Fjordman

Pro-Israeli Politician Gets Death Threats

Member of Parliament for the rightwing Progress Party, Ulf Erik Knudsen, was accompanied by a bodyguard during a debate arranged by the Immigration Council in the town of Drammen outside Oslo this week. The debate was about whether or not Islam could function as a bridge with Christianity:

He is an internationally certified bodyguard, hired by the party, Knudsen confirms. According to him, both the police and the security services at Parliament have been informed, since MPs for the Progress Party have received a marked increase in the number of death threats recently. Knudsen claims the threats are aggressive, but not specific in nature, saying that ”the next time somebody from the Progress Party takes part in a debate about immigration, the person will be taken care of forever”. – I don’t know for how long I will employ a bodyguard, but it is clear that the security precautions during this fall’s parliamentary elections will be extensive. Usually, it is primarily party leader Carl I. Hagen who gets special protection, but this may now change. Knudsen in particular is exposed to these kinds of threats for other reasons: - I have on many different occasions voiced my support for Israel in the conflict with the Palestinians. Last year this lead to a number of serious threats against my person.

Drammen has one of the highest percentages of Muslim immigrants of any Norwegian city, but being harassed for suspected pro-Israeli opinions isn’t a problem unique to Drammen. A municipally employed teacher in Kristiansand was prevented from wearing a Star of David around his neck. Kristiansand Adult Education Center, where the man works, ruled that the Jewish symbol could be deemed a provocation towards the many Muslim students at the school.

Lise Christoffersen from the Labor Party denounces what she claims is a ”nasty PR-stunt”:

I am sorry to see the Progress Party making a circus out of this instead of debating a serious issue. Maybe the next thing that happens now is that party leader Carl I. Hagen cries his crocodile tears to strengthen the image of the innocent and persecuted PP and the dangerous and aggressive immigrants. Christoffersen doubts whether the threats were genuine. – Who would want to seek out a place where there is a risk of an attack of any kind? Knudsen was even standing up instead of sitting, and thus making himself more vulnerable to potential attackers. Who would do such a thing if they were really threatened?

As a fellow Norwegian blogger comments, Christoffersen seems totally oblivious to the possibility that somebody might actually choose to stand up to threats and exercise their right to freedom of speech despite intimidation. The idea that the death threats may be real is not implausible. Militant Islamists like Mullah Krekar do reside in Norway. Besides, Norwegian police have already issued a mobile security alarm to Progress Party leader Carl I Hagen. They worry that he's a target for terrorists unhappy with some anti-Islamic remarks he made last summer. Hagen criticized Islam, and could see no similarity with the concept of moral and justice found in Christianity. Hagen also said that if Israel loses in the Middle East, Europe will succumb to Islam next, if Islamic fundamentalists have it their way. Christians should support Israel and oppose Islamic inroads into Europe. Members of Kristiansand Progress Party claimed that the Koran is similar to Hitler’s «Mein Kampf», and wanted Islam banned in Norway, but this did not get the support of more central party members.

Muslims in Norway reacted strongly to Hagen’s remarks, saying his statements “breaches UN’s human rights and the Geneva convention.”. Some launched a campaign to gain support for a stricter blasphemy paragraph. In an unprecedented step, a group of Muslim ambassadors to Norway blasted Carl I Hagen in a letter to newspaper Aftenposten, claiming he had offended 1.3 billion Muslims around the world. Pakistan’s ambassador in particular has interfered in unacceptable ways in Norwegian internal affairs before, trying to instruct and intimidate a Norwegian politician of Pakistani origin who dared to voice her support for banning Islamic veils from Norwegian schools:

A member of Oslo's City Council who was born in Pakistan but now holds Norwegian citizenship has twice been called to Pakistan's local embassy. Both times, Pakistan's ambassador to Norway questioned her political standpoints, and now Norway's foreign minister Jan Petersen has been told that she felt pressured. An embassy has nothing to do with what a politician on Oslo's City Council may believe." The calls from Pakistan's embassy came after Munir became the first known Muslim woman in Norway to support a proposed ban on the use of head scarves and other religious symbols for youth. She then became a target of criticism within the local Pakistani community. Newspaper Aftenposten Aften understands that Pakistan's ambassador, Shahbaz Shahbaz, noted in his second meeting with Munir that she still has family in Pakistan.

Leading Muslims in Norway have also defended suicide bombings, invited pro-Taliban and bin Laden politicians to the country, voiced "understanding" towards the murder of Dutch Islam critic Theo van Gogh and recommended polygamy, although this is against Norwegian law. Hagen was ridiculed by many for his remarks that he fears an Islamic party in Norway, although Denmark already has a problem with Muslim politicians who support sharia. Could it be that some of the Leftist multiculturalists are naïve, not that Mr. Hagen is racist and xenophobic? Perhaps we could learn something from our neighbors. A conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, recently about freedom of speech and research and the right to question religious truths took place under heavy police protection, as a Jewish teacher was attacked last year for reading from the Koran. The perpetrators, who looked like Arabs, remain at large. Moderate Muslims in Denmark experience harassment and death threats for their views. MP Naser Khader, born in Syria, has become a well-known pundit and unapologetic critic of some aspects of Islam:

"I know several people who've gotten involved in the debate and subsequently pulled out of it altogether. One woman called me, quite shaken, and said she'd been threatened. Maybe the rest of us are tougher, but the fact remains that freedom of speech is the breath of democracy - and if you take that away, then democracy dies," said Khader.

“If you take away free speech, democracy dies” says Khader. Too bad the Scandinavian political elite don’t understand this. As Helle Klein, political editor of Sweden's largest newspaper Aftonbladet, boasts: "If the debate is going to be about whether there are problems with immigrants, we don't want it". Welcome to Sweden, the country where the media don’t even pretend to champion freedom of speech, but openly brag about censorship. Klein gets support from leading Social Democrat and senior member of Cabinet Mona Sahlin:

A concerted effort that aims at educating Swedes that immigrants are a blessing to their country must be pursued, said Sahlin, stressing that her compatriots must accept that the new Sweden is multi-cultural, and that discrimination must end. "Like it or not, this is the new Sweden," she said.

Yes, this is the new Sweden. Never mind the rapes or the sharia or the museums that get death threats for showing art Muslims don't like. Just smile and think happy thoughts about cultural diversity. Is freedom of speech lost in Eurabian Scandinavia? Well, that depends. If you are a member of the Leftist – Islamic alliance, you won’t get death threats for subsidizing Palestinian terror conferences or giving support and raising funds for the Iraqi "resistance movement". Just don’t sell bathing shoes that insult Allah, or we may have to kill you.

posted by Unknown @ 11:21 PM