The editorial of Fréttablaðið today warns people not to kindle hatred and division with their reaction to the Paris attacks. The editorial emphasizes that every religion has its extremists, who attack us all, regardless of our religion, and therefore, we must be careful not to focus our criticism on a specific religion.
The editorial points out that Baldur Þórhallsson, professor of political science, criticized President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson for breeding suspicion toward Muslims by stating that the threat associated with extreme Islam is the greatest threat of our time. The president has further stated that although we shouldn’t condemn refugees and depart from a society of multiculturalism and tolerance, we cannot live in the childish naiveté that the problem can be solved with measures of tolerance and social improvements.
Eyrún Eyþórsdóttir, a representative for the Greater Reykjavík Police who, starting next year will be in charge of investigating hate crimes, a new position with the police, claims the number of such crimes usually goes up following a terrorist attack, Vísir reports.
After the vandalism of the Islamic Cultural Center of Iceland over the weekend, Imam Ahmad Seddeeq told Vísir, “We at the Cultural Center are of the opinion that they or he/she who did this do not represent the Icelandic public. Here, we should unite in being in peace and neither be misguided by ignorance nor spread hatred and prejudice.”
On the Cultural Center’s Facebook page, one member expresses fear and recommends that Icelandic Muslims be careful, especially at night.
A landlady, who yesterday was reported to have refused to rent an apartment to a Palestinian woman because the latter is a Muslim, was interviewed by DV today, where she expressed her fear of Muslims in general. “I’m simply very scared of them,” she claimed.
