This is not from The Onion. This is a Washington Post dispatch from an actual Western country — specifically, from the Danish city of Aarhus. This is how liberalism becomes a suicide pact:

The rush of morning shoppers parted to make way for Talha, a lanky 21-year-old in desert camouflage and a long, religious beard. He strode through the local mall with a fighter’s gait picked up on the battlefields of Syria. Streams of young Muslim men greeted him like a returning king. As-salamu alaykum. Wa alaikum assalaam. In other countries, Talha — one of hundreds of young jihadists from the West who has fought in Syria and Iraq — might be barred from return or thrown in jail. But in Denmark, a country that has spawned more foreign fighters per capita than almost anywhere else, the port city of Aarhus is taking a novel approach by rolling out a welcome mat. In Denmark, not one returned fighter has been locked up. Instead, taking the view that discrimination at home is as criminal as Islamic State recruiting, officials here are providing free psychological counseling while finding returnees jobs and spots in schools and universities. Officials credit a new effort to reach out to a radical mosque with stanching the flow of recruits.

Read the whole thing. Bruce Bawer weeps. If European governments had any sense, they would withdraw citizenship for citizens who go abroad to fight for ISIS. Let them stay in the head-chopping Islamic State to which they pledged allegiance. Repatriating Islamist fanatics as a sign of mercy is insane. This Talha thug is now seen among young Danish Muslims as a hero. Denmark will regret its surrender to the mentality of dhimmitude. This is a country in which an old man who drew a cartoon of Mohammed was attacked by an axe-wielding Muslim fanatic in his own home. Oh, and this:

Immigrant gangs often operate or seek refuge in so-called no-go zones that are effectively off limits to Danish authorities. These “no-go zones” involve suburbs of Copenhagen and other Danish cities that function as autonomous enclaves ruled by Muslim immigrants, areas where Danish police fear to tread. Muslim gangs in Denmark have been highly adept at leveraging the fear that Danish authorities have of Islam and of Muslim immigrants. They replicated the model that Muslim gangs in Britain have successfully used to wrest control over the criminal underworld in that country. In an interview with a British newspaper, an Asian Muslim gang member named Amir put it this way: “The reality is that Asian gangs don’t give much of toss about religion, but with Islam comes fear, and with fear comes power. Religion is important to us only as a way of defining who we can trust and who we can work with. Young Muslim gangs aren’t worried about what Allah makes of their criminal ways — they don’t believe in it to that extent.” Amir added: “Through religion we speak the same language, live in the same areas, go to the same schools and can even use mosques as a safe place away from the police or other gangs. If you f*** with a Muslim gang you’d better be able to run fast or hide well, because they will come back at you in numbers.”

The Danish authorities are scared of Talha and his ilk. And you had better believe Team Talha knows it.