Muslims in Norway have joined a human shield called the “Ring of Peace” outside the only active synagogue in the capital, Oslo, to demonstrate solidarity with Jews in the country.
The Saturday demonstration came following a
series of recent attacks against Jewish citizens in Europe.
A group of Norwegian Muslims organized the
event in a show of solidarity with the country’s Jewish
community, forming what they described as a Peace Ring around the
Jewish synagogue.
Jews are a tiny Norwegian minority with a
population of only 1,500. There are only two Synagogues in Norway.
The Muslim demonstrators said they sought to
reassure fellow Norwegian Jews of their support.
The event participants stated that Muslims and
Jews in Europe are both victims of hate crimes and should be supporting each other.
Organizer of the Peace Ring demo, a
17-year-old college student named Hajra Arshad, said during an address to the
event that it is the Islamic teachings of love and respect toward others that
motivated her to arrange the demonstration.
This is while critics state that any action of
solidarity with Jews can be mistaken by some as support for the Israeli regime.
Arshad, however, insisted on the importance that people learn to
distinguish Jews from Israelis.
“I think it’s really, really, really important
that people can distance Israel from Jews because there are a lot of Jews that
are not taking any sides of the politics in Israel,” said Arshad.
Norwegian
Muslims and Jews often meet in several interfaith harmony events but this is
being hailed as a unique event organized by Muslim youths not belonging to any
particular denomination and organizations.
Europe’s Jewish population has been steadily
declining over the past decades following World War II. While in 1960 their
population was registered at nearly 3.2 million, by 2010 only 1.4 million had
remained across the continent – nearly 0.2 percent of Europe’s population,
according to the US-based Pew Research Center.
Sun Feb 22, 2015 6:38AM PTV.
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