'Let them find in you a harshness'

Islam in Europe and Gates of Vienna both have reports today on a campaign of harassment and intimidation against Greenlanders (Danes of Inuit extraction) by Muslim Arabs and Somalis in the Gjellerup Park district of Århus, Denmark, the intensity of which has now caused several residents to flee the place.

"Greenlanders in Gjellerup are assaulted, humiliated, and have stones thrown at them," the Danish newspaper Århus Stiftstidende reported. "These citizens from the northernmost part of Denmark mostly stay put in their apartments, afraid to go out in the open."


“They are targeting us a group. I’ve tried to tell them that we are Danes, born into Danish citizenship. They don’t understand it,” Johanne Christiansen, 47, a resident of Gjellerup for 16 years, told the paper. “My heart still misses a beat or two when I encounter young Arabs."

Oh, they understand it quite well. Their behavior and its results are, after all, very much in accordance with at least two Qur'anic verses: 48:29, which stipulates that Muslims are "hard against the unbelievers, merciful one to another," and 9:123, which exhorts them to "fight the unbelievers who are near to you, and let them find in you a harshness."

This state of affairs sounds like a matter a UN special rapporteur "on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, and related forms of intolerance" might address. But as with the plight of Egypt's Copts, don't expect the man who currently holds that post to get on the case anytime soon. Doudou Diène is far more concerned with building a spurious case against "Islamophobia" than taking a stand against the genuine, scripturally based xenophobia that has put Islam and its adherents in such a bad odor.