DENMARK 2006

 

About 40 antisemitic incidents were recorded by the Jewish community in 2006, two of them violent. The protracted international furor, triggered by the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the mainstream newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005, only died down in spring 2006. Following reports of increasing antisemitism in Denmark in the local media, a debate on the subject was held in Parliament.

 

The Jewish community

There are 7,000 Jews in Denmark, out of a total population of 5.25 million. Most of the community is concentrated in Copenhagen, but smaller communities exist in Odense and Aarhus. The central communal organization is the Mosaiske Troessamfund. The community operates only one synagogue, the Great Synagogue completed in 1833, as well as the Caroline Jewish Day School (established in 1805). Joedisk Orientering is the leading Jewish publication. There is a small, progressive Jewish community, Shir Hatzafon, as well as a Chabad Lubavitch center.

 

Political organizations and groups

The Muslim Community and Islamist Activity

Estimates of the Muslim population in Denmark range from 200,000 (according to the authorities) to 300,000 (according to Muslim community officials in Denmark); there are about 115 active mosques. Researchers estimate that only about 10 percent of the Muslim population is observant (such as visiting a mosque for Friday prayers). Most Muslims live in the main cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense. During the 1970s, many Muslims immigrated to Denmark from Turkey, Pakistan, Morocco and Yugoslavia. Since the 1980s, most Muslim immigrants have come from Iran, Iraq, Somalia and the Palestinian territories.

Islamist organizations try to recruit new members online, as well as in radical mosques, on university campuses and in prisons. The transnational fundamentalist Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT) is well-established and very active in Denmark. The movements influence on young Muslims is evident in its ability to draw 400−1,500 of them to their various events. In 2002 Fadi Abdul Latif (Fadi Abdullatif), its spokesman, was convicted of making antisemitic threats. In August 2006 he was sentenced to three months in jail for threatening Jews and inciting violence against the Danish government. Following the verdict, he said that through this court case, the Danish government and the Jewish state are portrayed as the victims of threats, but in reality, the Danish government is guilty of the killing and torture of innocents in Iraq, and the Jewish state has committed massacres against women and children in Lebanon and Palestine. A Justice Department investigation found that there was no basis in Danish law to prohibit HuT (see ASW 2003/4).

Minhaj al-Quran, active among people of Pakistani origin, and al-Muhajiroun (see UK), are other fundamentalist organizations that operate especially in educational institutions (such as universities and colleges). Both disseminate propaganda promoting the khilafa (political system in Islam; Caliphate) and Shari`a laws. The authorities suspect that the extremist Iraq-based Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunna have members and/or supporters in Denmark. Hamas also has sympathizers in Denmark. Proceedings began in a Danish court against al-Aqsa Spannmål (al-Aqsa Foundation), an international organization with branches in various European countries. Both the US and Israel claim that the al-Aqsa Foundation channels money to Hamas terror activities, and several of its European branches have already been shut down. The Danish chairman of al-Aqsa Spannmål, Rachid Issa, sent 750,000 Danish kroner (about 100,000 euros) to the Islamic Charitable Society in Hebron, allegedly a front organization for Hamas.

The Lebanese Hizballah have exploited sympathizers in Denmark for espionage purposes. For example, Danish Muslim citizen Ayad al-Ashuah (Ayad al-Achouah) was sentenced to 33 months in prison in Israel for spying on behalf of Hizballah. Entering Israel with his Danish passport, he videotaped military installations in northern Israel (later hit by Hizballah during the Second Lebanese war). He was released in autumn 2006 after serving only half of his sentence.

The Islamist preacher Said Mansour was tried in 2006 for inciting terror. According to the prosecution, he used his publishing company, Al-Nur Islamic Information, to disseminate CDs, DVDs and other material calling for jihad. Mansour is connected to the so-called Glostrup case, the trial of four young Danish Muslims (18−22) arrested in Denmark in 2005 and accused of plotting to commit a terrorist attack in the country. They, in turn, are linked to two young Muslims convicted in Sarajevo, Bosnia (January 2007), for planning to commit terror attacks against countries with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. When police in Sarajevo arrested the two (Swedish-Bosnian Mirsad Bektašević, aka Maximus, and Danish-Turkish Cesur Abdulkadir), 20 kg of explosives, a suicide bomber belt and other weapons were found in their apartment, as well as a martyr video. They were sentenced to 13 to 15 years in jail. Their arrests, in fact, triggered apprehension of the Glostrup four, as well as the capture in London, on 21 October 2005, of Younis Tsouli (aka Irhabi007), a key Internet expert for al-Qa`ida in Iraq. Those convicted in Bosnia are also suspected of contacts with Said Mansour and Shaykh Omar Bakri Muhammad, the British al-Muhajiroun leader (see UK).

