According to todays DR online and the Berlingske Tiderne newspaper, research done by the Danish Institute for International Studies shows Denmark has produced no more than thirty or so Islamic extremists and of these all originate from only three or four (out of one hundred and fourteen) mosques.
Currently there is one major group identified, and currently under legal proceedings, known as the Glostrup cell, who are charged with participating in an attempt at carrying out a suicide bombing of the American embassy in Bosnia. It is noted by Michael Taarnby of the DIIS that the members og the Glostrup cell were only 12 years old when the World Trade Center was destroyed.
moif: If the DIIS findings are accurate then two thoughts spring immedietely to my mind. The first, a question, wonders at what the criteria for being considered an Islamic extremist is, for in my mind, Abu Laban is most certainly an Islamic extremist, as is Asmaa Abdol Hamid. In fact I would say that any one who advocates the introduction of Sharia law is an extremist. Muslim or otherwise.
The second thought concerns social violence. The DIIS study does not take this ever growing phenomenon into account, and I have no doubt this is because social violence is not considered a particularly Muslim problem... this despite the fact that 60% of the inmates of Copenhagen's prisons speak Arabic.
Erik Meier Carlsen, editor of BT, has an opinion piece on the subject of social violence, looking particularly at the growing problem of violence in Danish schools. Carlsen's take describes how the evolution of Danish society, over the course of the last many generations moved violence out of the work places and schools, out of society in general and placed it firmly into the hands of the state institutions, the military and the police.
With the influx of so many immigrants into Danish society however, other social traditions have been introduced into what was, once, a very safe nation. Ethnic groups, especially from the Middle East, brought with them a tradition of social violence that leaves Danish school teachers helpless in the face of an ever spreading and ever more technically savvy, culture of violence.
I largely agree with Carlsen, though the problem isn't just rowdy Muslims. The whole trend of globalisation has brought with it a global culture that glorifies violence and seeks to put it onto the internet for all to see and 'enjoy'. I recall browsing a 'funny video's' site (the sort of place where people's home video's show cats falling from sofa's and kids crashing on their bikes in the back yard) back in 2000. Suddenly I found myself confronted with a short video clip of a young Russian soldier, lying onthe ground, a boot on his head, and as he struggled in vain, having his throat sliced open by a large hunting knife. This was my first experience of the Chechen Mujahideen.
As a consequence of seeing that video, I have avoided the video's of hostages being beheaded in Iraq, but I have been aware, by various stories in the Danish media, that in schools all across the nation, children have been engaged in 'happy slapping'. That is to say, beating up younger children and recording their sordid bullying on their cell phone's. Some teachers have also reported finding Muslim children, crowded about phones, and crying out "Allahu akbar!" as they watch the latest text message video from Iraq.
The irony is, people call Zarqawi a shrewd terrorist because he made such use of the internet to spread the spectacle of his murders to the whole planet. Even seasoned journalists have identified this trait as being Zarqawi's 'stroke of genius'. It makes me laugh that people can be so dull.
When school children all across the world are carrying out much the same idea as the worst terrorists the human race can offer, then there is something much more dangerous going on than can be so easily explained away as a 'stroke of genius' or as just 30 or so extremists coming from 3 or 4 mosques.
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