Denmark Muslim Cleric Hate
Government
wants jail time for Sharia imams
Islamic
leaders who propagate the controversial contracts in Muslim marriages could
face up to three years behind bars
October 7th,
2020
by Christian W
CPH Post
Late last
month, an imam in Odense hit the front pages after being reported to the police
for producing a Sharia Law divorce contract dictating that a woman would lose her parental rights if she didn’t
fulfill a list of unreasonable requirements.
Now, the
government is aiming to crack down on the practice by seeking prison time for
up to three years for imams who formulate such documents.
More
specifically, the government intends to propose a law that would expand the
punishment for psychological violence so that it also includes negative social
control, Sharia divorce contracts and other practices used to deter citizens
from getting divorced.
“When we see
imams getting involved in divorce cases in such a negative way, we need to take
this more seriously. And I think a change of the law can help do that,” Mattias Tesfaye, the immigration
minister, told Berlingske newspaper.
“Because we cannot
give imams a pass to meddle in divorces in a way that casts aside Danish law.”
The law will
also include a framework that punishes family members who take part in the
negative social control.
Ethnic
minority concerns
The instance
concerning the imam in Odense involved a Sharia Law divorce contract that
stipulated that the woman would lose her parental rights if she remarried,
moved more than 130 km away from her ex-husband and failed to pay him 75,000
kroner to be divorced.
However, Halima
El Abassi, a spokesperson for the Council of Ethnic
Minorities (REM), contended that the solution to the problem is not stiffer
punishment.
El Abassi believes that the move will only serve to push
women, families and imams further into the darkness and only amplify the idea
that politicians want to punish Muslims only.
“Instead,
society should offer an alternative to the contracts as women often have no
other way out,” she told Berlingske.
Despite El Abassi’s misgivings, several parties, including Enhedslisten and Venstre, are
prepared to support the new law proposal.
Danish
imam charged over call to kill Jews
July 24, 2018
STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Danish prosecutors on Tuesday charged an imam with calling
for the killing of Jews in the first case of its kind in the Nordic nation and
which sparked political outrage.
Imam Mundhir Abdallah, who preaches in the Copenhagen
neighbourhood of Norrebro
at the Masjid Al-Faruq mosque, which media have linked to radical Islam, is
accused of citing a hadith or koranic narrative calling for Muslims to rise up
against Jews.
"Judgement Day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill
them," Abdallah said in a Facebook and YouTube video post in March.
"These are serious statements and I think it's right for the court to now
have an opportunity to assess the case," public prosecutor Eva Ronne said
in a statement.
This is the first time the prosecution has raised such charges under a criminal
code introduced January 1 2017 on religious preaching.
Ronne said it's legal to quote religious books like the Koran and the Bible,
but that inciting or welcoming the killings of people could be punishable by up
to three years in prison.
"It has always been illegal to accept killings of a certain group of
people, but it's new for us to target hate preachers," she added.
The case will be brought before the Copenhagen district court but no trial date
has been set, the prosecution said.
-'Deeply worrying'-
The Jewish community, which in May filed a complaint over the imam's speech,
welcomed the prosecution's decision to press charges.
The community's head Dan Rosenberg Asmussen, told the
Danish broadcaster TV2 that "there was no doubt about the intentions"
of the imam's statement.
"It was deeply worrying," Rosenberg added.
Minister of immigration and integration, Inger Stojberg,
who has been outspoken against Islamic practises in
Denmark, has described the imam's address as "horrible, anti-democratic
and abominable".
According to broadcaster DR, Omar al-Hussein, who was behind a series of
shootings at a free-speech conference and a Jewish synagogue in Copenhagen in
February 2015 which left two people dead, had visited the mosque the day before
going on the rampage.
Denmark published in May a list of six foreigners accused of preaching hatred
-- five of them Muslim preachers and one Evangelical, banning them for at least
two years.
