Hundreds attend funeral of Copenhagen gunman

[Martinus]

Hundreds attend funeral of Copenhagen gunman

Copenhagen (AFP) - Hundreds of people on Friday attended the Islamic burial of the gunman who killed two people in twin shootings in Copenhagen last weekend.

Omar El-Hussein, 22, was placed in an unmarked grave in the Muslim cemetery in Broendby, on the outskirts of Copenhagen, watched by around 500 people, mostly young men wearing thick black jackets against the cold and rain, an AFP reporter said.

El-Hussein, a Danish citizen of Palestinian origin, has been identified by police as the gunman who shot dead two people -- a filmmaker and a volunteer Jewish security guard -- in the Danish capital last weekend.

Before the burial, a short ceremony was held at a Copenhagen mosque following Friday prayers.

A man of east African origin, who refused to give his name, told AFP about the ceremony: "There were a lot of young people that you don't normally see there... because they knew Omar. Some of them were gang members.

"They are my brothers too because they believe in Allah and the Prophet Mohammed, but their lifestyle doesn't have a lot to do with Islam," he said.

A handful of those who were there he recognized as members of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, but there were also many "normal Muslims," the man said.

"A Muslim cannot be denied a funeral. God will judge him," he said.

A young man who said he knew El-Hussein described him as "normal".

"He just made the wrong choices, I do not see him as a terrorist," said the man, who gave his name as Mohammed.

El-Hussein had been linked to a criminal gang formed on the Copenhagen inner-city estate where he grew up.

Some of those who attended the funeral had covered their faces with scarves and hoods.

"We don't trust you. We say one thing (to you) and then you report something else," one man -- sporting a shaved head, baggy trousers and a beard -- told a journalist.

- Muslim community divided -

Copenhagen's Muslim community was divided ahead of the funeral.

A spokesman for the Danish Islamic Burial Fund objected to El-Hussein being buried at a cemetery run by his group.

"My concern is over extremist attitudes and actions on both sides," Ahmet Deniz told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper before the burial.

The funeral organiser, Kasem Said Ahmad, also from the Islamic Burial Fund, rejected claims that large numbers attending the funeral could be interpreted as support for the alleged gunman.

"It is a support for the family, not for him," he told Jyllands-Posten.

At the Friday sermon, held in Arabic, topics included how Muslims can work with each other to create a peaceful society, and the "threat" against Danish Muslims' security in the wake of the attacks.

Members of the Muslim community have reported a rise in anti-Muslim violence and discrimination across Denmark since the attacks.

"It's physical abuse in the form of stranglehold, violence, spitting and pushing," Khaterah Parwani, a spokeswoman for anti-discrimination group DRC, told public broadcaster DR.

Denmark has been left in shock after the shootings in Copenhagen which targeted a meeting on free speech and Islam and the capital's main synagogue.

Copenhagen police late Friday said El-Hussein's DNA had been found at the site of the first shooting.

The 22-year-old was reportedly radicalised during a one-year stay in prison for stabbing a man. He was released just two weeks before the killings.

The attacks have prompted parallels with the Islamist attacks in Paris last month, in which 17 people died.

http://news.yahoo.com/hundreds-attend-funeral-copenhagen-gunman-190741201.html

What the fuck, Denmark?

[Liep]

Are you surprised that we also have idiots living here?

[Richard Hakluyt]

The media always talk of a "tiny minority", unfortunately it is a "substantial minority" imo.

[Martinus]

Are you surprised that we also have idiots living here?

Yes, but are those idiots also holding important positions in your law enforcement authorities, media and politics?

Because, for starters, a funeral like this should not have been even allowed. I don't know what official legal instruments your authorities have, but even if they are not robust, surely pressure could have been put on the family to make the funeral a quiet, private affair, without this being advertised in advance. So that's the first score for idiots.

Then, as the article suggests, there were gang members / islamist group members in attendance, so where the hell were your anti-terrorist services? Again, even if you cannot arrest someone for attending a funeral, these people could have been prevented from attending by some form of mild obstruction from the authorities. This of course assumes your security services know who these people are - if they do not, it is even more damning. So that's the second score for idiots.

