Not just 'not all it was cracked up to be,' but an out-and-out fake
In a post on Sunday, I referred to the 'Muslim peace ring' around an Oslo synagogue as 'not all it was cracked up to be.' In fact, it was even less than that. It turns out that the whole thing was an out-and-out fake. The 'peace ring' had about 20 Muslims, while the funeral for the Copenhagen terrorist drew 500 Muslims (Hat Tip: Jack W).
According to a local eyewitness, only about 20
or so Muslims formed the “ring of peace” around the Oslo synagogue. In
fact, pictures from multiple angles show that there wasn’t enough people
to form a ring, so the locals instead formed a horizontal line in front
of the synagogue.
A local news outlet explained how the media got to its “1,300
Muslims” number. “According to police, there were 1300 persons present
in the event. Very many of them ethnic Norwegians,” read a translated report from Osloby.no.
Demonstrators also reportedly chanted, “No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” conflating criticism of Islam and hatred of Jews.
Photos pulled off of social media appear to corroborate the narrative that only twenty or so people formed the “peace ring.”
Multiple news outlets, including wire services for hundreds of news
sites, ran with the false narrative that 1,000 or more people–sometimes
all of them Muslim–formed the ring of peace outside of the Oslo
synagogue.
Today was the funeral for the alleged shooter, and police told the
BBC that between 600 and 700 attended. DR reports (as translated by
Google):
Several hundred people — many of them young men dressed
in big down jackets and with their faces covered — on Friday afternoon
in light rain collected at a grave at the Muslim cemetery in Brondby.
Up to half of the attendees, who were all men, had masked their faces
with jackets or scarves. More directed their index fingers toward the
sky, while others beat their chests with a clenched fist. Most were
silent.
The gunman, named by Danish media as Omar
Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, was well known to police for violence, weapons
violations and his membership in a gang. Reuters could not confirm his
identity and police declined to comment.
Police
records show a man named El-Hussein was convicted of stabbing a man in
the leg on a Copenhagen train in 2013 and Danish media said he was
released from prison in January.
"He
was 'normal' religious, nothing unusual, he didn't go to mosque any
more than the average Muslim," El-Hussein's father told TV2.
He
was an avid kick boxer in his younger years and was often known by the
nickname "Captain Hussein" but members of his club said he has not been
there for years.
"He was a good
student," Peter Zinckernagel, El-Hussein's principal at the VUC Hvidovre
school near Copenhagen told Reuters. El-Hussein attended the school
until the end of 2013, when he was arrested for the train stabbing.
National
news broadcaster TV2 said El-Hussein's parents were Palestinian
refugees who came to Denmark after living in a Jordanian refugee camp
for several years.
TV2 obtained a psychiatric assessment of
El-Hussein conducted in connection with the assault case for which he
was imprisoned in which he told psychologists he had a happy childhood
and good relations with his parents and a younger brother. However, he
did not graduate from school, was unable to get into a university and
later was homeless.
Citing two
unnamed friends, Politiken daily newspaper said the man was passionate
in discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and had a short
fuse. They expressed shock that he should launch such attacks, however.
That ought to encourage Western countries to take in 'Palestinian refugees.' /sarc
The Copenhagen terrorist has been identified as Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein (big picture above). I'm sure you're all shocked. The two smaller pictures above are Dan Uzan, top, the volunteer security guard who was murdered outside the Copenhagen synagogue and Finn Norgaard, bottom, who was murdered at the freedom of speech event earlier in the day on Saturday. The police actually had el-Hussein in their grasp - he was released from prison just two weeks ago.
The dead suspect, named on Sunday night as Omar el-Hussein, had reportedly
been released from prison two weeks ago after serving a two-year sentence
for grievous bodily harm.
In a rampage with parallels to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris five weeks
earlier, the 22-year-old Danish-born assailant fired around 40 shots at a
free speech debate in an arts café on Saturday afternoon, killing a
55-year-old documentary filmmaker, Finn Norgaard.
After fleeing in a stolen car, the gunman went on to target a girl's bat
mitzvah party at Copenhagen's main synagogue at one o'clock on Sunday
morning, shooting dead Dan Uzan, 37, an economist at the Danish
treasury, who was acting as a volunteer security guard.
...
As with the Charlie Hebdo attackers, the head of the Danish security and
intelligence service, Jens Madsen, said on Sunday that the gunman had been
identified as a potential threat.
"He was on the radar but he was not known to have travelled to conflict
areas like Iraq or Syria," Mr Madsen said. "We cannot yet say
anything concrete about the motive ... but we are considering that he might
have been inspired by the events in Paris," he told a news conference.
Police traced the killer from CCTV footage from the arts café attack, which
showed him abandoning his getaway car, a stolen Volkswagen Polo, and taking
a taxi. They questioned the driver, and went to the address in the mainly
immigrant area of Norrebro where he had dropped off the suspect.
...
In an indication that the gunman may have had accomplices, four people were
arrested when a dozen armed police raided an internet café in central
Copenhagen. Among the four were a Pakistani and an Arab, according to Danish
media reports.
Just like the victims aren't 'random folks,' so too the terrorists aren't 'random folks.' But until the West stands up and starts acknowledging that reality, this is going to continue - and God Forbid get worse.
#RandomFolks victims of 'militant attack' at Copenhagen synagogue
A #RandomFolk was murdered last night and two others were wounded in a terror attack on a Copenhagen synagogue (Hat Tip: Memeorandum) that was eerily similar to the attack on a Paris Kosher supermarket a month ago. After the second attack in Copenhagen, the terrorist (whom the BBC insists on calling a 'gunman') was killed by police. This is from the first link.
In the second attack, a Jewish man was killed and two police officers wounded near the city's main synagogue.
Police say video surveillance suggested the same man carried
out both attacks. They do not believe any other people were involved.
"We assume that it's the same culprit behind both incidents,
and we also assume that the culprit that was shot by the police task
force... is the person behind both of these assassinations," Chief
Police Inspector Torben Molgaard Jensen told a news conference.
He said police would maintain a high presence in the city.
The BBC's Malcolm Brabant in Copenhagen says the city has been on high alert after the shootings.
Early on Sunday, police said they had been keeping an address
under observation in the district of Norrebro, waiting for the occupant
to return.
When he appeared, he noticed the officers, pulled out a gun
and opened fire, police said. They returned fire and shot him dead. The
incident happened near Norrebro train station.
Norrebro is a predominantly immigrant district of Copenhagen, about
three miles (5km) away from the synagogue where the shooting took place
just hours earlier.
A man was shot in the head, and was later confirmed to have died. Two
police officers were wounded. It was later reported that the victim, a
Jewish community member in his 30s, was guarding outside a bat mitzva
celebration at the synagogue, according to Denmark's BT newspaper. It was reported that 80 people were attending the celebration at the time.
Dan
Rosenberg Asmussen, Copenhagen Jewish community leader, said that
following the earlier attack, he had requested police presence at the
synagogue, but police did not follow through.
“We had contacted
the police after the shooting at Café Krudttønden to have them present
at the bat-mitzva, but unfortunately this happened anyway," Asmussen
told Denmark's TV 2 News, as reported in The Guardian. “I dare not think about what would have happened if (the killer) had access to the congregation."
As in the Paris attacks, an anti-Islamist cartoonist was targeted and a Jewish target was hit a short time later. The synagogue was right to request police protection. Jews should take heed.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