The list includes two Saudis, a Canadian, a Syrian, and two Americans,
including pastor Terry Jones who burned copies of the Koran in 2011.
Copenhagen imam accused of calling for killing of Jews
11 May 2017
BBC
News
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.
A part of the 30-minute address was later translated by the Washington-based
Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri).
In the video, Mr Abdallah is seen standing in front
of a black flag with the Shahadah written on it, similar to those used by jihadist
groups such as al-Qaeda.
He declares there will soon be a "caliphate" - a state governed in
accordance with Islamic law, or Sharia - that will wage jihad to unite the
Muslim community and liberate the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem "from the
filth of the Zionists".
Then, he says, "the words of the Prophet Muhammad will be fulfilled"
and cites the hadith.
Jewish community leader Dan Rosenberg told the Politiken newspaper: "We
are concerned weak and impressionable people may perceive this kind of preaching
as a clear call to violence and terror against Jews."
Immigration and Integration Minister Inger Stojberg
also expressed outrage.
"This is completely preposterous, undemocratic and awful," the centre-right Venstre politician
wrote on Facebook. "But it also shows why we need to lead a harsh and
consistent policy. We cannot and should not accept this!
AMSTERDAM MOSQUE LEADERS LINKED TO TERRORISM: REPORT
By
Janene Pieters
November
24, 2016
NL
Times
Two leaders of the Arrayan mosque in Amsterdam Noord are
being watched by the Dutch authorities because they are suspected of
radicalization and jihadism, the Telegraaf reports
based on "secret documents".
According to the newspaper, there is a wiretap on chairman Aziz Oilkadi's phone. He is suspected of having contact with
"many radical figures". The other leader is suspected of being part
of the so-called Hofstad terrorist group. The group
is centered around Mohammed B. the extremist who killed Theo van Gogh n 2004.
Oilkadi denies the accusations to the newspaper and
insists that he is not radicalized. "I graduated from the Vrije
Universiteit and have been a dutiful Muslim since my 18th birthday. Do I know
jihadists? We know so many people, that means nothing." He added that the
other board member is also back on the right path.
The chairman stressed that the Arrayan mosque always
has good contact with the police.
Imam at Danish mosque: Stone women to death
29 Feb 2016
The
Local
There are renewed calls to shut down the controversial Grimhøj
Mosque in Aarhus after a TV2 programme revealed that
an imam has advocated stoning adulterers to death.
A
hidden camera showed Abu Bilal Ismail, an imam at the mosque, teaching a class
about what he says is the appropriate punishment for adultery.
“If a married or divorced women engages in
fornication, and she is not a virgin, she should be stoned to death,” Ismail
says in the video clip.
“If someone violates their marriage, either man or woman, they commit adultery
and their blood is thus halal [acceptable under Muslim law, ed.] and they
should be killed by stoning. If the woman is a virgin, the punishment is
whipping,” he says.
The clip also shows the imam advocating an “eye for an eye” policy.
“If someone kills a Muslim, then they should be killed,” he says, before adding
that anyone who abandons their religion should also be killed.
This is not the first time that inflammatory remarks by Ismail have been caught
on camera. In July 2014, a video emerged of him calling on God to “destroy the
Zionist Jews”.
The mosque itself is also not stranger to controversy. In September 2014, Grimhøj Mosque made international headlines after declaring
its support for the terrorist group Isis. In January 2015, the mosques’s chairman, Oussama El-Saadi,
doubled down on the comments in a DR documentary, saying “we want the Islamic
State to come out on top. We want an Islamic state in the world.”
The mosque also has ties to the now-deceased Abdessamad
Fateh, the first Danish citizen to ever be added to the United States' terror
list, and East Jutland Police believe that around two dozen foreign fighters
who have left Denmark for Syria or Iraq have worshipped at the mosque.
There have been numerous unsuccessful political attempts to close Grimhøj Mosque down and following the new TV2 programme, politicians of all stripes once again came out
swinging against the mosque.
