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By Crethi Plethi

When Islamist terrorists killed 17 people in the January Charlie Hebdo and Hypercacher kosher supermarket attacks, I wrote,

“If Europe stays ignorant about the source of the problem while not able to protect its own society against this domestic terrorist threat, it will inevitably have to fight this battle in the Middle East sooner or later. Because the jihad will not ignore Europe.”

And although Danish authorities have since then been on alert, the security measures were not enough to prevent the twin shootings in Copenhagen just one month after the Paris shootings.

Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein

On February 14, 2015, a Palestinian gunman, 22-year-old Danish-born Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein, started shooting at an Islam and free speech event entitled “Art, Blasphemy and Freedom of Expression,” killing the film director Finn Noergaard and injuring three police officers. The event was also attended by the French ambassador Francois Zimeray and Swedish artist Lars Vilks who both were unharmed. After this attack — just after midnight — the terrorist targeted a bat mitzvah ceremony in the Great Synagogue in Copenhagen killing a Jewish community member, Dan Uzan, and injuring 2 police officers. This was the same synagogue that was struck by a bomb placed by Palestinian terrorists on July 22, 1985.

Vilks, who was likely the terrorist primary target in the first attack, sparked a controversy in 2007 with his Mohammad cartoons, depicting Mohammad as a dog. This led to widespread violent protests in the Muslim world. In Islamic tradition, representation of the prophet Mohammad is mostly considered a blasphemous act.

According to Danish police, Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein had a record of violence, gang-related activities and weapons possession. He was shot dead by Danish security forces on Sunday morning near Norrebro station in central Copenhagen. According to CNN, he “pledged allegiance to [ISIS leader] Abu Bakr [al-Baghdadi] in full obedience in the good and bad things” in a posting made on a Facebook page just before the weekend shooting spree.

After the Charlie Hebdo attacks, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said,

“We are not at war with extremists and we do not fight against Islam.”

It is no surprise that the Prime Minister of Denmark, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, has used similar wording after the Copenhagen shootings,

“As a nation, we have experienced a series of hours we will never forget. We have tasted the ugly taste of fear and powerlessness that terror would like to create…This is not a battle between Islam and the West, and it is not a battle between Muslims and non-Muslims, but a battle between the values of freedom for the individual and a dark ideology.”

This Western political correct socialist-humanist attitude toward Islam (and Islamic–related issues) is a guarantee for more Charlie Hebdo, Lars Vilks, Theo van Gogh and other Islamic motivated terrorist attacks in Europe in the future. And instead of using the word Islam or Islamic extremism, Thorning-Schmidt uses the term “dark ideology” and thus ignoring the source of the threat Europe is facing.

It seems that when Muslim terrorists are targeting Western values such as free speech and democracy, they also target Jews as well. However, there’s no direct link between Charlie Hebdo, Lars Vilks and European Jewry that could explain any twin terrorist attack against Western values and Jews. For example, Lars Vilks isn’t Jewish, the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo mocks Christianity and Judaism just the same as Islam. So why are these Muslim terrorists targeting Jews as well? The answer lies in the fact that these are religiously motivated attacks, and in the views of these terrorists justified by 1,400 years of Islamic exegesis and tradition.

As was the case after the Paris shootings in January, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a better reality of today’s Islamist threat. He said after the Synagogue shooting in Copenhagen,

“Jews have been murdered again on European soil only because they were Jews and this wave of terrorist attacks — including murderous anti-Semitic attacks — is expected to continue.”

The European leaders don’t share Netanyahu’s perception of reality and therefore are not doing what they should do. They are not prepared to protect Western societies against Islamic extremism. They are not willing to protect Jews against Islamic motivated anti-Semitism which is a documented fact within Islam. They are unable to solve the many multicultural problems in Western cities. Why?

Because they are afraid to question Islamic traditions and beliefs. They are afraid to raise the question: is traditional Islam (based on 1,400 years of Islamic exegesis and tradition) compatible with our Western values and with European democracy?

Denmark’s government chooses to stay ignorant about the real source of the problem. But as we’ve seen now and in the past, Islamic extremism will not ignore Denmark.