Two-thirds failed new Danish citizenship test – Al Jazeera

2016/07/07 Leave a comment

Appears deliberately designed to encourage a high failure rate rather than encouraging knowledge of Danish history, government and society, let alone integration:

Compared to the test in place under the previous government, the new exam focuses more on Danish history. The earlier test required 22 correct answers out of 30, and a much larger share of test takers passed that exam.

Five of the 40 questions are related to Danish current affairs. For the rest of the questions, some 200 pages of study materials in Danish language are provided for free – ranging from the history of the vikings to Danish architecture and holidays.

Mattias Tesfaye, an MP of the opposition Social Democrats, attended a meeting about the test with the integration minister on Tuesday. In his opinion, the answer options provided are too similar.

For example, the alternatives to answer the question about the lifespan of Danish composer Carl Nielsen are 1865-1931, 1870-1940 and 1892-1965.

“This doesn’t test their ability to understand Danish culture, but only if they are able to remember precise years,” Tesfaye told Al Jazeera.

His party supports a test for citizenship, but is asking that the style of questions be reconsidered.

Another question included in the June test asked which year the first movie about the Olsen Gang, a fictional criminal gang, premiered.

When Danish Radio put the question to one of the lead actors in the film, Morten Grunwald, he replied: “That I can’t even answer myself.”

However, when given the three alternatives – 1968, 1970 and 1971 – he did remember.

The test also asked which Danish restaurant has three Michelin stars.

Other questions test respondents’ knowledge of the Danish laws and political system; for example, the requirements to change the constitution and to participate in elections.

Stojberg of the Liberal party defended the test on Tuesday.

“There are simply too many who haven’t studied enough or followed news in Denmark,” she told Danish Radio.

About 2,400 people took the new test in June. Those who failed will get a new chance to take a test with a new set of questions in December.

Source: Two-thirds failed new Danish citizenship test – News from Al Jazeera

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Denmark may strip radical imams of citizenship

2016/03/26 Leave a comment

Charging them with hate speech would be appropriate:
Denmark might soon be able to strip radicalized imams of citizenship. The proposal is expected to be supported by a majority in parliament.

The initiative comes from the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, and has received backing from the ruling Liberal Party, the opposition Social Democrats and the Conservative party.

“The Constitution says that one must practice his faith as long as it is not contrary to morals or disturbing to the public order,” Martin Henriksen, Danish People’s Party’s spokesman told the Berlingske newspaper on Monday.

“When imams endorse or recommend stoning or when an imam tells a woman subjected to violence by her husband, that that’s okay, then it [may be considered] subversive speech that disturbs the public order. Some of these imams are Danish citizens, and we think we should deprive them of their citizenship,” he said.

The proposal was made in particular to withdraw citizenship from Abu Bilal, a leading imam at the Grimhoj mosque in the city of Aarhus. A recent documentary, ‘Mosques behind the Veil,’ revealed that the imam advocated the stoning of adulterous women and the killing of apostates.

Danish Prime Minister Lokke Rasmussen urged MPs to come up with measures to counter the growth of radical Islam after the documentary exposed the activities of such radical mosques.

The Danish People’s Party is set to make two new proposals in the upcoming set of negotiations with the Danish PM. The party is to present a draft resolution on stripping Abu Bilal of his Danish citizenship and then to review the Constitution’s clause on religious freedom.

Rasmussen said that he will be willing to “push the limits” of the interpretation of the Danish Constitution when reviewing the proposals, the Local reported.

“We are open to all solutions that can stop the radicalized imams,” said Trine Bramsen, the Social Democrats’ spokesman, according to the Berlingske newspaper.

 Source: Denmark may strip radical imams of citizenship — RT News

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Danish Communities Integrate Refugees As Politicians Debate Limits : NPR

2016/02/08 Leave a comment

More positive stories of integration than normally heard in Denmark:

KALLESTRUP: Most of the people here quickly realized – yes, this is going to happen – so now it’s a matter of making the best out of this. We need to get these people properly integrated into the Dane society.

NELSON: He says they greeted the first arrivals with Danish flags, flowers and home-baked bread. These days, weekly coffees are held at the mansion, during which the refugees catch up with their Danish neighbors. Many do so in Danish, including Khaldoun Freha, a Syrian house painter who also dabbles in poetry. He’s had 8 months of language lessons paid for by the government and talks to me about his new life in Danish.

KHALDOUN FREHA: (Speaking Danish).

NELSON: The neighbor, Kallestrup, praises Freha.

KALLESTRUP: Your Danish is good, you know? And we can have a conversation in Danish without any problems.

NELSON: Refugees like Freha can spend up to 3 years at the government’s expense integrating into Danish society. But the efforts of the volunteers here at Sunny Mountain have some residents, like Rashid Rishou, ready in a matter of months.

RASHID RISHOU: (Speaking Danish).

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Speaking Danish).

NELSON: The Aleppo native, who has found full-time work as a carpenter, chats with family and friends about his new apartment, which he is planning to furnish with used items he’s found for sale online. Haifaa Awad says the sort of interactions seen at Sunny Mountain is vital to the successful integration of refugees. The Danish-Syrian anesthesiologist was born in Damascus and came to Denmark with her family as a refugee when she was 6. She says one of the brighter moments for her was joining her Danish youth soccer team.

HAIFAA AWAD: So it’s like all these small things that we often don’t think about. These are what makes us feel connected or less alienated as kids. And if we can try to build on that instead of building on what’s so different between us, I think we could move the debate to a whole new scale, especially now that it’s become – the debate has become so polarized.

