Tens of thousands of Danes gathered at torchlit memorials around the nation on Monday, commemorating victims of deadly attacks on a synagogue and an event promoting free speech that shocked a nation proud of its record of safety and openness.
Singing John Lennon’s Imagine, defiant Danes promised to uphold their trademark open society and showed solidarity with the nation’s Muslim minority after reports the suspected gunman was a Dane with Palestinian roots and a passion for extremist Muslim issues.
The 22-year-old suspect allegedly opened fire on a cafe in hosting a free-speech debate on Saturday, killing one, and reportedly attacked a synagogue, killing a guard. He was later killed in a shoot-out with police officers in his neighborhood of Norrebro, a largely immigrant part of the city with a reputation for gang violence.
Photo: Reuters
Police officials, who have not publicly the identified the gunman, arrested two people on suspicion of aiding the attacks, but said that there was no indication the shooter was part of a terrorist cell or had traveled to Syria or Iraq.
“We have now experienced the fear that terrorism seeks to spread,” Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt told reporters. “The Danish democracy is strong, the Danish nation is strong, and we will not accept any attempt to threaten or intimidate our liberties and our rights.”
Jewish leaders also called for calm and tolerance as some Muslims feared a backlash.
“We fight together with them [Muslims] for religious rights. We are moderates. We fight together against extremism and radicalism,” Danish Jewish Community chairman Dan Rosenberg Asmussen told a news conference.
Thousands of Danes left flowers at the synagogue, walking in a quiet, solemn procession, with many also leaving both Danish and Israeli flags. In contrast, a march by PEGIDA, an anti-Islam movement born in Germany, attracted about 50 people.
Saturday’s cafe event was attended by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who has received death threats for drawings of the Prophet Mohammed, and by French Ambassador to Denmark Francois Zimeray, who likened the attacks to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris. Vilks and Zimeray were both unharmed.
The killings shocked Danes, who pride themselves on a welcoming and safe society, and fed into a national debate about the role of immigrants, especially Muslims. The populist Danish People’s Party, which campaigned against the building of a mosque here, has strong support in the polls.
The suspect, named by Danish media outlets as Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein, was well-known to police officials for violence, weapons violations and his reported membership in a gang.
Reuters could not confirm his identity and police declined to comment.
Police records show that 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 last month.
“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 kickboxer 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 reporters.
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.
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