1 Muslim Populations

From the late 1960s, the numbers of Muslims in Denmark has become more significant, primarily as a result of immigration. The migration of Muslims to Denmark can be divided into two periods: The first, covering the years from the end of the 1960s to the early 1970s, was the period when people came to Denmark as labour migrants from the former Yugoslavia, North-Africa, Pakistan and Turkey. The second period, running from the mid-1970s to date, saw the arrival of refugees and families of former labour migrants.

The number of Muslims has increased significantly since 1980—from 29,400 (0.6% of the population) in 1980, to an estimated 250,800 (4.5%) in January 2014.¹ The Danish authorities do not register individuals’ religious beliefs, apart from the members of the Church of Denmark, so it is generally difficult to gather reliable information on individual religious affiliation outside the Church of Denmark. An estimate of the number of Muslims in Denmark must therefore be based on a number of assumptions about correlations between nationality, ethnicity and religion. Research conducted regularly since 1999, for example, has suggested that only 84% of Iraqi immigrants and their descendants regarded themselves as Muslims in 2008.²

The number of immigrants coming to Denmark has been slightly increasing since 2011, where the new centre-left government gained power and abolished some of the former centre-right government’s tough policies on immigrants and refugees. This means that the number of Muslims has been growing with around 0.29 percentage points (around 20,000 people) of the total population since January 2011, whereas the estimated increase of the Muslim population in the former four years (2007–2010) was 0.18 percentage points (around 13,600 people) of the total population. The minor increase in Muslim immigrants can be the result of a more liberal immigrant policy, more refugees from Syria and/or a coincidence.³ Whatever the reason for the slight increase, the statistics on immigrants is being used by the parliamentary opposition to criticise the government’s migration policy as being too liberal.⁴

The largest ethnic group is Turks (22.2% of all Muslims), followed by Iraqis (10.2%), Lebanese (9.5%), Pakistanis (8.7%), Somalis (7.3%), the fastest growing ethnic group in the last decade, and Afghanis (6.2%). The calculation also includes an estimate of converts and third generation Muslim immigrants (approx. 10,400 as of the end of 2013). Estimates of the number of Danish converts to Islam range between 2,000 and 5,000, and can be reasonably put at 2,500–3,000.⁵ This estimate does not take account of internal religious differences within Islam and includes groups such as Alevis, Shiʿis and Sunnis. A survey from 2008 (no more recent survey exists) distributes eight different ethnic groups from predominantly Muslim countries as follows: 45% Sunnis, 11% Shiʿis, and 23% ‘Islam, other’, which may include Ahmadis, Alevis and heterodox Sufis (as most Sufis in Denmark consider themselves to be Sunnis).⁶ The remaining percentage is accounted for by people who said they belonged to other religions or no religion. It is estimated that 20%-25% of Muslims in Denmark (roughly 50,000–62,500 people) are associated with a mosque association, although formal membership numbers are much lower.⁷ There are no statistics on the geographical distribution of Muslims in Denmark but if they follow the pattern of immigrants and their descendants in general they live near the large cities in Denmark (Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense).⁸

2 Islam and the State

The Constitution provides for freedom of religion, and other laws and policies contribute to the generally free practice of religion, although the Evangelical Lutheran Church, as the national church, enjoys some privileges not available to other religious groups. The national church, Church of Denmark, is the only religious organisation that receives state subsidies or funds directly through the tax system, but the government does grant official status to other religious groups. Prior to 1970, a total of 11 religious communities were ‘recognised’ by royal decree. Since then, the state has ‘acknowledged’ 263 additional religious communities under the Marriage Act, by which the Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration (since 3 October 2011) can authorise clergy within non-recognised religious communities to conduct marriages, has a number of tax benefits and other rights. As of the end of 2013, 23 Muslim communities were ‘acknowledged religious communities.’⁹

3 Main Muslim Organisations

There are many different kinds of Muslim organisations in Denmark. The ethnic-religious associations dominate in terms of number and membership. They were the first to be established in Denmark and are often related to a mosque. There are also a number of religious organisations, such as Sufi orders, that transcend ethnicity, and finally there are a growing number of politically oriented associations. In the last decade, some Muslim organisations have started to organise themselves in Muslim umbrella organisations so that they can speak with one voice on issues affecting Muslims in general, such as the establishment of burial grounds or mosques. Ethnic religious associations include the following: Danish Turkish Islamic Foundation (Dansk Tyrkisk Islamisk Stiftelse, Poul Bergsøesvej 14, 2600 Glostrup) is part of Diyanet Isleri Türk Islam Birligi (www.danimarkaturkdiyanetvakfi.org). It is indisputably the largest Muslim organisation in Denmark and almost half of all Danes of Turkish descent are members of the Diyanet funeral foundation (which has around 28,500 members).¹⁰ It was established in Denmark in 1985 and the Foundation’s local mosque associations were acknowledged as religious communities in 2006. According to information from the Danish Turkish Islamic Foundation webpage, around 6,000 are registered as members in the mosque associations, but often membership is valid for an entire family. In 1986, various local Turkish mosque associations formed the Union of Muslim Immigrant Associations (Danimarka Müslüman Göçmenler Teşkilatı, dmgt). The dmgt runs six Turkish mosques in Denmark and between 500 and 750 Muslims in total attend Friday prayers in these mosques. The dmgt website says that 42 different associations are members of the union. The movement is regarded by some observers as being linked to the Turkish Milli Görüs movement.¹¹ Idara Minhaj-ul-Qur’an International Denmark (Bispevej 25, 2200 Copenhagen nv, tel: +45 88429595, www.minhaj.dk) was founded in 1987 as a Sunni educational and cultural centre in Copenhagen. It has around 1,500 members, including children. It was acknowledged as a religious community by the state in 1999. The present spokesperson in Denmark is Qaisar Najeeb. Minhaj Denmark and all its units operate according to the Minhaj-ul-Qur’an movement’s constitution in Pakistan. Several of their mosques are recognised as religious communities. The Islamic Association of Bosniaks in Denmark (Den Islamiske Forening af Bosniakker i Danmark) has five congregations in Denmark (c/o Chairman Abdullah Fejzic, Vesterbrogade 11 C/2, 7100 Vejle). It was recognised as a religious community in 2001 and has around 1,900 members. The Albanian Religious Community (Det Albanske Trossamfund) has around 1,000 members and on an average Friday 210 people visit the mosque for prayer (Vodroffsvej 8, 1900 Frederiksberg, present chairman is Efet Redzepi). It has the status of a acknowledged religious community.

Non-ethnic religious associations include the following: Islamic Cultural Centre in Copenhagen (Islamisk Kulturcenter, Horsebakken 2, 2400 Copenhagen, tel.: +45 38606856) is one of the largest mosques. It was established in the mid-1970s under the leadership of Imam Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, who was later to become the first president of Afghanistan after the Soviet troops left it in the late 1980s.¹² It is an open mosque without membership. Around 80 people visit the mosque on a daily basis for prayer and 600–1,000 people visit the mosque for the Friday prayer. The Alevi association in Denmark (www.alevi.dk) was founded in 1994 in Aarhus. Its present Chairman is Başkan Feramuz Acar and there are today eight local associations and a national youth association. The Alevi associations in Denmark have approximately 1,000 members but some estimates put the number of Alevis in Denmark at about 6,500.¹³ Six local Alevi associations were acknowledged as religious communities by the state in 2007.¹⁴ Besides the six recognised associations, there exist two other local Alevi associations and one youth organisation for the entire country.¹⁵

The Islamic Religious Community in Denmark (Det Islamiske Trossamfund i Danmark) or Wakf (Dortheavej 45–47, 2400 Copenhagen nv, tel.: +45 38112225, fax +45 38112226, www.wakf.com) was founded in 1996, when Palestinians in Copenhagen, headed by the charismatic imam Ahmed Abu Laban, who died in 2007, collected money to build their own mosque in Copenhagen. Its present chairman is Hassan Neffaa and the association is primarily made up of Sunni immigrant groups from various countries. It has approximately 300–400 paying members and around 1,000 people listen to khutba every Friday of whom up to 300 are women.¹⁶ Wakf is rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood and has strong ties to Egypt. Its perception of Islam is closely identified with Arab culture. A Muslim youth movement, Young Muslims in Denmark (Muslimske Unge i Danmark, munida, www.munida.dk), related to Wakf, was established in 1995. This is a trans-ethnic movement that aims to provide information on Islam and social activities for its members. Its present chairman is Waseem Rana.

The first Shiʿis in Denmark were Twelvers and Ismaʻilis of Pakistani descent. The Ismaʿilis established an association in 1969 (and a mosque in 1970 in Copenhagen) and in 1981 the Islamic Centre Jaffariya (Rådmandsgade 56, Copenhagen N.) became the first mosque of the Twelver branch. It has around 110 members today (plus children). The massive migration of refugees with Shiʿi background fleeing from civil war in Lebanon and the Iran-Iraq war led to new organisations and mosques being established from the mid-1980s onwards. There are around ten Twelver mosques in Denmark, with related associations. The Shiʿi association Ahlul Bait in Denmark is the largest Shiʿi organisation with around 2,000 members (Foreningen Ahlul Bait i Danmark, Vibevej 25–29, 2400 Copenhagen nv). It was acknowledged as a religious community in 2005. The organisation has currently a mosque under construction named Imam Ali mosque with two 32 meter-high minarets and a blue dome at their current address. The Shiʿi Islamic Religious Community in Denmark (Shiamuslimsk Trossamfund i Danmark) was acknowledged in 2003 and has around 650–700 members (Sturlasgade 14 C. 1, 2300 Copenhagen S). There are also a number of Shiʿi oriented organisations.

Many Sufi movements are currently experiencing growth, especially among Pakistanis and Turks. They largely keep to themselves. Examples are Tariqa Burhaniyya (Damhus Boulevard 65, 2610 Rødovre), Al-Murabitun and Sufi-oriented Turkish groups such as Nurcu groups and Dialog Forum (Vesterbrogade 52, 1, 1620 Copenhagen V, tel.: +45 32175060), established in 2002, which is related to the Fethullah Gülen movement and has around 100 members.

Politically oriented associations include the following: Hizb ut-Tahrir in Denmark (www.hizb-ut-tahrir.dk) is part of the international ‘caliphate’ movement. The organisation receives a lot of media coverage but it is difficult for outsiders to make contact with. Its spokesperson in Scandinavia is Chadi Freigeh. Estimates of its membership numbers are between 50 and 500.¹⁷ Some of their public meetings in Copenhagen have attracted crowds of about 1,000.¹⁸

In November 2009, the first Muslim party in Denmark, Muslims of Denmark (Danmarks Muslimer), was founded by a Danish convert Ras Anbessa. Their political agenda is to fight for socially marginalised people. They have been registered at the Ministry of the Interior as a political party but besides that their activities have not been visible to the public yet.

There is also a number of Muslim networking organisations. The United Council of Muslims (Muslimernes Fællesråd, www.mfr.nu) was formed in 2006, born out of a desire for a shared representation of Muslim organisations in Denmark. Its chairman is Asmat Mojaddedi and its spokesperson is Mustafa Gezen. It currently acts as an umbrella organisation for thirteen assorted Muslim associations, with a combined membership of up to 35,000. In Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark, a local umbrella organisation was established in 2006, the Union of Islamic Associations (Forbundet af Islamiske Foreninge, C/O Forening for Moské og Islamisk Center—fmic, Postbok 1028–8200 Aarhus N—tel.: +45 40762758, http://mosquedenmark.org). There are currently eleven member organisations of the association. The purpose of establishing the organisation was to fund a mosque in Aarhus, an activity they still pursue. The present chairman is Sami Saidana. The Danish Muslim Union (Dansk Muslimsk Union, Valdemarsgade 17, 1, 1665 Copenhagen V—tel.: +45 50565908; www.dmu.nu) is also an umbrella body, consisting of five national Muslim organisations and a number of local Muslim organisations. It was formed in March 2008 and the Union’s ambition is to create unity among Muslims across ethnic, cultural, political and religious divides. Its spokesperson is Abdulhamid Sørensen. Muslims in Dialogue (Muslimer i Dialog, Nørrebrogade 32, 1, 2200 Copenhagen N, http://muslimeridialog.dk) was formed by a Minhaj ul-Qur’an breakaway group in 2003 and organises dialogue activities between Muslims and non-Muslims. Its spokesperson is Nihad Hodzic. It is a Sunni association with 440 members, according to its own figures and with four local groups in Aarhus, Copenhagen, Esbjerg and Roskilde. The Danish Islamic Council (Dansk Islamisk Råd, Hermodsgade 28, 1, 2200 Copenhagen N, www.disr.com) is an independent charitable institution, which is a co-founder of the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Europe. Its purpose is to bring together Muslim associations to jointly lobby on Islamic issues. Its initiator was the politician Hamid El-Mousti and the first meeting, in 2000, was attended by approximately 30 Muslim associations. Its chairman is Abdelhamid Hamdi. In 2001, a practising Muslim woman and a male non-Muslim social researcher took the initiative in forming the association Forum for Critical Muslims (Forum for kritiske Muslimer, www.kritiskemuslimer.dk). Its website describes its purpose as to “work for a democratic and pluralistic approach to Islam, with particular focus on the visibility of women as agents and public figures in Islam” and, according to its spokesperson, Sherin Khankan, it currently has around 100 members.

