Shootingat Danish 'free speech' meeting

http://news.sky.com/story/1427630/shots-fired-at-danish-free-speech-meeting

Shots Fired At Danish Free Speech Meeting
Three police officers are hurt when gunmen open fire on an event organised by controversial Swedish artist Lars Vilks.

Three police officers are reported to have been injured after shots were fired at a meeting held in a Copenhagen cafe to discuss free speech.

The event had been organised by Swedish artist Lars Vilks, who had faced a number of threats to his life after caricaturing the Prophet Mohammed in 2007.

About 30 bullet holes were seen in the windows of the Krudttoenden cafe in the north of the city after the attack and at least two people were taken away on stretchers, local channel TV2 said.

Witnesses said the police returned fire after someone shouted and fired an automatic weapon at the cafe.

One of those seen being carried away afterwards was a uniformed officer and Danish media said that a total of three officers and a spectator had been hurt.

Looks like the religion of peace strikes again...

The incident comes after the attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris last month, in which 12 people were killed.

François Zimeray, the French ambassador to Denmark, was also at the meeting.

He told AFP: "They fired on us from the outside. It was the same intention as Charlie Hebdo except they didn't manage to get in."

Mr Vilks has faced several attempted attacks and death threats after he depicted the Prophet Muhammad as a dog in 2007 including an attempt to burn down his house in 2010.

More follows...

There has been one death, according to RT:

http://rt.com/news/232399-copenhagen-attack-vilks-blasphemy/

At least one civilian was killed and three police officers wounded at a shooting in a Copenhagen café hosting a debate on blasphemy. The French ambassador and Swedish artist Lars Vilks, known for cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, had been attending.

The assailants are still at large, according to Danish media. There may be one or two of them. TV 2 reports that they spoke Danish, were dressed in dark clothes and fled the crime scene in a dark Volkswagen Polo.

The French ambassador François Zimeray had just finished speaking at the event as the shots were fired at around 14:30 GMT. Later he confirmed in a tweet he was unharmed.

http://news.yahoo.com/danish-pm-moves-reassure-jews-attacks-160750120.html

The Danish Jews say there is no way they are going to leave for Israel. They are Danes by descent and Jews by religion - one man on Austrian News said the Nazis failed to drive them from Denmark and no radicalised fool is going to do that. He added that they would be insulting the memory of those, like his parents, who died in the Holocaust. LL

There's something off-key about all this, LL. After all, by inciting European Jews to emigrate to Israel, isn't Netahyahu in danger of gathering them all in one place and making them a bigger target for ISIS?

And, despite being surrounded by them, he isn't running round shouting The sky is falling! like many Western leaders.

I hope he's voted out of office next month; he's another one that genuinely scares me.

I share your hopes that he is voted out.

An interesting piece:

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/1.642878

In his remarks to the conference, Herzog accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of destroying Israeli democracy. "The strength of Israel comes first and foremost from the strength of its democracy. In recent years, our democracy has turned into a punching bag by dangerous and extremist elements, paradoxically from within the cabinet and coalition; forces that fill public discourse with fear, hatred and discrimination."

"Once, these forces were on the margins of society. We didn't take them seriously," Herzog added. "The person who turned them into legitimate allies, to partners who do whatever they want in the prime minister's bureau is none other than Benjamin Netanyahu. Bibi is destroying democracy, tearing apart the state of Israel."

He's also done dreadful damage to Israel's image in the wider world, IMO.