Following the double terror attack on the streets of Copenhagan last week, Norwegian Muslims are reportedly organizing a “ring of peace” around an Oslo synagogue on Saturday as a gesture of solidarity with the Jewish community.
One of the event organizers explained it through a group called Hope Not Hate
“If the jihadists want to use violence in the name of Islam, they must go through us Muslims first. Muslims want to show that we deeply despise all types hatred of Jews, and that we are there to support them.”
On Sunday, police shot dead a gunman who attacked a Danish cafe and a synagogue, killing two innocent people. The gunman was a Muslim, affiliated in some way with ISIS .
According to Denmark’s spy chief, Jens Madsen, the gunman was known to the intelligence services prior to the shooting and probably acted alone for ideological reasons.
Madsen told a news conference at the time, “We cannot yet say anything concrete about the motive… but are considering that he might have been inspired by the events in Paris some weeks ago.”
Eyewitnesses who saw the Danish cafe shooting said that at least 40 bullets were fired into the cafe which was hosting a free speech event with Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has received death threats for depicting the head of the Prophet Mohammad on a dog.
While Vilks was unhurt in that incident, a 55-year-old man was killed and a Jewish guard at the Copenhagen synagogue was also sadly shot and killed.
The Prime Minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, said the attacks were terrorism and promised to protect freedom of speech and Denmark’s small Jewish community.
“When you mercilessly fire deadly bullets at innocent people taking part in a debate, when you attack the Jewish community, you attack our democracy. We will do everything possible to protect our Jewish community.”