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Germans charge Danish imam for anti-Jew threats

An imam from the controversial Grimhøj Mosque in Aarhus faces charges in Germany for leading a prayer in Berlin in which he called for the death of "Zionist Jews".

Germans charge Danish imam for anti-Jew threats
Abu Bilal Ismail's 'destroy the Zionist Jews' remarks in Berlin have now led to criminal charges. Photo: Brian Rasmussen/Scanpix
German officials have announced that they will press charges against Abu Bilal Ismail, the Danish imam who used an appearance at a Berlin mosque in July to call for the death of Jews. 
 
According to a report from TV2 News, public prosecutors in Berlin will charge Ismail with incitement of hatred (Volksverhetzung). 
 
Speaking at the Al Nusra mosque in Berlin on July 18th, Aba Bilal Ismail was caught on video calling for the death of Jews (see it below).
 
“Oh Allah, destroy the Zionist Jews. They are no challenge for you. Count them and kill them to the very last one. Don’t spare a single one of them. Oh Lord, bring torment upon them,” Ismail said.
 
Ismail later attempted to clarify his remarks, telling BT "I don’t mean that all Jews should die.”
 
"I prayed for God to destroy those Jews who kill us. It’s not all Jews, because I know Jews who are good toward us," he said. 

 
Ismail was also reported to Danish authorities by the chairwoman of the Danish Free Press Society (Trykkefrihedsselskabet) and the East Jutland Police initiated their own investigation into the imam’s remarks to determine if they should press charges. An East Jutland Police spokesperson told TV2 that now that charges have been filed in Germany, a Danish case is unlikely to move forward. 
 
Ismail is a regular imam at the controversial Grimhøj Mosque in Aarhus, which has long been suspected of radicalizing young Muslim men. The mosque was also the subject of a documentary from broadcaster DR last month, in which mosque leaders said that they want to see an Islamic caliphate established, that they don’t believe in democracy and that a Danish convert who carried out a suicide bomb attack in Iraq is a hero. 
 
Following that documentary, the mosque requested police assistance after receiving a number of threats
 
Two week after that, Grimhøj Mosque received rare praise from police and Aarhus authorities, who said that the mosque’s leaders have helped to slow the stream of Danish Muslims who travel to Syria as foreign fighters. 
 
East Jutland Police have previously said that around two dozen of the at least 110 individuals who have left Denmark to fight in Syria have come from Grimhøj Mosque. But a police spokesman said that only one person from the Aarhus area is thought to have gone to Syria in 2014 and that person had no association with the mosque.
 
Ismail's Berlin sermon can be seen here: 

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Prosecutor calls for Oslo mosque shooter to be jailed for 21 years

A prosecutor in Norway has called for the man behind last year's failed mosque shooting to be sentenced to 21 years in prison, the maximum sentence possible, arguing that he was an "extremely dangerous person".

Flowers lain outside the Baerum mosque last August. Photo: Orn e. Borgen / NTB Scanpix / AFP
Philip Manshaus, 22, killed his 17-year-old stepsister Johanne Zhangjia Ihle-Hansen at their home in Oslo on August 10 last year.
 
He then entered the Al-Noor Mosque in Bærum and opened fire, before being quickly overpowered by two elderly members of the congregation. 
 
Prosector Johan Øverberg said that he could see no mitigating circumstances which might point to a lesser sentence for Manshaus, whose only regret during the trial was that he had not killed more people. 
 
“He showed no mercy,” he said of the murder of Ihle-Hansen. “This was a simple execution of his stepsister from childhood. Johanne was defenceless. It was a cynical and deliberate murder. He is saying that he can decide who deserves to live, and who deserves to die.” 
 
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Øverberg said that the failure of the mosque attack did not mean it should be treated less seriously that a successful attack, such as that carried out by Brenton Tarrant in New Zealand. 
 
“It may have been…a clumsy and unsuccessful terrorist attack, with a young person simply disarmed by older men,” Øverberg said. 
 
“But although he may have made some mistakes along the way, he was determined to take as many lives as possible. He had enough ammunition to kill as many people as Tarrant. There is no basis for questioning the severity of the attack.” 
 
 
Øverberg agreed with the verdict of court psychiatrists that Manshaus was not psychotic, and had instead been radicalized over a two-year period.
 
Manhaus has also maintained throughout the trial that he is criminally accountable. “I was afraid that the opinions I had could be defined as a personality disorder,” he told the court. 
 
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