Muslim leader who compared gay people to paedophiles after Orlando nightclub attack could be jailed
An imam has been charged by Danish prosecutors after comparing paedophiles to gay people.
Prosecutor Jan Reckendorff said the unidentified, 49-year-old Muslim leader violated Denmark’s penal code in interviews in June 2016 following the attack at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people were shot dead.
Many Muslims consider homosexuality to be sinful.
Mr Reckendorff said on Friday that the remarks “were so rough” that a court of law must now decide whether Danish law has been violated.
No trial date has yet been set.
The imam faces a fine or up to two years in jail if found guilty of making comments deemed threatening, insulting or degrading to a group of persons because of their race, colour, national or ethnic origin, belief or sexual orientation.
49 people were killed at the Florida gay nightclub when Omar Mateen turned a dance party into a massacre.
Mateen, 29, opened fire during the club’s popular Latin night, shooting patrons on the dance floor and sprayed bullets at others cowering in bathroom stalls.
Holding hostages during his standoff with police, Mateen claimed allegiance to a leader of the Islamic State militant group before he was killed in an exchange of gunfire with authorities.
His widow, Noor Salman, is charged in federal court with aiding and abetting Mateen’s attack and lying to authorities. She was not present for the shooting and has pleaded not guilty.
