Radical Islamic Threat Grips Denmark

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - On Mohammed's birthday, Denmark's Muslims marched to the city square under a banner that said "Islam is peace and love."

But elements of Denmark's Muslim community have radicalized.

Two years ago on the same spot as a peaceful demonstration, Muslims met a pro-Israel demonstration with Hitler salutes. There were shouts in Arabic of "takbir," which means "conquest," and "kill the Jews."

Fostering Radicalism

Americans may think of Denmark as the tough nation that stood up to Islam over the publication of Mohammed cartoons.

But Denmark is also infected with the some of the same multiculturalism that has been declared a failure in other European nations because it can foster Islamic radicalism.

Now, Copenhagen city government is allowing construction of a Shia mosque, which will be funded in part by the radical regime in Iran.

Iranian refugees to Denmark who fled the Islamic radicalism in Iran now face the nightmare of that radicalism following them to Copenhagen. Iranian immigrants have been demonstrating against it.

"It's not really a mosque. It's more like a barracks," said Islamic expert Lars Hedegaard, president of The International Free Press Society, headquartered in Copenhagen.

A Base for Iran

Hedegaard is referring to the belief that the mosque will be a base for members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

"It's going to be an institution that will terrorize not only Danes but also non-obedient Iranians," he said. "It's going to be an institution of terror and intimidation."

The mosque project can be viewed as a symbol of a broader problem of growing Muslim radicalism in Denmark.

The Danish media is reporting that certain neighborhoods and schools are no longer safe for Christians and Jews because of Muslim violence.

CBN News interviewed a Danish pastor from Iran who had to go underground because of violence and threats from Muslims.

Angering Muslims

Rev. Massoud Fouroozandeh, pastor of the Church of Love, has seen many Muslims become Christian, which has made local Muslim imams very angry.

"God is doing great things and some people are not very happy about it. My first car, they stole it and burned it," he said.

A second car was also vandalized but Fouroozandeh said he has given his fear to God.

"Today I can be afraid but I don't live in fear because I have Jesus Christ," he said. "I know He has promised me that He is with us every single day."

Even the famous Christian author Hans Kristian Neerskov, who has written 43 books including Mission Possible, told CBN News he has been attacked four times in the last six years by Danish Muslims.

The last time was after he held a hearing on Iran in the Danish parliament.

"Two weeks later a young Iranian man came and knocked me down here," Neerskov recalled. "And one week later another man came and knocked me down."

"Another one came and rang the doorbell. He said I am from Lebanon, I was taught by Hezbollah and I came to kill you," he said.

Neerskov talked the young man out of murdering him.

Denmark's Contradictions

And while some Christians and Jews fear for their physical safety because of Muslim violence, in Denmark you had better not insult Islam or you could be charged for hate speech.

Hedegaard was charged under the law, but then acquitted on a technicality.

He simply stated a statistical fact about the high incidence of sexual violence against girls in the Muslim world. But under Denmark's hate speech law, it doesn't matter if what you said about Islam is true.

"It specifically does not matter if what you say is true or false or whether you believe it's true or can substantiate it," he said. "The only thing that matters is if someone feels offended by it."

But prosecutors have never charged Danish imams for saying those who leave Islam must be killed, or that immoral women must be stoned, or that sharia is better than democracy.

Denmark's approach to radical Islam within its own borders is a confusing series of contradictions: defending the Mohammed cartoons while charging citizens for speaking the truth about Islam - and allowing the building of what many believe will be a dangerous, a radical mosque.

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2011/April/Irans-Radical-Islamic-Reach-Grips-Denmark/