Two men charged in the aftermath of the Copenhagen terror attacks have ignited cries of anti-Semitism across Europe. According to The Guardian , the two men charged with aiding the alleged gunman, who has been identified in local Danish media as Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein, evade capture and are also being charged with disposing of the weapon used during the two attacks. Danish police did not confirm the identity of the gunman.
As reported by The Guardian , the first attack took place on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. during a free speech debate attended by the French ambassador and Lars Vilks, a Swedish artist who depicted the prophet Muhammad as a dog in a 2007 cartoon. Finn Nørgaard, 55, a film director was killed by the alleged gunman at close range when he went outside during the debate. The second attack occurred at 1 a.m. Sunday morning when the alleged gunman killed Dan Uzan, 37, a Jewish security guard, outside of Copenhagen’s central synagogue.
In the aftermath of the Copenhagen terror attacks, Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt urged Danish Jews to resist the call by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for all Jews to migrate to Israel. According to Hareetz , Danish Jews repeatedly urged the local authorities to provide additional security for all events at the synagogue specifically in light of recent events involving Islamic terrorist attacks that have occurred across Europe.
According to Jewish community chairman, Dan Rosenberg-Asmussen, a heightened police presence has been requested.
“We asked that police be stationed at the synagogue during services and events and at the Jewish school when kids arrive in the morning,”
However, as reported by Hareetz, another community leader stated that the local authorities responded negatively to the request.
“…[they] are already protected at the highest level…”
These terror attacks were another recent incident of violence directed towards Jews in Europe. According to the Washington Post , hundreds of headstones of Jews buried in cemeteries across eastern France were vandalized. This was also preceded by the terror attack at a Jewish deli in Paris and at Charlie Hebdo .
This rise of anti-Jewish sentiment was evident when Obama described the attack at the Jewish deli as nothing more than a “random attack” totally dismissing the victims as Jewish, while also failing to identify the terrorists as Islamic.
In the aftermath of this weekend’s terror attacks in Copenhagen, Netanyahu urged Jews to return to Israel, as he thought it would be the only place where they would be safe, which sparked condemnation from leaders across Europe.
After the Copenhagen terror attacks , are Jews justified in migrating to Israel?
[Photo by: AFP/Getty Images]