A Lebanese citizen Yusuf Muhammad al-Hajib (21), who made an abortive attempt to attack a train in Germany in mid-2006, was arrested in Kiel on his way to Denmark. According to evidence found on al Hajdib when he was arrested, he was on his way to Imam Abu Bashar, in Odense (central Denmark); the latter denies any connection to al-Hajib. During the crisis over the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (see below), Abu Bashar (a friend of Abu Laban and Ahmed Akkari see below) appeared on BBC television with a picture of Muhammad portrayed as a pig, falsely claiming it was one of the cartoons published. The BBC later apologized.

 

Left-Wing Groups

Left-wing groups organized pro-Palestinian, pro-Lebanese and anti-Israel rallies during 2006, often together with Muslim organizations (see below). Most left-wing and extreme-left wing organizations and parties in Denmark are anti-Israel. However, in 2006 the extreme left and autonomous (regarding themselves as independent of society) groups in Denmark were mainly preoccupied with the closing of a youth centre called Ungdomshuset (The Youth House), which was illegally occupied by young people in 1982. On 16 December, police arrested some 300 rioters during demonstrations which attracted some 1500−5000 participants. The riots were the worst in Denmark since 1993.

 

Right-Wing Groups

Neo-Nazi and other extreme right groups, such as Dansk Front (the Danish Front), the Danish National Socialist Party (DNSP) and Blood & Honour, tend to maintain a lower profile in Denmark than their counterparts in Sweden and Norway. Membership is low, ranging, according to the Danish police, from 4 to 500 members. The main concern of the extreme right is immigration. During 2006, the extreme right held a few small demonstrations, handed out fliers, and organized a few neo-Nazi music concerts. In the last two months of 2006, the homepages of Dansk Front and DNSP were offline, possibly due to hacker attacks by radical left-wing groups in Denmark.

 

Antisemitic and racist activity

Ethnic youth (both newcomers and second or third generation immigrants) of Middle East origin are increasingly implicated in growing criminality in the country. Many of the new immigrants are concentrated in ghettos, such as Rosenhøj, close to the city of Aarhus. Hizb ut-Tahrir is very active in these areas.

About 40 antisemitic incidents were recorded by the Jewish community in 2006, mostly harassment or threats, but two were violent. The majority were perpetrated by young people from immigrant Muslim communities.

 

Violence, Harassment, Threats and Insults

On 21 July, a bus passenger on his way to a pro-Israel rally (intended to counter two anti-Israel demonstrations held that day see below) and carrying a Danish and an Israeli flag was hit several times in the face by a young Palestinian, who also tried to strangle him with the flags. The bus driver kept the doors closed until police arrived at the scene. The perpetrator was arrested. At the rally itself (held in front of the Danish parliament), people in passing cars hooted, made rude gestures and yelled abuse in Arabic. Two young men of Middle Eastern appearance approached the demonstration, screaming repeatedly Jew pigs, Jew pigs, in Danish.

An identifiably Jewish man reported that he had experienced antisemitic attacks in September (three) and October (three). In the most serious incident, he claimed that three young men of Middle East origin had asked him if he was Jewish/Israeli. When he answered in the affirmative, they ran after him, throwing rocks, and screaming abuse. He managed to escape. In the other incidents, youths of Middle East origin yelled abuse such as F---king Jew or Yahud, and made a rude gesture.

In January the windows of the Progressive Jewish Community were smashed. Stickers with slogans from the extreme-right wing Danish Front were found on the premises.

Harassment (including insults and threats) of members of the Jewish community was a common form of antisemitic expression in 2006. On 3 June, after a non-Jewish man of Middle East origin was refused entry to the Copenhagen synagogue, he threatened: Allah is Great he will kill all the Jews, and there will be bombs in the synagogue... When the police arrived, the man spat in the face of a police officer and was arrested. Later in June, two Jewish men on their way to Sabbath service in the synagogue were harassed by a group of youths of Middle Eastern origin, who screamed Yehud and F---king Jew.

Several incidents of harassment were recorded in August. For example, the Jewish school received a letter, referring to Jews as rats, snakes, vampires, pedophiles, AIDS and psoriasis, and threatening: Perhaps you have forgotten that we have gasoline and stones On 18 August after the guards at the Copenhagen synagogue asked a young Danish man to stop vandalizing a road sign, he replied: Jews are a weak and nasty people that are destroying the world Jews are always playing the Jewcard to get what you want You Jews control the world with your conspiracies

On 13 September a Jewish man (wearing a skullcap) on a train had his travel card ripped from him by a man who said: Now we can find you if we need to. He returned the card after an argument, but five days later, the Jewish man heard the words: You Jew, you fucking Jew, yelled at him from a passing car, one of whose passengers he identified as his attacker from the train.

A Jewish teacher in a school with several Muslim pupils reported about a dozen antisemitic incidents directed at her: a colleague accused her of being part of the Jewish conspiracy; a student told her that he wanted to write an essay about killing Jews and asked her the best way to do it; another student asked her where he could find Jews to kill; a Muslim girl told her she did not want her parents to know she had a Jewish teacher, because then Hizb-ut-Tahrir will come and I care about you.