4 Mosques and Prayer Houses

According to a study in 2006, there are about 115 mosques in Denmark, eleven of them being Shiʿi.¹⁹ The Shiʿi Ismaʿilis claim to have acquired rooms for prayer in 1969/70, and the first Sunni mosques were established at the beginning of the 1970s, the first being the Islamic Cultural Centre (Islamisk Kulturcenter) in Brønshøj (Copenhagen) in 1972.²⁰ Today, there are mosques all over Denmark, but they are most numerous in the major cities of Aarhus, Copenhagen and Odense. Most mosques are located in former office and factory buildings and are often not big enough to accommodate all the people who want to participate in Friday prayers or other religious activities at the mosque. Three mosques are purpose-built, namely Nusrat Djahan Mosque in Hvidovre—suburban Copenhagen—built by Ahmadis in 1967 and two Turkish mosques on Funen, one built in Odense in 1991 and the other in Svendborg in 2000.²¹ Several groups are planning to build mosques in their localities. One of the most controversial plans for a mosque is that of a grand mosque in central Copenhagen. In 1981, the state leased a building lot to the Honourable Islamic Committee (Ærværdige islamiske komité). It was a 50-year lease with an annual rent set at 1,000 Danish kroner (roughly €134)—a minute amount for a lot with a central location in the municipality of Copenhagen. The Danish state has a long tradition, going back to the period of absolute monarchy, of handing over building lots to religious communities unconnected to the national church, but politicians from various parties and public bodies have regularly and increasingly forcefully attacked the state’s agreement with the Committee for the Islamic Cultural Centre in Copenhagen, so the lot remains undeveloped.²² In June 2009, the Municipality of Copenhagen accepted the United Council of Muslims as the organisation in charge of the finances and operation of a grand mosque in Copenhagen. In August 2009, the Shiʿi association Ahl ul-Bait in Denmark was also granted permission by the Municipality of Copenhagen to build a mosque in the existing premises of the Imam Ali Islamic Centre on Vibevej in Copenhagen’s Nordvest district. The mosque is still under construction. The Danish Islamic Council is currently building a mosque in Copenhagen with a budget of approximately 15 million eur financed by a Qatari fund.²³ The mosque is due to open in the spring of 2014 and will have Denmark’s first minaret and a dome. The 20-metre minaret will not, however, be used for the traditional call to prayer. The calls to prayer will only be from within the mosque and not from the minaret. That would cause some problems in the local community according to statements from the Council.²⁴ The mosque and adjoining culture centre will accommodate 900 people. The mosque was designed by the Aarhus architect Metin Aydin who says the construction is a synthesis between Nordic minimalism and the traditional white Middle Eastern style.²⁵ Previous plans to build mosques have drawn a lot of reaction in Denmark, but the building of this mosque has caused relatively little public attention.²⁶ According to the architect, it is because of the model chosen in this case that makes the building relatively discreet.²⁷ Roskilde Culture Association (Roskilde Kulturforening, Diyanet) is constructing a mosque planned to open in the summer of 2014. Islamic Centre Haderslev in the Southern part of Jutland is also planning to build a mosque. The prospect has been met with resistance from several local parties including Venstre (The Liberal Party), the Danish People’s Party and the Social Democrats. Since the financing of the mosque will partly stem from Kuwait, the local politicians are worried that radical Islamists will impact the religious direction of the mosque.²⁸

In 2006, the first hospital prayer room in Denmark was established at Rigshospitalet—Copenhagen University Hospital, similar to the hospital church where Muslims too could pray. The construction of the prayer room was an extensive media story covered by major Danish newspapers and tv news channels.²⁹ Today eight hospitals, five universities, some colleges and a few high schools have established neutral prayer rooms. The local institution’s management may decide themselves whether they want to establish a prayer room.

