Islam in Denmark

Approximately 2% - 5% of the population of Denmark is Muslim. Islam is the second largest religion, in terms of population, in Denmark. Denmark has a significant Christian majority, with Protestants making up more than 92% of Danes with the Evangelical Lutheran Church being the state church. In 2005, 83,5% of the population were members of Folkekirken, the Christian state church.[1]

Freedom of religion is part of the law in Denmark, and as of 2005, nineteen different Muslim religious communities had status as religious societies, which gives them certain tax benefits. However, unlike most Western countries, Denmark lacks separation of church and state, resulting in economic and cultural privileges for Folkekirken not shared by Muslim or other minority communities.

Breakdown

The majority of the Muslims living in Denmark are first-generation Danes from Muslim-majority countries. During the 1970s, many Muslims emigrated from Turkey, Pakistan, Morocco, or Yugoslavia, while during the following two decades, a significant portion emigrated from Palestine, Iran, Iraq, and Somalia.

Parts of the Qur'an (and other religious texts like the Bible) are required reading in a religion class in grammar school at the obligatory C level.

In 1967 the Nusrat Djahan Mosque the first Mosque in Scandinavia, was built in Hvidovre, a suburb of Copenhagen. It is used by Ahmadi believers, but is not regarded as Muslim by many shia- and sunni Muslims, who see the movement as heretical.

Other mosques exist but are not built for the explicit purpose. It is not forbidden to build mosques or any other religious buildings in Denmark but there are very strict zoning laws. One piece of land has been reserved for a grand mosque near Copenhagen, but financing is not settled.

It could easily be financed e.g. with Saudi money, but then it would become an Arab mosque, and most Muslims in Denmark are not Arabs but Turks, Kurds, and Bosnians.

There are seven Muslim cemeteries in Denmark. They are all placed in connection with existing Danish graveyards. This seems to be a problem, as many Muslims don’t want to be buried so close to atheists and Christians, and therefore prefer to be flown to their home countries to be buried there. A separate Muslim cemetery is due to open in Brøndby near Copenhagen in 2006.

Following the controversy surrounding the publication of the Muhammad Cartoons in a Danish newspaper, which left over one hundred people dead, the Muslim organisation "The network" set up a system whereby Non-Muslims could "book a Muslim" and have dinner with a Muslim so as to dispel alleged misconceptions about Muslim life and cultures.

Conflict

As a country with a highly homogenous indigenous population and without a history of immigration until the last decades of the 20th century, Denmark, like several countries in Western Europe, is dealing for the first time with the presence of a substantial and visible minority. As first and second generation immigrants, many drawn from the ranks of refugees, muslims in Denmark have not yet achieved the economic and political power proportional to their population; for example, they remain over-represented among prison populations and the unemployed, and under-represented in higher education, and among permanent residents holding citizenship and the right to vote. Some ethnic Danes feel threatened by aspects of muslim culture, setting the stage for conflict. Partly as a reaction to this perceived threat, recent years have seen the rise of a political party with nationalistic and anti-immigration policies, often with an anti-Muslim bent, see Danish People's Party. This party currently supports the ruling centre-right Liberal-Conservative coalition which has implemented stricter policies in order to reduce the number of immigrants to Denmark. Most importantly by enforcing stricter criteria for granting permanent recidency to mixed couples if one of the spouses has not lived in Denmark before (known as the 28 year rule, since it only applies to persons younger than 28). Other policies have been aimed at providing access to immigrants in the labour market, and promote competancy in the Danish language.

Much media attention has been focussed on arranged marriage, practised by some Danish Muslims, and laws have been implemented trying to prevent this practice. The rights of Muslim women in Denmark to wear or not to wear various traditional head covering, e.g. in the workplace, has also been the subject of debate. The practice of female circumcision is illegal in Denmark and has been associated with East African immigrants, e.g. people of Somali and Sudanese origins. This topic sparked heated debate in 2002. In public schools, instruction takes place in Danish only, and the government opposes the use of other languages of instruction in Danish primary schools. A number of privately-run schools exist with a greater use of Arabic.

A Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten printed 12 caricatures of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in September of 2005. Those cartoons sparked an international controversy, ultimately resulting in the scorching of two Danish diplomatic missions, a boycott of Danish goods in several countries, and a large number of protests in the Muslim world. The violent protests abroad have caused rising support of the anti-immigration Danish People's Party and, by some accounts, a more critical approach towards Islam and Islamophobia in Denmark. Public protests by Danish Muslims were few and generally peaceful.

Organizations

• Foreningen af Demokratiske Muslimer (The organization of democratic Muslims) [2] is a newly established organization.
• Forum For Kritiske Muslimer (Forum for critical Muslims) [3] with a membership below 50
• Islamisk Trossamfund, represented by Ahmad Akkari.
• The Network, Tanwir Ahmad, represented by Sherin Khankan.

See also

• Islam by country
• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy