Norwegian Muslims plan to encircle Oslo’s synagogue on Saturday in a “ring of peace” in solidarity with Jews after last weekend’s Islamist terror shootings in neighboring Denmark, which targeted a Copenhagen synagogue on Shabbat during a Bar Mitzvah leaving one Jew dead.
“It’s to show that Norwegian youth reject what happened in Denmark and to show that Muslims do not support terrorism,” 26-year-old Atif Jamil, one of the organizers of the human chain, told AFP on Thursday.
“We’re doing very well in our country. It’s important to bury these misconceptions,” he added.
Close to 1,500 Facebook users had signed up for the “Ring of Peace” event by Thursday in the wake of the double shooting in Denmark that left two people dead, and were conducted by a 22-year-old Muslim terrorist of Palestinian Arab background.
Those killed included a 37-year-old Jewish volunteer guard gunned down outside Copenhagen’s synagogue. The suspect was killed by police in a pre-dawn shootout on Sunday.
“An individual who travels to support terrorist acts will know that local residents – regardless of their religion – in fact denounce terrorism,” Jamil said. “We must all live under the same sky. That’s the message (of this event).”
Norway has a somewhat mixed history in this regards; reportedly the country has the highest level of anti-Semitic beliefs of any Nordic country.
The large Muslim community in Norway seems to have a relation to the rise of anti-Semitism.
In January 2013, Nehmat Ali Shah, the imam at Norway’s largest mosque – the Jamaat-e Ahl-e Sunnat mosque – claimed in an interview with Dagsavisen that the existing hostility between Muslims and Christians is caused by Jewish influence.
And last November and “anti-racist” group tried to ban Jews from a Holocaust memorial event, eventually refusing to take part because Jews participated.