Finally, the United Council of Muslims is now planning a Muslim nursing home. Danish institutions do not always meet the needs of different religious groups according to the Council spokesperson. The nursing home will serve food prepared according to Muslim practices and holidays will be celebrated. The organisation hopes the first home will open its doors in Copenhagen in two to four years followed by others in major towns across Denmark. Both Social Democrats and the Danish Peoples Party were against the plans for Muslim nursing homes.³⁰

5 Children’s Education

Religious education in primary and secondary schools in Denmark is called ‘Christian studies’, and the subject has traditionally been taught on an Evangelical Lutheran basis, with the addition of elements about other religions, including Islam. Parents have the right to withdraw their children from Christian studies on religious grounds, and some Muslim parents do so. There are no national statistics or surveys that can inform about the number of Muslims who do not participate in Christian studies, but local surveys show that it is often only a few Muslim pupils who are withdrawn from classes.³¹

Since the mid-nineteenth century, it has been possible for a group of parents to establish ‘independent schools’, which are entitled to state support to cover most of their budget. The first Muslim independent school was established in 1978 and since then over 30 such schools have opened.³² Many of them offer Arabic and Islamic studies. There were at least 22 independent Muslim primary schools with a total of 3,967 pupils in January 2012, according to the Ministry of Children and Education—an increase in pupils by 25 per cent over three years.³³ This means that the majority of Muslim pupils go to public school. The Ministry of Education carried out a study in 2006, which showed that 41% of pupils in Muslim independent schools progressed into upper secondary school, whereas the national average was only 26%.³⁴ Immigrants with Turkish backgrounds opened the first private Turkish-Danish high school in 2011.³⁵ They applied for Turkish language teaching in the high school but were first turned down by the Ministry of Children and Education in January 2012. After a public discussion on the need for Turkish language teaching in Danish high schools the Minister of Education Christine Antorini accepted Turkish language teaching in the school.³⁶

In 2013 the dikev Foundation—an Islamic cultural and educational centre—bought the first Muslim lower-secondary-level boarding school for 14–17 year-olds, Mina Hindholm, in Fuglebjerg on Zealand. It will open in the summer of 2014.³⁷

Most mosques and Muslim associations provide some form of Islamic instruction outside school hours. In the survey on ethnic groups’ values in Denmark from 2006, 82% of Muslim parents thought that religion was an important or very important issue in the upbringing of children. By comparison, 67% of all parents in the survey answered the same.³⁸

6 Higher and Professional Education

Islamic studies are offered as part of Arabic and Middle Eastern studies programmes and at the departments of religious studies at the universities of Aarhus, Copenhagen and Southern Denmark (Odense). Discussions about possible imam training have surfaced on a couple of occasions in recent years, but have not led to any formal proposals.³⁹

7 Burial and Cemeteries

Sections within sixteen existing municipal or church cemeteries (all Christian consecrated) have been reserved for Muslim use since 1975. In 2013, a section reserved for Muslims was opened in Sønderborg and in Skive, both cities in Jutland and two new ones will be established in 2014 in Randers, Jutland and Lyngby, Zealand.⁴⁰ Danish rules on funerals are based on a law of 1975, according to which the authorities can assign burial places for other religious groups. Religious groups also have the right to acquire land for burials. In 1996, the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs gave cemetery boards permission for an exemption for the specific funeral rituals of faiths other than the national church. In 2006, a separate Muslim cemetery owned by the Danish Islamic Burial Fund was established outside Copenhagen after some years of lobbying. Today the Muslim cemetery in Brøndby—a suburb of Copenhagen—has more than 400 graves and 6,000 members of the burial support association.⁴¹

According to the Danish Islamic Burial Fund, about 350 Muslims die each year in Denmark, and the bodies of about half of them are flown back to their country of origin to be buried.⁴² The annual rate of Muslim deaths will rise to approx. 2,000 in a few years according to the Burial Fund.⁴³

8 ‘Chaplaincy’ in State Institutions

During the 1990s, there were some short-term projects to establish some form of religious counselling for Muslims in hospitals and prisons, but only in recent years has this been more firmly formalised. There are no imams in the armed forces.

