Mixed Signals in Denmark

On some issues related to Isamisation, multiculturalism and mass immigration, Denmark continues to show Europe how it's done.

Take the following case, in which two terror suspects appealed their original sentences. Not only were the sentences upheld, one of the men was given an additional year - and the judge also rejected their claims against deportation once their sentences are served.

From Jyllands-Posten:

One of the two men who had appealed a conviction for a planning a terrorist attack will serve an extra year in jail The Eastern High Court upheld the sentence of two men convicted last year of planning terror attacks...

The Eastern High Court upheld the sentence of two men convicted last year of planning terror attacks and increased the sentence of one man by a year.

Hammad Khürshid and Abdoulghani Tokhi were arrested in 2007 after domestic intelligence agency PET learned that one of the two had attended an al-Qaeda training camp.

Khürshid, of Pakistani background and Tokhi, of Afghan background, were sentenced in October to 12 and seven years respectively. Tokhi’s sentence was increased to eight years today.

The court also upheld Tokhi’s deportation to Afghanistan, ruling that that the seriousness of his crime outweighed his weak ties to his native country. He will be expelled from Denmark after serving his sentence.

The two are convicted of making explosives to be used in a terror attack. The men had admitted to making triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which is commonly used in terrorist bombs, but claimed that the explosive was to be used for fireworks.

Video evidence obtained by PET showed Khürshid sitting on the floor of his Glasvej Street apartment in the city’s Nordvest district, allegedly mixing chemicals and singing songs about martyrdom.

Police had also recovered deleted photographs from a mobile phone, which showed him in the company of people holding automatic weapons, mortars and missiles.

However, it is not all good news on the anti-Islamisation front in Denmark; this week the country came a step closer to building a huge mosque in its capital city, Copenhagen. Currently there are no purpose-built mosques in Denmark.

The Grand Mosque of Copenhagen will be shaped like a crescent moon, be able to accommodate 3,000 worshippers and contain student housing. It will be constructed in Ørestad:

The decades-long debate about the construction of a mosque in Copenhagen has taken another step forward after the city council appointed the Muslim Council of Denmark as the official partner in the project.

The council is an independent umbrella organisation representing 13 different Muslim organisations and up to 35,000 members, and will be responsible for the financing and operation of the new mosque.

They will work together on the project with the Bach Group, which purchased the ground’s location in 2005 and will be responsible for the building project.

There are currently more than 50 local prayer rooms and Islamic centres nationwide, but no purpose built mosque.

Plans were initially proposed to build the country’s first major mosque back in the 1970s by ambassadors from Muslim countries looking for a common prayer location.

Despite protests in the form of a 6,000 signature petition and threats made against a Copenhagen architecture firm that had drawn up designs for the mosque, the city council approved a district plan for a mosque location on Amager in 1992.

Jakob Hougaard, deputy mayor for employment and integration, said that the news was an important step in the future of Copenhagen as a multicultural city.

‘It’s important that Copenhagen is sending a political signal to the world that we are pleased to be multicultural and anyone is welcome, no matter what their religious background is,’ said Hougaard to Berlingske Tidende newspaper. ‘This is especially important in the wake of the cartoon crisis.’

Hougaard stressed that while the council has approved the project, it will not be funding it.

Zubair Butt Hussain, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Denmark said that there will be some challenges in raising funds, but the organisation hopes to remain independent of donors when it comes to the running of the mosque.

According to the council’s spokesman they aim to make the mosque inclusive to everyone and as such prayers in the mosque will be conducted in Danish.

‘Many Muslims are born and raised in Denmark and their primary access to understanding things in society, and their religion, is through their Danish mother-tongue,’ said Hussain.

It is estimated that 3 -4 % of Denmark's population are Muslims. This mosque certainly will send out a signal - that Denmark may be ready to abandon its stand for its own culture, values and traditions, whilst submitting to the supposed inevitability of its own colonisation and submission.

Sad news indeed.