And finally, the elephant in the room - the "muslim community is divided". Really? That's a fucking disgrace that they are divided over an issue that is so black and white, at least from the perspective of fundamental principles of a country they chose to live in. What are the mainstream media outlets and politicians proposing to do about this fact? To put things into perspective, there are only 250,000 Muslims in Denmark. So 500 Muslims attending a funeral of a Muslim terrorist is, proportionally, the same as if 150,000 (or so) Germans attended a funeral of a nazi murderer. I don't think we would be very happy to learn that while "Germans are divided over the issue of Holocaust, most still condemn it" either. So that's the third score for idiots.

[Eddie Teach]

Martinus hates Freedom. What a surprise.

[Monoriu]

Thousands of people attend the funerals of triad leaders in Hong Kong.  Do we stop these events?  No, because they are legal and people have the freedom to attend legal events.  The police go and videotape the entire thing for future reference but that's it.  We know that almost everybody who attends are triads but we can't prosecute them until we build a case with actual evidence. 

[Martinus]

I don't hate Freedom. I just root for the English and/or the Romans in Mel Gibson movies. 

[Martinus]

Thousands of people attend the funerals of triad leaders in Hong Kong.  Do we stop these events?  No, because they are legal and people have the freedom to attend legal events.  The police go and videotape the entire thing for future reference but that's it.  We know that almost everybody who attends are triads but we can't prosecute them until we build a case with actual evidence.

Now, if they were blocking roads...

[Valmy]

This is what free speech is all about.

It makes it convenient to know who thinks this guy was not a terrorist (I guess a mere murderer is alright?).

[CountDeMoney]

Then, as the article suggests, there were gang members / islamist group members in attendance, so where the hell were your anti-terrorist services? Again, even if you cannot arrest someone for attending a funeral, these people could have been prevented from attending by some form of mild obstruction from the authorities. This of course assumes your security services know who these people are - if they do not, it is even more damning. So that's the second score for idiots.

Much easier for intelligence and law enforcement agencies to just let them show up.

[Razgovory]

I don't hate Freedom. I just root for the English and/or the Romans in Mel Gibson movies. 

You simply haven't internalized the idea of free speech.  That's okay, a lot of Euros have the same problem.

[mongers]

Of course it doesn't stop 'authorities' acting promptly, like the French did when they rapidly buried the terrorists in unmarked graves; so not allowing any venerations of them as martyrs.

But, as others have said, maybe the Danish authorities wanted to give 'fellow travellers' a platform on which to stand and highlight themselves to police.

[grumbler]

Of course it doesn't stop 'authorities' acting promptly, like the French did when they rapidly buried the terrorists in unmarked graves; so not allowing any venerations of them as martyrs.

But, as others have said, maybe the Danish authorities wanted to give 'fellow travellers' a platform on which to stand and highlight themselves to police.

I think people fail to realize that the Danish government has far less sweeping powers than the French government.  That can be good.  Look how inefficient the Danish government was compared to the French, for instance, when it came to identifying Jews and shipping them to Germany in WW2.

Frankly, I'd rather live in Denmark, and accept the fact that disaffected people are permitted at funerals.

[Valmy]

I think people fail to realize that the Danish government has far less sweeping powers than the French government.  That can be good.  Look how inefficient the Danish government was compared to the French, for instance, when it came to identifying Jews and shipping them to Germany in WW2.

Frankly, I'd rather live in Denmark, and accept the fact that disaffected people are permitted at funerals.

Wow that went to a weird place.

[mongers]

I don't hate Freedom. I just root for the English and/or the Romans in Mel Gibson movies. 

You simply haven't internalized the idea of free speech.  That's okay, a lot of Euros have the same problem.

What interest me more is the real world use and exercise of free speech, rather than just a strictly legal view point.

I'd be keen to find data broken down for how much Americans, Canadians, Europeans and others actually use their rights to free speech. I wonder how much research has been done on that?