Vol. 79/No. 9      March 16, 2015

In response to the Feb. 15 killing of Dan Uzan, a Danish Jew who was a volunteer guard outside a synagogue in Copenhagen, by Omar el-Hussein, a self-proclaimed partisan of Islamic State, a number of Muslim youth in Norway set up a Facebook page to organize the event. “Muslims will show that we sharply distance ourselves from all types of Jew-hatred,” they said.

More than 1,000 people gathered to support the action, which was called on just a few days notice. Dozens of Muslim youth joined hands outside during the Saturday service to oppose anti-Semitic attacks and defend the right of the congregants to practice their religion.

“No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” was one of the most popular chants.

“We Muslims know very well how it is to be discriminated against,” Hajrah Arshad, 17, told the rally. “We hope we can learn from each other today. We won’t get anywhere if we don’t stand together.”

“This is the best possible response we can give to the polarization we’ve seen in debates after the attacks in France and Denmark,” Youssef Bartho Assidiq, another participant, told Agence France-Presse, referring also to the January killing of four Jews at a kosher supermarket in Paris.

There are approximately 1,300 Jews in Norway, out of a population of 5.3 million. In 2008 a Norwegian Islamist was convicted for a shooting attack on the Oslo synagogue two years earlier. No one was killed, but the building was damaged.

Another of the organizers of the action was Muhammed Ali Chishti, who in 2009 gave a talk titled, “Why I Hate Jews and Gays.” In press interviews before and after the vigil he said his statements at that time were “anti-Semitic” and “unacceptable,” and that his views have changed. “I was very angry at that time” over the Israeli government’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, he said, adding “a lot of what I said was based on conspiracy theories.”

But today “there are many signs of a dangerous polarization between religions in Europe,” Chishti said. “It’s important to show we are not intolerant.”

Greg McCartan in Oslo contributed to this article.