"It is completely unheard of that there are people in Denmark preaching
this sort of thing. It clearly does not belong here. He [Abu Bilal Ismail, ed.]
doesn't belong in Denmark either," Integration Minister Inger Støjberg told Ritzau, adding that
there are limits to what the government can do about the mosque.
Marcus Knuth from the ruling Venstre party said it’s
unbelievable that the same mosque can be the centre
of repeated controversies.
“What is so shocking is that there are so many cases involving this mosque and
that they just keep coming. That is almost the worst thing – that they haven’t
learned anything and still practise these types of things
and encourage this Stone Age behaviour,” he told TV2.
Controversial Danish imam Abu Laban dies
The Associated Press
Published: February 2, 2007
COPENHAGEN, Denmark: Ahmed Abu Laban, Denmark's most prominent
Muslim leader and a central figure in last year's uproar over the Prophet
Muhammad cartoons, has died from cancer, his organization said Friday. He was
60.
Abu Laban died late Thursday at the Hvidovre Hospital
in Copenhagen after battling lung cancer, said Kasem
Ahmad, a spokesman for the Islamic Faith Community.
"We are very sorry and we ask people to pray for
him," Ahmad said.
A Palestinian immigrant who became Denmark's leading
imam, Abu Laban was thrust into the international spotlight during the
firestorm over the prophet cartoons, when he accused Denmark of being
disrespectful of Islam and Muslim immigrants.
He angered many Danes by seeking support from the
Middle East in his fight against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which
first published the controversial cartoons. Many blamed him and other Islamic
clerics in Denmark for stirring up anger that triggered massive and sometimes
violent anti-Danish protests in Muslim countries in January and February last
year.
The 12 drawings, one of which depicted Muhammad
wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, offended many Muslims because Islamic law
is interpreted to forbid any depiction of the prophet for fear it could lead to
idolatry.
In an interview with The Associated Press before the
protests broke out, Abu Laban described the cartoons as an attempt to
"insult" and "degrade" the prophet.
"There was no point but mere mockery," he
said.
Jyllands-Posten later apologized for the cartoons,
saying the purpose was not to offend Muslims but to challenge a perceived
self-censorship among artists dealing with Muslim issues.
Hundreds of people attended a funeral service for Abu
Laban on Friday at the Islamic Faith Community's mosque in Copenhagen. Hundreds
more braved pouring rain to follow his coffin as it was carried down the street
to a hearse, which took it to an Islamic burial ground outside the Danish
capital.
Born in Haifa, Abu Laban grew up in Egypt where he
was educated as an engineer. He worked in the oil industry in the Persian Gulf
and in Nigeria before emigrating in the mid-1980s to Denmark, where he emerged
as a leading figure in the Copenhagen-based Islamic Faith Community, which represents
about 10 percent of Denmark's 200,000 Muslims.
"To me in the very beginning, Denmark looked
like utopia, perfect country," Abu Laban told the AP. But he said his view
gradually changed to a nation gripped by fear of its growing Muslim immigrant
community and its strong values.
"(Muslims) have values, they have identity and
indirectly (Danes) assume that this is a threat," he said.
A common target for derision by Denmark's far right,
Abu Laban also faced criticism among moderate Danish Muslims who said his
comments were unnecessarily divisive and provocative.
In May, Abu Laban said he felt so humiliated during
the cartoon crisis that he had contemplated leaving Denmark and moving to Gaza
with his family.
Soeren Espersen, a spokesman for the
anti-immigration Danish People's Party, said Abu Laban will be remembered for
his role in the prophet cartoon crisis as someone "who opposed and indeed
fought against freedom and democracy."
Muslim leaders hailed Abu Laban as a great spiritual
leader with strong political views.
"We lost one of our best friends and
brothers," said Imam Khalil Jafar Mushab, of the Islamic Cultural Center in Copenhagen.
"It is a great loss for the community and his mosque."
Abu Laban is survived by his wife Inam
and their seven children.