Bergen: Muslims shouldn't pray in main square

United Nations soldiers in Somalia and Lebanon fought with pig's feet?

Norwegian anti-immigration politicians in Bergen have promised to chase off Muslims with pigs feet and squealing noises if Bergen's central square is used for prayers.


The leader of the Demokratene, an extreme populist party formed by outcasts of the populist Progress Party, Vidar Kleppe, said Wednesday that he backed the remarks of city council representative Kenneth Rasmussen.

Rasmussen reacted with threats of porcine tactics after Labour Party politician Jerad Abdelmajid said that the city's Muslims could take their Friday prayers in Torgallmenningen, Bergen's central square, when they will be without a mosque from March 31. Building of a new mosque is behind schedule.

Abdelmajid's announcement provoked heated public debate.

"I completely agree with Kenneth Rasmussen that Muslims having their Friday prayers with their butts in the air in the city center is no solution. They can find other places," Kleppe told news agency NTB.

Kenneth Rasmussen told newspaper Dagbladet's web site that Bergen residents should hang up pig's feet and play pig squeals over loudspeakers to scare off Muslims, and claimed these tactics worked when he was a soldier for the United Nations in Somalia and Lebanon in the 1990s.

Kleppe was willing to admit that this was provocative, but that it was correct of his party colleague to propose vigorous solutions.

"It is healthy with lively debates... his main point is surely that Bergen's residents do not appreciate Friday prayers in the city's main square," Kleppe said.

"This will do more damage than good. A threat does not justify another threat, no matter who proposes it," entrepreneur Shahzad Rana told newspaper VG. "Here there have been provocations from both sides. Is it not possible for them to sit down and talk?" Rana asked.

Source: Aftenposten (English)

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