According to Danish and European law, prison inmates have the right to participate in worship with a priest or the equivalent of their own faith. The first proper ‘prison imam’ financed by the Danish state was appointed on 1 May 2002.⁴⁴ A survey from 2006 showed that approximately 20% of the inmates in Danish prisons have a Muslim background.⁴⁵

In 2005, the first Muslim prayer room was established at Rigshospitalet (Copenhagen University Hospital) and the first imam began to provide pastoral care for patients. Today, there are several imams affiliated to hospitals in major Danish cities.

9 Religious Festivals

The annual ʿId al-Fitr and ʿId al-Adha are celebrated in mosques and sports centres all over the country. Several schools and kindergartens in the major cities with a large number of pupils with Muslim background either plan holidays during Ramadan or else take it into account in their activities. Since the middle of the last decade, Shiʿis have organised parades through the streets of Copenhagen in connection with ʿAshura, around 1,000 people taking part. These have avoided political statements and mostly call for action against disease and war. Finally, the Danish Muslim Union, Minhaj-ul-Qur’an and other Muslim organisations organise since 2011 an annual Peace March in celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday in Copenhagen with 500 to 700 people taking part. The numbers of pilgrims on the annual hajj is estimated at around 1,300 to 1,500.⁴⁶

10 Halal Products and Islamic Services

Halal slaughter is permitted and halal food is widely available. Denmark is a major exporter of halal meat to the Arab world.⁴⁷ The permit to perform halal slaughter within certain regulations has also opened a labor market for halal butchers with halal certifications.⁴⁸ However, there have been political attempts from right- and left-wing parties to prohibit ritual slaughter since the mid-1990s.⁴⁹ Public institutions decide on a local administrative level whether halal food is to be available and in many schools, hospitals, prisons, nursing homes and other public institutions management has decided to offer halal food in their menus, but often it involves a public debate.⁵⁰ In Denmark, five hajj travel agents have been authorised by the Saudi Ministry of Hajj with licence to arrange travels to umrah and hajj.⁵¹

The Islamic banking and finance institute Amanah has existed for a few years (Kongens Nytorv 15, Copenhagen, www.amanah.dk). They give Muslims in Denmark (and Scandinavia) the opportunity of banking activity that is consistent with the principles of Shariʿa.

11 Dress Codes

Hijab and the like are permitted in public schools and services. The Supreme Court, in a verdict in January 2005, upheld the right of retailers and others to insist on uniform codes without the female head scarf for employees dealing with the public. The Danish People’s Party tried to ban the wearing of the head scarf in Parliament in the spring of 2007, but failed. In the spring of 2008, there was a major political debate about whether female Muslim judges and other public authority figures should be allowed to wear the head scarf with judicial attire. In December 2008, the government proposed legislation that would ban judges from wearing religious or political symbols in court. The law has come to be called the ‘head scarf act’, because its real purpose is to ban Muslim women from wearing head scarves when acting as judges or jurors. The former centre-right government and Danish People’s Party passed the act in May 2009, although the proposal has been met with strong opposition from judges’ and lawyers’ associations.

Since 2006, photos in drivers’ licenses and passports are required to show the face of the individual.⁵² Some educational institutions have decided to ban pupils wearing niqab. The educational institutions argue that the banning of niqab is justified, since face-to-face communication and eye contact is required.⁵³ Subsequently, the Danish People’s Party called for a general ban on niqab in educational institutions.⁵⁴

12 Publication and Media

There are no Muslim newspapers in Danish, but there are a number of Internet sites where Muslims (and non-Muslims) exchange information of various kinds. The largest Internet forum is Denmark’s United Cyber Muslims (Danmarks Forenede Cybermuslimer, on Facebook), formed in 1998, which as of the end of 2013 had 540 members. Due to the increase in social media websites, internet communication via email groups has declined rapidly and groups such as the abovementioned have lost their significance. Denmark’s United Cyber Muslims is related to one of the oldest websites established to inform Muslims and non-Muslims about Islam in Denmark (www.islam.dk). In 2004, a web-based Muslim newspaper, Sahafa, was launched, but it did not last. There are also Muslim publishing firms, of which the oldest is Alif Bogforlag, which began to publish books of specific Muslim interest in 1983.

13 Family Law

Danish courts can only refer indirectly to Islamic family law through the rules of International Private Law. There is only limited scope for the courts to take variations in cultural customs into account in individual cases. According to observers, Shariʿa is practised in some Muslim communities in Denmark, for example in matters of family law, divorce and child custody. There are no official Shariʿa courts in Denmark.⁵⁵ However, three imams from three of the larger mosques in Copenhagen formed a council that can mediate in family disputes and give religious divorces.

A report from 2011 analysed the spread of parallel court systems in Denmark—especially among Muslim immigrants and concluded that the Muslim traditional marriage practice nikah is widespread and of great significance among Muslim minority groups.⁵⁶

The government passed a law in December 2013 aiming at curbing forced Muslim marriages.⁵⁷ The government will increase punishments for forced marriages. Although it was reported in 2012 that there had not been a single conviction for forced marriage since the former centre-right government increased the punishment in 2008, the incidents do seem to be increasing. lokk, the association of women’s crisis centres in Denmark, said that the number of women seeking help—either because of honour-related conflicts, a pending forced marriage or the threat of one—rose from 101 in 2005 to 1,038 in 2011.⁵⁸

14 Interreligious Relations

In 1996, the Islamic-Christian Study Centre was established by a group of Christians and Muslims.⁵⁹ It has an equal number of Christian and Muslim board members and is currently supported by a number of Christian and Muslim organisations and societies. Its current chairman is Rev. Lissi Rasmussen. The purpose of the Islamic-Christian Study Centre is to build, through cooperation, positive relations between citizens with Christian and Muslim backgrounds and to work for equal citizenship. The organisation’s members cooperate on various projects such as courses on counselling for clergymen and imams, conferences, lectures, study groups, excursions and publications. The Centre works together with a number of research and educational institutions, Christian and Muslim organisations and other ngos on activities in Denmark and internationally.

In 1998, the bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church appointed a committee whose task was to write a report on the relationship between the Church and Islam. The report, Conversation Promotes Understanding, was submitted in 2000 and there was a particular emphasis on the need for the state church to increase dialogue with Islam on all levels, and that this would require more resources, including diocese priests to strengthen dialogue. The then Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs Margrethe Vestager (the Danish Social-Liberal Party) supported the report and the demand for more resources. One of the lasting results of the committee’s work is the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s sub-organisation Church and Religious Encounter which promotes interreligious dialogue between Lutherans and other religions especially Muslims.⁶⁰ Some of the main activities are annual meetings between church leaders, including bishops from the state church, and imams from Muslim communities in Denmark in the Christian Muslim Conversation Forum; and friendship dinners at Ramadan and Christmas that Christians and Muslims in Denmark invite each other to. In 2012, the theme of the conference was on the need for a Law on Religion in Denmark.

15 Public Opinion and Debate

In the summer of 2013, a debate on shaking hands between a Muslim male teacher and female students took place. Female students in Herning, Jutland worried they would not get a fair chance at their final exams after being told that their teacher was unwilling to shake hands with women.⁶¹ The public debate spread during June to all Danish media and became one of the most heated debates in 2013. The government was giving mixed signals; on the one hand, the Ministry of Education said there were no rules about whether an examiner should shake hands with a student, and that it was up to the school to make sure exams were properly administered.⁶² On the other hand, the Minister for Gender Equality, Manu Sareen, encouraged the female students to complain to the Board of Equal Treatment, and the leader of the opposition sympathised with the female student’s critique of the teacher.⁶³ The Board of Equal Treatment was as of the end of 2013 still handling the case.

The government promised to give an account on male circumcision before a possible ban.⁶⁴ The account was published in June 2013 by Sundhedsstyrelsen (National Health Service of Denmark) and concluded that there is so little risk involved in the ritual circumcision of boys when carried out by competent doctors that there is no need to recommend banning the procedure.⁶⁵ The National Health Service estimates that between 1,000 and 2,000 ritual circumcisions take place every year in Denmark.⁶⁶ Due to this recommendation the government will not make any prohibition.

The subject of religiously-slaughtered animals also filled the newspaper headlines in 2013, as politicians returned to the debate about how far Danish society should go to accommodate Muslim religious norms. The focus of the media attention was the concern that Danes are either eating halal without knowing it or are forced to eat it at public institutions. In a series of articles, the tabloid Ekstra Bladet reported that almost all Danish chicken are halal, that Hvidovre Hospital has served only halal meat for the past decade and that several day-care centres in Greater Copenhagen have opted to stop serving pork and serve only halal meat.⁶⁷

The Danish People’s Party expressed horror at the developments and argued that it is simply another case in which Danes are forced to accept foreign religious norms, pointing to the recent case in which an Islamic school examiner refused to shake hands with his female students. The party called for legislation to force public employees to conform to Danish cultural values and norms, and their immigration spokesperson told the public broadcaster Denmarks Radio: “If people don’t conform [to Danish practices] they should be given an official reprimand . . . Most people will then conform but if they don’t, and insist that their culture should be all-dominating, then the severest consequence should be that they would lose their job.” A spokesperson for the Conservative Party, Tom Behnke, sympathised with Henriksen’s suggestion.

In Denmark, all animals are sedated before they are slaughtered. Chicken are stunned by being drawn through charged water while cattle are stunned with a bolt gun placed to the animal’s head.⁶⁸ As a result, the debate over halal has little to do with animal welfare and everything to do with whether Danes should be forced to eat meat that has been prayed over before the animal was killed. Ritual slaughter is one of the most used battlegrounds in the ‘culture war’ on public symbols in Denmark. Writing in her blog for Berlingske, mp Marie Krarup (Danish People’s Party) argued that Denmark should not accept the special needs of a minority (Muslims) because of practical considerations as it would set a precedent that will only lead to more demands for special treatment. She wrote that they will set demands: “ . . . on how to decorate our workplaces, to ban interest payment, to change our calendar to suit the Muslim calendar, how to dress in Muslim ghettos etc. . . . If we give in to one demand, we will end up giving in to more.”⁶⁹

The leading opposition party Venstre (The Liberal Party) argued that the prayer might make all the difference in the world for consumers and are now calling for halal-slaughtered meat to be labelled. Yet the fears of the right-wing parties were not shared by the government. On the issue of labelling halal meat, the acting agricultural spokesperson for the Social Democrats, Orla Hav, said his party will only take it up if consumers demand it: “Our main priority is to inform the public about issues that can affect their health, and about whether the food is organic,” Hav told Jyllands-Posten. “But there are limits to how much labelling can be introduced before it confuses consumers. And the method of slaughter does not rank high for us.”⁷⁰ The government coalition partner, Radikale Venstre (Social Liberals), was arguing that the debate about halal meat presented no ethical questions regarding animal welfare and was instead founded on “Muslimphobia and xenophobia.”⁷¹

Finally, the poet Yahya Hassan’s—whose parents are Palestinian—first collection of poems first novel has caused huge public interest. He became known for his criticism of the Muslim immigrant community, which he accuses of bad parenting. Because of this, Islam’s role in Denmark was once again a topic in the media. He rose to prominence after an initial column in Politiken newspaper was followed up by an appearance on tv.⁷² The attention he received led his publisher to extend the run of his first poetry collection “Yahya Hassan” and Hassan is now the best-selling debut poetry collection in the history of Denmark with a circulation of more than 100,000 copies. He was honoured as the debut author of the year in a book forum, and a translation of his poems into other languages is also underway.

Hassan was attacked by a young man at a train station in November but sustained no serious injuries.⁷³ After his first appearance in the media, Hassan has been subject to threats and is now under the protection of the domestic intelligence agency pet.

In the integration debate, politicians and commentators have been busy using Yahya Hassan as a symbol to support their own arguments. The right has said “we told you so,” and said it exposes a number of problems beneath the surface that no-one wants to speak about and that his poetry is a symbol of an inadequate integrations policy.⁷⁴ The left, on the other hand, has welcomed Hassan’s efforts to expose the violence of the ghetto in the language of the people who live there.⁷⁵ Hassan, though, has proved to be more than just a media phenomenon with a message—Denmark has contributed to the creation of new global literary identities with the Hassan’s debut in Danish. Moreover he has become a symbol of both right and left in the on-going debate on Islam’s position in the Danish society, and at the same time he has become a symbol of immigrants that having an immigrant identity is no hindrance to being Danish.

16 Major Cultural Events

The celebration of ʿId al-Fitr has become a major event for thousands of Muslims in Denmark. It is celebrated in mosques, sports centres and the like and has grown in size throughout the last couple of decades. Many public schools with Muslim pupils also celebrate ʿId al-Fitr.