Four suspected suicide bombers arrested in Copenhagen
A few months ago, I lamented the lack of political blogs in English from Denmark, probably the one Western nation with the most open and mainstream debate about issues related to Islam and Muslim immigration. Now, a few of my favorite bloggers in Danish have established a promising group blog called Viking Observer. Bookmark it:Four suspected suicide bombers arrested in Copenhagen
Four young men between 16 and 20 years of age were taken into custody yesterday in Brøndby, a suburb of Copenhagen, charged with planning terrorism. The four young men are all of middle-eastern descent, but have grown up in Denmark. Three of them live with their parents, while the fourth recently moved into his own place. Only one of them is a Danish citizen. "We are talking about four young, introspective men, who are very tied up in their religious lives. You can see it in their lifestyle, their dress and their movement around the mosques of Copenhagen." Danish police said they had arrested four Muslim men on Thursday under an anti-terrorism law after a tip-off from a Balkan country that they were involved in planning a terrorist attack. "We believe we can prove a connection between the two people in the Balkan country and the four men in Denmark and have reasons to believe that they were about to plan a terror attack some place in Europe," Skovgaard said. He said the possible attack could have been aimed at Denmark, which has more than 500 troops serving with U.S.-led forces in Iraq. Bosnian police last week arrested three people in Sarajevo on suspicion of preparing terrorist activities. According to Sarajevo's Dnevni Avaz daily newspaper, one of the three suspects was an 18-year-old who was preparing a suicide bomb attack on the Sarajevo embassy of an European Union country. A Turkish, Swedish and a Bosnian national were apprehended over suspicion that they were preparing terrorist activities.
Suspected suicide terrorists arrested
Four quiet, well-behaved teenagers were arrested in Copenhagen on Thursday, on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. The boys, who are aged between 16 and 20, are all of Mid-Eastern descent and deeply devout Muslims. The police say that the action was planned for 'a European target within the near future', and some of the items found indicated that it was likely a suicide bombing that was in the works. Swedish newspaper Expressen reported on Friday that possible targets were the US or the British embassy in Sarajevo. The four arrested are described as inconspicuous and well-behaved young men. 'They are deeply religious and very responsible,' said Bro. All four are born and bred in Denmark, although only one has Danish citizenship. The police said none of them came from deeply religious families. Their friends and relatives had become bemused in recent weeks as the boys had begun to meet at various mosques to pray, adopting a radical tone that was worrying to some of their relatives.
Denmark has been threatened quite recently because of the cartoons of Muhammad published by newspaper Jyllands-Posten:
Holy war against newspaper
Bombs exploding over pictures of Danish daily Jyllands-Posten and blood flowing over the national flag and a map of Denmark are among the images circulating on the internet after the newspaper printed twelve cartoons of the Muslim prophet Mohammed last month. Daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende reported that the internet collages, posted in the name of an unknown organisation calling itself 'The Glory Brigades in Northern Europe', showed pictures of various tourist attractions in Denmark and stated that 'The Mujahedeen have numerous targets in Denmark - very soon you all will regret this', amongst other things. Another picture showed soldiers, armed with bombs, over a map of Denmark, with blood spattered over parts of the country.
But even before this, the country has been mentioned as a target because of its active involvement alongside the Americans in Iraq:
Denmark: Three out of four expect terror attack
The fear of terror related to Denmark's presence in Iraq, however, failed to shake Danes support for the nation's 500 soldiers stationed near the southern city of Basra. Half of those asked, 50 percent, said that it was the correct decision to participate in the war against Iraq. Forty-three percent were against. Despite the split opinion on sending troops to Iraq, 75 percent said that Danish soldiers should either remain in Iraq until there was no longer a need for them or that a date for their withdrawal should be set.
posted by Unknown @ 12:31 PM
1 Comments:
Hi there, to add to your Scandinavian blogs in English, I came across a blog by an American expat living in Denmark:
http://www.moronabroad.blogspot.com/
There's also a blog by a young lady (a German-born American) living in Sweden to learn the language:
http://studiozoe.com/journal/
Cheers,
MM
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