Demonstrations in Denmark

Translated from SIOE Holland: 

On thursday the 13th of march, Anders Gravers received a message from the police, telling him that he had to appear in court the next morning about the copyright of the mohammed with bomb cartoon. Apparently Kurt Westergaard suddenly wants to use the copyright to stop this cartoon showing up at a SIOE demonstration, like the one planned in Aalborg on saturday the 15th of march.

Of course SIOE respects Kurt Westergaard and we understand his wish for peace and quietness. We know that he is still been threatened by muslims. However, the cartoons are in the public domain and everybody uses them. And this we, Anders Gravers, SIOE Nederland and SIOE England tried to explain to the judge.

Well, to cut a long story short, none of this helped and the ruling of the judge was a total ban for SIAD/SIOE regarding the use of the mohammed cartoon. Even the testimony of Stephen Gash and Martin van der Hulst that SIOE is non-political and that every SIOE chapter is free to do what it pleases within the basic rules of SIOE International did not contribute to a more positive outcome.

Because these two courtcases we arrived late at the site of the first demonstration in Hobro against sharia-banking. About 30 SIOE supporters were waiting for us. The real welcome comittee was formed by about 40 autonomes and muslims. Apparently they were alowed to do a counterdemo. The police didn’t do anything to break them up. Not even after one of the muslims was pushing an 82 year old lady to the ground. There were 5 policemen needed to arrest him.

Both demo’s, the one on the 14th in Hobro and the one on the 15th in Aalborg, were relocated by te police so Anders Gravers had to improvise a lot. There’s always a possebility that many people were unaware of these changes and were at the wrong locations, because there was no time left to tell everybody.

The autonomes and muslims were behaving very agressive. They spit at us, they were shouting, calling us names like nazi’s. They also imitated hitler. (something they manage to do very well). We wanted to talk with some of them, but that was really no use in trying.

After we made our point, we decided to end the demo. Under police protection we were walking back to the place were we left our cars. The 82 year old woman was brought back to her car in a policecar because she was to afraid to walk alone.

15th march Demonstration in Aalborg

We drove to a parkinglot just outside the center of Aalborg, meeting some of the police who were responseble for our savety during the demonstration. Anders showed them one of the mohammed in niqaab and they went along with it. After this meeting we were driven by taxi to the square Kennedy Platz.

Some supporter were allready there, among them two Danish Greenlanders. They said to the press that they were there because they were sick and tired seeing their flag being burned, time after time. More and more people came to the square.

Just across the street autonomes and muslims were gathering. They were seperated from us by a line of riot police. The autonomes and muslims began to shout at us in a way that we are used of them. Meanwhile the number of people on the square was growing. Anders was doing lots of interviews for lots of press. The autonomes and muslims across the street, maybe a 100 to 130 became more agressive.

One Danish muslim completely freaked out and had to be pushed back by three policemen. The autonomes were shouting to us and were calling us racists, nazists and fascists like a bunch of idiots. They also constantly gave us the finger.

The muslims shouted something about Satan and kept on repeating it. They also shouted something in Arabic, we have no idea what they were shouting at us but we don’t think it was anything nice. A young muslim, he looked like an imam, was really screaming and yelling through a megaphone. He constantly repeated the name mohammed. Both autonomes and muslims were going completely mental and were very agressive.

One reporter tried to do an interview with them and she was called a hooker and the muslims spit on the street, only because she tried to hear their side of the story.

 

Suddenly a group of muslims decided to kiss the street. They began to pray to allah. It was a funny sight to see.

Some autonomes tried to cross the street, they were pushed back by the police. The sphere across the street was a kind of evil. Suddenly the Danish supporter began to sing. A freedom song. After this, Anders gave the sign that we had to move on with the demo. Their were speeches to be held by Anders Gravers, Stephen Gash and Martin van der Hulst. After the speeches there was some more singing.Meanwhile the autonomes and muslims became more and more hostile.
After the last song, Anders Gravers declared the demonstration over. The police asked how we would leave the place. We said we wanted to take taxies, but the police thought it was not a good idea. They offered to drive us to our cars.

Two policevans came and we were told by the police to get in. Unfortunatly 5 people couldn’t get to the vans in time and they were left at the square. Meanwhile the police was beginning to withdraw. The 5 persons were two Danish girls, two SIOE Nederland supporters and Martin van der Hulst from SIOE Nederland. The autonomes and muslims came across the street and were closing in on the ones left behind. They said: “we’re going to kill you”. They got really close like 5 to 10 meters. Only about 10 policemen stayed behind and they had to protect the ones left behind against about all the autonomes and muslims.

Finally there was called a taxi by one policeman and this taxi came right on time to the rescue. The 5 persons were taken back to the parkinglot.

Martin van der Hulst said that what happened cannot be blamed on SIOE, but is to blame to the police and the way they handled the extraction of the people from the square. The police was not paying any attention and were too much in a hurry to wrap things up. They were really not interested in what was happening on the square.

Both demonstrations were very succesfull, not only because of SIOE and her supporters but also because of the huge press coverage. SIOE was all over the Danish news. Autonomes and muslims showed their real face and Anders Gravers had lots of opportunities to say what he had to say in front of the tv and radio.

The next demonstration will be in Copenhagen on 31th of may. Be there and join the resistance.