to methods stipulated in Islamic religious texts.

One such halal method, called dhabihah, consists of making a swift, deep incision with a sharp knife on the neck that cuts the jugular vein, leaving the animal to bleed to death. Much of the controversy involving halal stems from the fact that Sharia law bans the practice of stunning the animals before they are slaughtered. Pre-slaughter stunning renders the animals unconscious and is said to lessen their pain.

Amid a surge of public outrage over the decision to serve only halal beef, Hvidovre Hospital's vice president, Torben Mogensen, has been unapologetic. "We have many patients from different ethnic backgrounds, which we must take into account, and it is impossible to have both the one and the other kind of beef," he says. » | Soeren Kern | Friday, August 16, 2013

Danish Muslim Leader Who Fuelled Uproar about Prophet Muhammad Cartoons Now Says He Was Wrong and Paper Was Right to Print Images

MAIL ONLINE: Ahmad Akkari led protests against drawings to Lebanon, Egypt and Syria / Dispute over caricatures of Prophet Muhammad became international crisis / Lebanon-born Muslim leader, 35, now says the trip was 'wrong'

He was one of the most vocal critics of Danish newspaper caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad that sparked violent fury throughout the Muslim world.

But seven years on Muslim leader Ahmad Akkari has had an unexpected change of heart, declaring his decision to travel to Lebanon, Egypt and Syria to garner support for the ensuing protest was 'totally wrong'.

Lebanon-born Akkari, now 35, was the spokesman for a group of imams who led the outcry against the satirical drawings, and their tour helped to turn the dispute into an international crisis.

He now says the Jyllands-Posten newspaper had the right to print the cartoons.

His about-face has received praise from pundits and politicians in recent weeks, though some question his sincerity. It has also disappointed some in the country's Muslim minority who were deeply offended by the cartoons.

Dozens were killed in weeks of protests over the drawings that included violent attacks against Danish missions in Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

Tiny Denmark found itself on a collision course with the Muslim world — something Akkari now regrets.

'I want to be clear today about the trip: It was totally wrong,' Akkari told The Associated Press this week. » | Kerry McDermott | Saturday, August 10, 2013

Sharia-zone in Denmark

Denmark: Islamists Call for ‘Sharia Zones’

THE COPENHAGEN POST: A majority of Danish Muslims distance themselves from small group of extremists

A fundamentalist Islamic group wants to set up zones in Copenhagen where Islamic Sharia Law should be upheld.

The group, ‘The Call to Islam’, belongs to a branch of Islam called Salafism, whose followers in the UK attempted to introduce similar Sharia zones in London earlier this summer.

According to Jyllands-Posten newspaper, the group is led by the imam Abu Ahmed, who has taught several people subsequently linked to terrorist activities.

The Call to Islam intends to start patrolling the Copenhagen neighbourhood of Tingbjerg before extending into Nørrebro and eventually the whole of Denmark. Muslims found to be drinking and gambling would be reprimanded for breaking Islamic code. » | PS NEWS | Friday, October 21, 2011
HT: Marisol @ Jihad Watch »

Danish Police Search for 'Outsiders'
European Union Ministers are discussing new measures which could restrict people's movement across the continent. Much of the debate has been prompted by an influx of migrants from North Africa.

Islam’s Growing Influence in Denmark: Muslim Converts Share Their Experiences about Being Muslim in Denmark
With English subtitles

The Criminal Truth

Denmark: Politicians Speak on Islam

Islam in Denmark

Danish Muslims Strive to Build First Mosque in the Country

Burka Ban Proposal Dropped: The governing Conservative Party has dropped its proposal for a ban on the burka
POLITIKEN: A controversial proposal fielded by the governing Danish Conservative Party to ban the Muslim burka and niqab in the public space has been dropped after Justice Ministry officials have studied the idea.

”The Justice Ministry officials have said that in their view, the proposal raises important issues in relation to the European Convention on Human Rights, and the Constitution,” says Justice Minister Brian Mikkelsen (Cons).

”It’s obvious that neither I, nor a party such as the Conservative People’s Party, can support a proposal that raises that sort of legal issue,” says Mikkelsen.

Controversy

Controversy arose on the issue after the Conservative Party’s new integration spokesman announced in August that the party, which is the junior minority coalition party, wanted to introduce a total ban on Muslim burkas or niqabs in the public space.

“We don’t want to see burkas in Denmark. We simply can’t accept that some of our citizens walk around with their faces covered,” MP Naser Khader (Cons) said at the time. >>> Edited by Julian Isherwood | Thursday, September 17, 2009

Geert Wilders in Denmark: 'Deporting Millions of Muslims May Be Necessary' - Interview