The Hare Krishna temple in Western Copenhagen was recently assaulted
by a group of young Muslims, throwing stones and breaking windows. To
diminish the risk of confrontations with the Muslim-dominated
neighbourhood, the devotees of the temple are from now on requested to
not wear their characteristic clothes outside the temple, in order to
not provoke similar attacks in the future. Below is the original account
of the attacks.
Danish police took a report of the assaults.
(Note: Whitespace added for clarity. Original spelling preserved.)
Dear devotees,
On 6.12.,20.45 the temple in Copenhagen was attacked by a group of gundas with obviously Muslim background. First stones were thrown against the front of the residential temple building, then the window in the mathaji asrama got broken.[TK], the temple president, called police instantly. A single police officer arived, took notice of the dammage and left again. Half an hour later a bigger group of the same attackers arived, again throwing stones, entering the garden, braking this time windows in the Tulasi room, all the bottom windows facing the street. Finaly they tried to brake into the house, seeking direct physical conflict.
It didnt took long to find out the possible background of this attack.
(The temple was never exposed to such an incident before).
The same day two devotees, one of them living directly in the temple and the other outside, were biking closeby when they met on the street a car standing with open door. One passed, the other got blocked by the open door and complained. According to the statement of one of them he was directly attacked by the driver with a tool fetched from the car and as the other one came to his rescue, a fist fight started. Devotees sustained minor injuries. Finaly police arived at the scene and took record of the incident.
As the temple is located in a close Muslim neighbourhood, featuring a Muslim school, etc., it is quite possible that these two incidents are related. The police didnt make sofar this connection,but its obvious.
As matter of fact the involvement of the police was minimal sofar, it took them more a half an hour to arive and after the second attack they didnt come at all. If the attackers would manage to brake into the house, somebody could have been kiled as they were armed with baseball clubs and other weapons. As seeing from the window, most of them could have been even less as 18 years old and some of them couldnt even speak proper denish.
It can be only hoped that this incident was an act of momentarily rage and will not spark a long term enmity and chain of attacks from the local Muslim community. To find the leader of the gang and try to communicate with him is hardly possible. We cannot expect any protection from the police and so once again we are fully depending on the mercy of Sri Sri Goura Nitai and Lord Nrsimhadeva.
Your servant [MD]
P.S. Please, if possible, lets help [TKP] as he will have to deal now with further police investigation, the insurance company and the repairs following this attack.
Further on devotees are requested to change possibly their devotee dress after leaving the temple property, as being seen in the vaisnava dress they may provoke in an uncontroled manner attacks from the local Muslims while walkig on the street. Incidents of this nature do happen. Even this one is based on individual improper behaviour of both parties, the driver and the devotees, the final attack was issued against anybody who could be identified as the memmber of the Hare Krsna movement. Lets hope these attacks will not escalate. Sofar nobody got injured, but it was a close call indeed.
Danish police took a report of the assaults.
(Note: Whitespace added for clarity. Original spelling preserved.)
Dear devotees,
On 6.12.,20.45 the temple in Copenhagen was attacked by a group of gundas with obviously Muslim background. First stones were thrown against the front of the residential temple building, then the window in the mathaji asrama got broken.[TK], the temple president, called police instantly. A single police officer arived, took notice of the dammage and left again. Half an hour later a bigger group of the same attackers arived, again throwing stones, entering the garden, braking this time windows in the Tulasi room, all the bottom windows facing the street. Finaly they tried to brake into the house, seeking direct physical conflict.
It didnt took long to find out the possible background of this attack.
(The temple was never exposed to such an incident before).
The same day two devotees, one of them living directly in the temple and the other outside, were biking closeby when they met on the street a car standing with open door. One passed, the other got blocked by the open door and complained. According to the statement of one of them he was directly attacked by the driver with a tool fetched from the car and as the other one came to his rescue, a fist fight started. Devotees sustained minor injuries. Finaly police arived at the scene and took record of the incident.
As the temple is located in a close Muslim neighbourhood, featuring a Muslim school, etc., it is quite possible that these two incidents are related. The police didnt make sofar this connection,but its obvious.
As matter of fact the involvement of the police was minimal sofar, it took them more a half an hour to arive and after the second attack they didnt come at all. If the attackers would manage to brake into the house, somebody could have been kiled as they were armed with baseball clubs and other weapons. As seeing from the window, most of them could have been even less as 18 years old and some of them couldnt even speak proper denish.
It can be only hoped that this incident was an act of momentarily rage and will not spark a long term enmity and chain of attacks from the local Muslim community. To find the leader of the gang and try to communicate with him is hardly possible. We cannot expect any protection from the police and so once again we are fully depending on the mercy of Sri Sri Goura Nitai and Lord Nrsimhadeva.
Your servant [MD]
P.S. Please, if possible, lets help [TKP] as he will have to deal now with further police investigation, the insurance company and the repairs following this attack.
Further on devotees are requested to change possibly their devotee dress after leaving the temple property, as being seen in the vaisnava dress they may provoke in an uncontroled manner attacks from the local Muslims while walkig on the street. Incidents of this nature do happen. Even this one is based on individual improper behaviour of both parties, the driver and the devotees, the final attack was issued against anybody who could be identified as the memmber of the Hare Krsna movement. Lets hope these attacks will not escalate. Sofar nobody got injured, but it was a close call indeed.
2 comments:
It is really gross that people who are themselves guests in another country try to violently impose their "values" upon others. I suppose the devotees are wearing Western dress now, while the attackers happily wear their Islamic outfits?
As a hare Krishna practitioner, I feel disappointed about the police's attitude. They don't seem to care for people's safety. There should be an investigation on the person in charge of the police and he should be fired for allowing this injustice to happen. Regarding wearing Western dresses, what is the next step? Stop wearing tilak (mark on forehead)? Stop doing harinam (public chanting)? Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu would do the opposite: increase it!
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