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Posted on 10/11/2003 10:09:21 AM PDT by B-Cause
COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s right-wing government on Friday published a plan to curb the activities of radical religious leaders, which politicians said was aimed at Islamic clerics. The proposal is part of a package of strict new immigration laws the government announced on Thursday. It has the support of the government’s far-right ally, the Danish People’s Party (DPP), and the opposition Social Democrats and is therefore expected to sail through parliament in October. The rules oblige religious leaders to be financially self-sufficient, speak Danish and respect “Western values” or risk being declared persona non grata. They are apparently designed to deter radical Islamic clerics from establishing bases in Denmark and clip the wings of those already living in the tiny country. Although the new rules do not specifically target Islamic leaders, which would leave the government open to accusations of discrimination, politicians confirmed they were aimed at Muslim clerics, or imams. The DPP, which proposed the new rules, made its intentions clear on Friday. “In theory, these rules concern all clerics from all religions. But in practice, they target the imams,” DPP spokesman Peter Skaarup told AFP. He pointed out that the Muslim faith was Denmark’s second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant Church, which is actively followed by four-fifths of the country’s population of 5.3 million. Muslims account for three percent of the population, or 170,000 people. “We proposed these new rules because we've had lots of problems with imams in Denmark who advocate circumcising girls, urge their followers to support Al Qaeda and preach in their own language. How do you expect to integrate immigrants if their religious leaders don't even speak Danish?”
Integration Minister Bertel Haarder told Friday’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper some imams would be forced to leave Denmark because they would not be able to comply with the new rules and would therefore be refused residence permits. “I think the most fundamentalist of the imams, who are poorly educated and speak Danish badly, will end up having to go back home,” he said. “The imams have a very negative influence on both parents and young people,” he added. The opposition Social Democrats — who lost power in November 2001 after a campaign dominated by the issue of immigration — told AFP they sided with the liberal-conservative government and the fiercely anti-immigrant DPP. “It is necessary for the imams to prove they have had a religious education, respect human rights and sexual equality, show they are worthy of the Danish public’s confidence, be aware of Danish society’s values and speak Danish,” said Social Democrat spokeswoman Anne-Marie Melgaard. “It is also equally important for the imams to give a moderate interpretation of Islam.”.” “We don't want them to undermine our efforts to integrate immigrants,” she said. “Immigrant Muslim girls change their behaviour and start wearing headscarves when a new imam from their (home) villages comes and gives Friday prayers,” she alleged. Before the 2001 election, the Social Democrats had vowed to shun the DPP because of its anti-immigrant vitriol. But Ms Melgaard said the party was now supporting the religious crackdown because the DPP’s views had the support of 12 percent of the Danish electorate. “We made a deal with the DPP because it’s a party that represents a good portion of the electorate and they have to be taken into account,” she said.
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These rules are honored more in the breach than the observance.
At least the Danes are not ashamed of their language, the way we are here. And isn't Denmark one of the countries that's been giving the EU the thumbs down for a while?
Go Denmark!
I like it.
The only problem is the way it would be twisted here.
Take notice Dubya. .....Or does this not jibe with your intrepretation of "compassionate" conservatism?
Actively followed? Not hardly. I bet not one Dane in twenty sets foot in a church more than once or twice a year. Scandinavia is probably the most irreligious part of the world, where churches have become nothing more than convenient halls for weddings and funerals. We are rapidly following them.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could get the Mohammedan hordes to behave the same way?
-ccm
On Ask The Imam muslims are told (in several instances) to go ahead and take the oath (and lie) since they will not be held by Islam to that oath. Some of the Imam say that muslims (even in America) should not take arms against other muslims (and that muslims cannot judge the actions of other muslims).
Even Petah Jennings lied when he took the loyalty oath because he was supposed to be renouncing his Canadian citizenship which he has boasted he will still maintain.
Throw the anti-loyalist immigrants out. Those who are born here are safe from eviction (since they are not required to make such an oath). Those who preach sedition and anarchy are against the government and can be dealt with according to law.
That should stop 90% of the problem. Whenever I read of an imam in the UK, for example, I invaraibly also read that he is on the dole. I think the imam gig is a career path for those who don't like working.
. . . . and giving haircuts without a barber's license.
I hate to use the oft overused "slippery slope" argument but if I were a Dane this last part would be very, very disturbing and frightening. It would NEVER pass muster here and thank God for that.
We may correctly find Islam to be a religion of destruction and we should pass laws against their activities but supression of ideas, even bad and evil ones, is never good.
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