Several incidents of antisemitic abuse were reported near synagogues during Yom Kippur (October), mainly perpetrated by people of Middle East origin.

Young players from a Jewish soccer team were harassed following a match in October against a team of immigrant youth; one player, of Arab origin, said: F---king Jew pigs, f---king Israeli pigs.

On 27 November, the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten (as well as national TV) reported that a Quran school in Vollsmose, an immigrant neighborhood in the city of Odense, used antisemitic teaching material. Jews are referred to as Nazis. One text, in the form of a rap song, goes as follows (translated from the Danish):

They [Jews] call us terrorists, they themselves are Nazis

The dangerous instigators of war, the glue of the Devil

You blame the innocent, but youre enjoying the sound

Inshallah, God will put you in the cauldron of fire where youll repent

Is it a bloodbath you want Mrs. Rice

Our blood tastes and smells Nice

But it will not be easy, were fighting til the end

Until every Jew has been buried in a coffin.

A Danish academic, Christian Lindtner, participated in the Iranian Holocaust denial conference that took place in Tehran on 11−12 December 2006, drawing little media attention.

 

The Prophet Muhammad Cartoon Crisis

The protracted international furor (events later described by Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as Denmarks worst international crisis since World War II) triggered by the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in the mainstream newspaper Jyllands-Posten on 30 September 2005 (see ASW 2005), only died down in spring 2006. A delegation of Danish Muslims (led by Imam Ahmed Abdel Rahman [Abu Laban] and Ahmed Akkari) that set out on an extended tour of the Middle East in order to rally support for its protest against the newspapers act of blasphemy against 1.3 billion Muslims worldwide, showed prominent political and religious leaders a dossier, which included the Muhammad cartoons as well as other, more offensive ones that had not been published in Jyllands-Posten. Many in Denmark believe that it was this dossier that led to the widespread protests. Mass demonstrations of Muslims took place in Denmark and in other countries of Western Europe, and especially in the Islamic world, and official complaints were made to the Danish government by Danish Muslims, among many others. Danish embassies were attacked and set ablaze by mobs in Beirut and Damascus. Danish companies suffered from a Middle East boycott, causing damage worth billions of Danish kroner.

The affair gave rise to a wide-ranging debate throughout Danish society on freedom of speech, with opponents accusing those permitting publication of such cartoons of racism. For the Jewish community in Denmark, the affair led to a period of increased public attention, but no major antisemitic incidents could be related to the crisis. Chief Rabbi of Copenhagen Bent Lexner attacked the cartoons as a stupidity that caused Denmark enormous damage, and was totally unnecessary.

 

Demonstrations

During the war between Israel and Hizballah, in July/August 2006, several pro-Lebanon/anti-Israel demonstrations were held in Denmark. On 21 July left-wing organizations, such as the Danish-Palestinian Friendship, Socialist Youth Front (SUF), and Red Youth (Rød Ungdom) organized a rally during which participants carried posters of Hassan Nasrallah and Hizballah flags. Some demonstrators wore T-shirts showing the Star of David equating the Nazi swastika.

Hizb ut-Tahrir organized a demonstration in City Hall Square in central Copenhagen on the same day. The slogan was Stop the terrorist crimes of the Jewish state in Lebanon and Palestine. Some of the speeches were in Arabic. An Iraqi man who witnessed the demonstration, said that one of the speakers had threatened Jews with death at least five times.

 

Responses to antisemitism and racism

The Copenhagen City Municipality has begun monitoring hate crimes against sexual minorities such as homosexuals. It is uncertain whether hate crimes against Jews will also be included..

A youth committee in the Copenhagen City Municipality proposed that 8th and 9th graders in Copenhagen schools learn about antisemitism.

The Jewish community cooperates closely with the local police and PET, the Danish Security Intelligence Service: however, not all antisemitic incidents registered by the community end up in PET reports of hate crimes in Denmark because they are not categorized as hate crimes (such as spitting and verbal abuse)...

In September, the Danish media reported increasing antisemitism in Denmark. The daily BT wrote, for example, that Jews in Denmark are exposed to hatred. They cannot travel freely and suffer death threats and harassment on the streets. A young Jew, who has since moved to Israel, interviewed in the BT article, said that when he walked on the street (in an immigrant area) wearing his skullcap, he was threatened with death and harassed daily, not only by immigrant youth but by families with babies and even elderly women. We will kill you, they said. This is our area, you Jewish pig. In another BT article, a police officer on duty in Aarhus said it was an unnecessary provocation to wear a skullcap in certain [immigrant] neighborhoods of the city.

Such reports led to a debate in the Danish parliament in October, initiated by Soeren Espersen, DF (Danish Peoples Party, a right-wing party very critical of immigrants). Espersen asked Minster of Justice Lene Espersen (no relationship) what she intended to do when a young Jew had to flee to Israel since he no longer can stay safe from Muslim threats. The minister replied that the Copenhagen Police Authority was taking the matter seriously and would try to register all criminal acts with a possibly racist motive.