JIHADI KILLER IS CORNERED AND SHOT DEAD BY POLICE
JEWISH groups last night denounced the Islamist terror attacks in Copenhagen which included the murder of a synagogue security guard.
A lone- wolf jihadi gunman, shot dead by police yesterday, first struck at an event promoting free speech where Swedish documentary filmmaker Finn Noergaard, 55, was killed.
Guard Dan Uzan, 37, died in a second attack at the city’s main synagogue hours later. Five police officers were also wounded in the shootings.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews said last night: “Once again Jews at prayer – at a Copenhagen synagogue on the Sabbath – have come under attack in Europe.
“It followed an earlier murder at a cultural centre where artist Lars Vilks – who had received death threats over depictions of the Prophet Mohammed – was present.
“We condemn these attacks in the strongest terms.
“Our thoughts are with the families of all those who were killed and wounded in these shocking attacks in Denmark, a country with a proud history of protecting its Jewish and minority populations.”
David Cameron said the shootings were an “appalling attack on free speech and religious freedom”.
Denmark’s prime minister Helle Thorning- Schmidt vowed to protect freedom of speech and her country’s small Jewish community.
She said: “When you attack the Jewish community, you attack our democracy. We will do everything possible to protect our Jewish community.”
Denmark’s former chief rabbi, Rabbi Bent Lexner, said: “We are in shock. We didn’t think such a thing could happen in Denmark.”
Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “This wave of attacks will continue. I say to the Jews of Europe, Israel is your home.”
Police think the Danishborn terrorist, named last night in the media as Omar Abdel Hamid El- Hussein, aged 22, was inspired by the Paris attack on the magazine Charlie Hebdo last month.
The suspect was known to police. He was released from jail two weeks ago after a sentence for assault, it was said.
Police have not yet identified the gunman. He fired 40 shots at a cafe hosting the event where Vilks escaped.
Hours later, the Jewish guard was shot in the head outside the synagogue in which 80 people were celebrating a bat mitzvah.
Later yesterday police were seen taking two people from a cafe in handcuffs. Denmark became a target for extremists after cartoons lampooning Mohammed a decade ago.
Meanwhile, in Braunschweig, Germany, police hunted for suspect devices after fears of a terror attack at a fair.
THE grim cycle of lethal Islamic fanaticism continues to deepen across Europe. Following last month’s massacre in Paris, now the capital of Denmark has been scarred by savage terrorism perpetrated in the name of Islam.
In this latest atrocity a gunman opened fire on a café in Copenhagen which was holding a debate about blasphemy and free speech, then attacked a synagogue that was hosting a bat mitzvah. His rampage left two men dead and five police officers injured. It only ended when he was killed by the police after a huge manhunt.
Once more a liberal, democratic European country renowned for its tolerance has been hit by barbarous alien intolerance. What is so telling in this case is the gunman’s choice of targets, for the assaults on the café and the synagogue symbolise two of the vilest, most potent characteristics of militant Islam. One is the burning hatred for the concept of liberty, especially freedom of expression, as reflected in the aggressive hysteria over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
One organiser of the Copenhagen café debate was Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks, who has been under permanent threat from Muslim fundamentalists since 2007 because of some images he drew of Muhammad.
The second key theme, encapsulated in the assault on the synagogue, is the hostility towards non- believers, especially Jews and Christians. Islamists are gripped by a form of persecution mania.
FROM Boko Haram in Nigeria to IS in the Middle East they are obsessed with persecuting infidels to ensure the triumph of their poisonous dogma. Driven by their authoritarian theocratic impulse the Muslim ideologues want to see the absolute domination of their creed across the globe.
The death toll inflicted by Islam is astonishing. In Europe the catalogue includes the Madrid bombings, the murder of Dutch artist Theo van Gogh, the four fatal shootings at the Belgian Jewish Museum last May and the decapitation of Drummer Lee Rigby in 2013. If any other ethnic or religious group were responsible for this reign of terror, say Australians or Methodists, the response of the authorities would be impressively tough.
But the pernicious doctrine of multi- culturalism means that the political establishments in Britain and Europe are paralysed. Desperate to maintain the illusion of harmonious diversity they refuse to protect us. Instead of robust action they prefer to deny and downplay what is really happening in our midst.
So we are constantly told that incidents such as the Danish atrocity are the acts of “lone wolves” operating without a terror network. But given the scale of Islamist atrocities there is nothing reassuring about such claims. These socalled loners are in fact part of a huge pack. It has been estimated that there are 2,000 jihadists from Britain alone who have gone to the Middle East to fight for the zealots.
In the same vein many Western politicians tell us that the wave of terrorism has “nothing to do with Islam”, a patently absurd commentary given that the jihadists themselves say they are motivated by religious fundamentalism. That is why they shout “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is great”) as they commit their atrocities.
Equally false is the argument that they have no support from “the vast majority of peaceloving Muslims”. Recent surveys in Britain have shown that 40 per cent of Muslims here want sharia law while a third of Muslim students think that killing in the name of Islam is justified.
When the Danish newspaper Jyllands- Posten published several cartoons of Muhammad in September 2005, central London was brought to a standstill three weekends in a row by huge Muslim demonstrations. Yet there have never been similar protests against Islamic terrorism.
Fashionable multi- cultural propaganda always portrays Muslims as victims of an oppressive, racist society in Europe. But this is just more nonsense. Most Europeans have been remarkably tolerant, even in the face of rising Islamic extremism.
For all the constant bleating about “Islamophobia” there has been no evidence of an antiMuslim backlash in Europe. If some Muslims feel marginalised it is because of their refusal to integrate by accepting Western values.
WHAT we need is less acceptance of this divisive victim mentality and more willingness to uphold our essential liberties against bigotry. Sadly there is precious little sign of any such determination from our political authorities.
After the Paris massacre our leaders blathered about their commitment to freedom of expression. Yet only last week it was revealed that police forces in Cheshire, Wales and Wiltshire have been demanding from newsagents the names of customers who bought the special post- massacre edition of Charlie Hebdo.
Similarly former lord chief justice Lord Woolf warned last week against publishing material that “will cause offence” to Muslims and lead to “an explosive reaction”. That is the way free speech dies, through cowardice in the face of violent threats.
Tragically, given the pusillanimity of our politicians and the rapid growth in the Muslim population, it is impossible to see how we can ever be at peace again.
‘ Lone wolves are part of a much larger pack’