At least 500 people attended the burial of Omar El-Hussein, the gunman who killed two people last weekend in Copenhagen in two separate shooting incidents and was then killed in a police shootout.
It was believed El-Hussein was targeting Danish artist Lars Vilks, who has received numerous death threats for his drawings of the Prophet Muhammad, when he opened fire on a cafe in the Danish capital where Mr. Vilks was speaking at a panel on free speech. Film director Finn Nørgaard was killed in the shooting.
El-Hussein then fled the scene and turned up nine hours later outside a Copenhagen synagogue where he killed a Jewish security guard Dan Uzan and wounded two police officers. El-Hussein was then killed in a firefight with police.
Roughly 500 mourners and sympathizers attended the funeral ceremony for El-Hussein at the Islamic Society of Denmark, before he was buried in a Muslim cemetery on the outskirts of the city, The Daily Mail reported Friday.
The funeral was open to the public and was mostly attended by young men, who were described as “wearing large black coats with many of them having covered their faces,” the newspaper reported.
The head of the the Islamic Burial Fund’s support group, Ahmet Deniz, told newspaper Jyllands-Polsten that he had concerns about the burial and said that the group had considered denying the burial request by El-Hussein’s parents. The group’s rules, however, did not allow it.
“My concern is over extremist attitudes and actions on both sides. Both from his friends and from young Danish people who perhaps could also riot later,” Mr. Deniz said, the Daily Mail reported.
Copenhagen Police urged attendees to “show appropriate respect” and Kasem Said Ahmad, who conducted the burial ceremony, said that he would require everyone to remain silent.
Mr. Ahmad said that the funeral-goers did not attend the burial out of support for the killer, but rather out of sympathy for his family.
“It is support for the family, not for him. I do not think that anyone is coming to pay homage to him,” he said, the newspaper reported.
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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