Denmark: Somali community shocked

Denmark: Somali community shocked


For more on this story see here and here.

The man was killed in the bombing in Somalia last week, and at first people said he was one of the victims.I'm guessing that the Danish security services are now more certain that he was actually the terrorist. According to news reports, he went to regular Danish schools. His family and wife did not want him to move to Somalia.

His parents have Danish citizenship, but he doesn't. If I'm not mistaken, this is the first 'Dane' who gets killed in a suicide attack.

-----------

The Somali community in Denmark is shocked that PET is saying a Danish-Somali is the suicide terrorist who was responsible for the suicide bomb that cost 24 people their lives last week in Somali's capital, Mogadishu.


"I know him as a nice, smiling and well-behaved boy. The Somalis in Denmark are shocked that he's accused of being responsible for the bomb," says Ahmed H. Dhaqane, head of the Somali Association in Denmark and member of the Rødovre council for the Social Democrats.

Dhaqane says that the man whom PET suspects was the suicide bomber from Mogadishu came to Denmark when he was five, about 17 years ago, together with his parents, and lived in the Rødovre suburb of Copenhagen. He lived there until he got married to a Somali woman from Copenhagen, after which he moved to Amager (Copenhagen).

"The family is quiet and calm. Also they aren't particularly religious. It isn't a family there have been problems with," says Dhaqane.

He does admit, though, that the man PET have their eye on, began to get radicalized over the past two years he'd lived in Denmark.

"He was well-integrated and respected. But suddenly he began to get very interested in Islam and visited the various mosques in Copenhagen. The family didn't think that there was a problem because he was happy. But somebody must have pressured him," says Dhaqane.

Since suddenly he traveled to Somalia with his wife and settled in Marka, about 90 km south of Mogadishu. There his wife and her family lived with the couple's daughter.

Dhaqane has heard of 'some' Somalis, who traveled from Denmark to Somalia to fight.

"I have the impression that some do it. Somalia isn't a place where one can live in peace," says Ahmed H. Dhaqane.

Source: Kristeligt Dagblad (Danish)

See also: Denmark: The Danish Terrorists

No comments: