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Denmark: How one local decision created a national ‘War on Christmas’
Copenhagen Post ^ | 11/15/2012 | Justin Cremer

Posted on 11/15/2012 3:09:07 PM PST by SeekAndFind

The Kokkedal housing association decided to forego a Christmas tree, leading to charges of racism and fears of a Muslim takeover.

Christmas is typically such a festive time, but for one housing association in the Zealand town of Kokkedal, it has, thus far, been anything but.

It all started when the association’s nine-person board, five of whom are Muslim, voted against having a Christmas tree this year. They apparently balked at the estimated 7,000 kroner of the tree, but had earlier had no qualms about spending some 60,000 kroner on a party celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid.

Nearly immediately after news of the decision broke, the story of the axed Christmas tree was taken up by the Danish media with gusto after several politicians and commentators suggested it demonstrated an intolerance towards Danish customs held by the minority Muslim population. Before we knew it, Denmark was in the midst of a ‘War on Christmas’.

“It is deeply troubling that our integration efforts have failed so badly that Danish traditions are removed and replaced by Muslim traditions the moment there is a Muslim majority,” Konservative MP Tom Behnke told DR News. “This is an example of a lack of respect for Danish traditions and culture. We should not want a Denmark where Danish traditions disappear when there is a Muslim majority present.”

Local newspaper Frederiksborg Amts Avis, which broke the story on its front page last week on Wednesday, reported that there is deep frustration that the new majority on the board is not representative of the views of the Egedalsvænge housing complex’s residents, and not least of its many Muslims.

The newspaper added that the decision had led to tensions by creating an ‘us against them attitude’ in the housing complex. And create tension it did.

Karin Leegaard Hansen, a 29-year-resident of Egedalsvænge, was elected as the chair of the residents’ association in September.

“The vast majority of the residents support the Christmas party, maybe 99 percent, but a majority of the board still voted against it,” Hansen told Jyllands-Posten.

But not everyone on the board could agree on why the proposal to have a Christmas tree was rejected.

“No-one wanted to take on the responsibility of getting it,” one board member, Ismail Mestasi, told the press. “A vote was taken and it ended as it ended. I don’t celebrate Christmas, but I was asked to get the tree. And I didn’t want to.”

But Hansen denied this and has said she offered to take on the responsibility, but that her offer was not noted down in the minutes of the meeting.

The situation inside Egedalsvænget was inflamed even further over the weekend when two journalists from TV2 News escaped unharmed after their van was attacked by 25 masked individuals.

The journalists had gone to the housing complex to report on a petition that was gathering signatures of those who had lost confidence in the housing association’s board.

After the men arrived and exited the van, the attackers promptly began throwing bricks and cobblestones at it. The attackers shouted slurs at the journalists, such as “Neo-Nazi”, and told them to leave.

Following the attack, the head of TV2 News condemned the treatment of his journalists.

“It’s completely outrageous that things like this happen, but I’m glad it was only our hardware that was attacked and that our personnel were unharmed,” Jacob Nybroe told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “But it’s disappointing that we can’t cover the news everywhere in Denmark.”

The North Zealand Police has said it is now investigating the incident.

Hard feelings over the axed Christmas tree spread far beyond Egedalsvænget as well, threatening to turn into a nationwide conflict between Muslims and ethnically Danish Christians. The Islamic association, Islamisk Trossamfund, told Ekstra Bladet that it has received some threatening phone calls since the issue was first covered.

“We have received direct threats, verbal abuse and other forms of taunting as though it was us who were responsible for this case,” spokesperson Imran Shah said, before adding that Muslims are not allowed to deny other groups their right to celebrate their holidays.

Many were so affected by the board’s decision that they offered to step forward and ‘save Christmas’ with their own funds. Political leaders and private citizens alike offered to pay for all or part of the Christmas celebrations.

Jonas Birger-Christensen, a small business owner from Hellerup, has offered to pay 7,000 kroner for the Christmas party and 7,000 kroner for next year’s Eid celebration.

Despite the offer, the drama looks unlikely to subside anytime soon.

Police have announced they are now investigating an accusation of racism made against the board.

“It needs to be determined to what extent the decision by the Muslim members of the board to first vote ‘yes’ to a 60,000 kroner Eid party, then ‘no’ to a 8,000 kroner Christmas tree to celebrate Christian traditions, violates laws by discriminating against Christians and their traditions,” police spokesperson Karsten Egtved wrote in his report.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: christmas; denmark; islam; muslim; waronchristmas; waronchristmas2012

1 posted on 11/15/2012 3:09:17 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Similar Report here:

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-75408-Denmark:-Eid,—Xmas-trees-row-heats-up

EXCERPT:

COPENHAGEN: A Danish housing estate that scrapped its traditional Christmas celebrations shortly after holding a costly Muslim Eid celebration has snowballed into an angry nationwide debate amid charges of racism.

Five out of nine members of the tenants’ board voted in late October to cancel their annual Christmas tree and party in Kokkedal, 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of Copenhagen.

The vote came shortly after a large communal celebration of the Muslim holiday Eid had been organised by the association.

The issue has since escalated in the Danish media, with a focus on divisions between Muslim and Christian members of the tenants’ board.

On Tuesday, some readers of Denmark’s national newspapers and users of social media sites were outraged by the decision and the cost of the Eid party, which was said to have been around 60,000 Danish kroner (8,050 euros, $10,200), compared to 7,000 kroner for the Christmas event.

The issue “is another example of how Muslim immigrants cut slice after slice off of our traditions and customs until there is nothing left to cut”, reader Mogens Justesen wrote in a comment to conservative daily Jyllands-Posten on Tuesday.

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST...


2 posted on 11/15/2012 3:10:57 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Japan is a rich and modern country. I cannot imagine in 1,000 years some minority coming in and telling them they felt OFFENDED by seasonal oshyoGatsu/Christmas decorations around the city and train stations.

It would provoke befuddlement and then assaults.

They’d get thrown out of the country.


3 posted on 11/15/2012 3:34:45 PM PST by gaijin
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To: SeekAndFind

Sweden and Denmark are already so far off the track in the destruction of their noble heritage that I doubt if they’ll ever recover. Europe is caving in to the pagan muslims and will never the the same. They don’t know how to say “GO TO HELL.”


4 posted on 11/15/2012 3:37:39 PM PST by laweeks
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To: SeekAndFind

Does anyone know the general history of muslims moving to Denmark? When did it start? Where did most of them come from? Just curious how they got the moslem parasitic infection.


5 posted on 11/15/2012 3:41:11 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: SeekAndFind

LMAO

Elections have Consequences.
Who elected these Islamics to their offices in the first place?

5 of them yet.

They got what they wanted.

Just as the US got what the majority wanted and we have a Muslim president again.


6 posted on 11/15/2012 3:45:43 PM PST by Venturer
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To: Venturer

RE: Who elected these Islamics to their offices in the first place?

Muslims did. The district where this happened has a relatively large Muslim population.


7 posted on 11/15/2012 3:47:00 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Lest you think this is Euro style grimy, soot ridden pesthole full of industrial waste and garbage strewn about - you know, where minorities are caged, take a good look at the photos. Lots of trees and green space, right in town.

Very nice 4 story apartments, well maintained. Just the kind of condo project you would love to live in once you were retired, eh?

Now then - hard to believe folks living here would hate Christmas, right?

Locals stepped in and provided funding for the celebration, the hard feelings were free.

8 posted on 11/15/2012 3:49:28 PM PST by ASOC (What are you doing now that Mexico has become OUR Chechnya?)
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To: SeekAndFind
I don't know what the Danes expected when they invited thousands of aliens into their country who have zero in common with Danish culture & so much in conflict.

Now, they will go from failed integration to tense segregation to violent confrontation. Congratulations! You have a balkanized country! And, it wont take long in tiny Denmark.

9 posted on 11/15/2012 3:50:24 PM PST by Mister Da (The mark of a wise man is not what he knows, but what he knows he doesn't know!)
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To: laweeks

RE: Sweden and Denmark are already so far off the track in the destruction of their noble heritage that I doubt if they’ll ever recover

___________________

The population of Malmö, Sweden today is 300,000.

Malmo, where Muslim immigrants comprise 30 to 40 percent of the population, sees between 50 and 100 anti-Semitic incidents per year. In 2010 the number of incidents doubled previous year’s, with 79 complaints recorded.


10 posted on 11/15/2012 3:51:32 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: DesertRhino

RE: Does anyone know the general history of muslims moving to Denmark? When did it start? Where did most of them come from? J

___________________________

During the 1980s and 1990s a number of Muslim asylum seekers came to Denmark. In the 1980s mostly from Iran, Iraq, Gaza and the West Bank and in the 1990s mostly from Somalia and Bosnia. Some of those who sought asylum had been charged with terrorism in their home countries.’

The asylum seekers comprise about 40% of the Danish Muslim population.

Previously, the majority of Muslims who immigrated to Denmark did so as part of family reunification. The Danish parliament has passed a law in 2002 making family reunification harder. It was also implemented to counter forced marriages by ensuring that both parties are at least 24 years old and so considered old enough to enter a marriage without being forced to do so. The new law requires the couple to both be above the age of 24 and requires the resident spouse to show capacity to support both persons of the couple.


11 posted on 11/15/2012 3:53:53 PM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: laweeks

Denmark, I believe, stopped all Muslim immigraiton and have expelled some of them and taken other steps to pressure them to assimilate — that later course is a waste of time. Just throw them out of the country. End of problem.


12 posted on 11/15/2012 3:54:46 PM PST by WashingtonSource
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To: DesertRhino

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Denmark


13 posted on 11/15/2012 3:55:41 PM PST by morphing libertarian
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To: SeekAndFind

Type in to Youtube:

Muslim Demographics and watch the 7:31 video...

then type in:

CBN: Malmö, Sweden: Growing Muslim Influence

then:

The Problem of Islam in Europe

Things most don’t pay attention to - want to download these - go to my website and they are there...

I suggest also downloading: http://babylonscovertwar.com/Analysis/CoughlinExtremistJihad.pdf

Outstanding read...afterwards, drink a cup of tea and relax while out elected leaders try to bargain with these monsters...


14 posted on 11/15/2012 3:55:52 PM PST by BCW (http://babylonscovertwar.com/index.html)
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To: SeekAndFind

Now appearing in a country near you!


15 posted on 11/15/2012 3:58:04 PM PST by morphing libertarian
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To: SeekAndFind

Like our Dearborn?

Damned shame. The world is getting a wake up call I hope we answer the phone.


16 posted on 11/15/2012 4:04:32 PM PST by Venturer
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To: SeekAndFind

“It is deeply troubling that our integration efforts have failed so badly that Danish traditions are removed and replaced by Muslim traditions the moment there is a Muslim majority,”

&&&
Uh-huh. I know I am shocked....


17 posted on 11/15/2012 4:30:01 PM PST by Bigg Red (Pray for our republic.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Amazing. Considering what Denmark was barely 20 years ago. Sad.


18 posted on 11/15/2012 4:44:49 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: Venturer
Damned shame. The world is getting a wake up call I hope we answer the phone.

Yeah, right.

19 posted on 11/15/2012 4:57:33 PM PST by Bon mots (Abu Ghraib: 47 Times on the front page of the NY Times | Benghazi: 2 Times)
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To: BCW

Thanks for the link...


20 posted on 11/17/2012 5:18:54 AM PST by GOPJ (The economy is so bad MSNBC had to lay off 300 Obama spokesmen - Leno)
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