NELSON: Opposition MP Pernille Skipper agrees, but says new laws to deter migrants threaten to scuttle Danish integration efforts. She’s especially critical of the measure that requires refugees to wait at least 3 years before applying to bring their families over.

PERNILLE SKIPPER: Because – you can imagine, you come to a new country and you sit for years and years and wait for your family to come, maybe they will die in the time passing. And what do you do? Do you concentrate on learning a new language and get a job, get an education – for integration to work, that’s going to be very, very difficult.

NELSON: Back at Sunny Mountain, Freha says he worries about the new law, too. He’s waiting for the government to grant his mother permission to come to Denmark, which even under the old law will take at least a year. He tells me in English, I miss my mom. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, NPR News, Copenhagen.

Source: Danish Communities Integrate Refugees As Politicians Debate Limits : NPR

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Kelly McParland: Refugee hysteria reaches a new low with plan to search migrants for jewelry

2015/12/18 Leave a comment

Contrast with Canadian approach striking, as is sad state of conservatism:

Perhaps it had to come to this.

In the squalid competition for the most wretched position on Middle East refugees, Denmark can claim a new low. Having already placed an ad in Lebanese newspapers making clear to asylum-seekers they weren’t welcome, the Danish government is debating a new measure: it wants to seize their jewelry.

In an email to the Washington Post, the Danish integration ministry said the bill — which is expected to pass — would empower officials to search the clothes and luggage of asylum-seekers “with a view to finding assets which may cover the expenses.” Authorities would allow claimants to keep “assets which are necessary to maintain a modest standard of living, e.g. watches and mobile phones,” or which “have a certain personal, sentimental value to a foreigner.”

It is only looking for items with considerable value: for example, the minister of justice said on TV, refugees arriving with a suitcase full of diamonds.

One wonders why a person with a suitcase full of diamonds would need to plead for a place to live, especially one as distant and chilly as Denmark. And while they’re at it, why not search their teeth for gold fillings? But the abject assault on people fleeing the chaos of Syria and Iraq isn’t troubled by simple logic. It’s all about fear, bias and discrimination. Unfortunately, it’s also a cause that has been taken up with enthusiasm by right-wing politicians and ultra-conservative governments, who see political gain to be had in spreading hysteria.

Akos Stiller/Bloomberg

Akos Stiller/BloombergHungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban

Conservatism is not about hate, bigotry or exploiting the needy. But its brand is in danger of being permanently tarred by the outspoken braying of demagogues like Donald Trump, or small-minded governments like those in Denmark, Poland and Hungary. The Hungarian government’s response to the flood of people fleeing Syria was to erect a razor-wire fence, accompanied by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s declaration that Muslims were not welcome and his rejection of European Union resettlement quotas. Hungary’s fence forced others to soon erect their own, as each sought to direct asylum-seekers elsewhere.

The ugliness of discrimination is not lessened by the political gains it sometimes brings.

Poland’s newly-elected right-wing government announced it would refuse to accept the 4,500 refugees assigned it under the quota system, reversing the acceptance of the previous government.

Trump, of course, has assured himself the attention he so openly craves with increasingly loathsome remarks about the purported threat of the refugee hordes. His proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S. — even though the U.S. has millions of honest and patriotic Muslim citizens – has been overwhelmingly denounced, but succeeded in cementing his runaway lead in the Republican presidential sweepstakes.

The ugliness of discrimination is not lessened by the political gains it sometimes brings. The more Trump is attacked, the more support he seems to gain. Orban’s policies were initially reviled, but have been highly popular in Hungary and are now being quietly studied across the EU. Poland’s government was elected on the back of anti-immigrant fervour, and includes a stark anti-Semitic streak.

It’s a trend that should be roundly condemned, and resisted at all costs.  The new Liberal government, of course, has begun accepting — indeed, welcoming — refugees to Canada, and has pledged more aid for those still overseas. Canada’s interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose has made clear her party welcomes refugees and will continue Canada’s tradition as “a compassionate country and … compassionate people.” The point can’t be made strongly enough, and whoever succeeds Ambrose as leader should ensure it is a bedrock of future policies. There will come a time when the hysteria will subside and people will look back in embarrassment at the ugliness of the debate it has inspired. Canadians should ensure that when that time comes, they won’t be among those with something to regret.

Source: Kelly McParland: Refugee hysteria reaches a new low with plan to search migrants for jewelry

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Denmark Bans Kosher and Halal Animal Slaughter

2015/07/30 5 Comments

Balance between animal “rights” and human religious rights. But one would need to know how Denmark treats all farm animals to know whether this is consistent or targeted:

Denmark enacted a sweeping ban on the religious slaughter of animals Monday, prompting a furious backlash from Jewish and Muslim community representatives.

The ban, which requires slaughterhouse workers to stun animals before killing them, will now extend to religious communities that were previously afforded an exemption. “Animal rights come before religion,” Danish minister for agriculture and food Dan Jørgensen told Denmark’s TV2.

Activists with Danish Halal called the restriction a “clear interference in religious freedom,” the Independent reports, while Israeli chief rabbi David Lau slammed the law as “a serious and severe blow to the Jewish faith and to the Jews of Denmark,” according to Times of Israel.

Both observant Jews, under kashrut laws and Muslims, under halal laws, will not eat meat unless the animal has been killed with a single slice to the neck, with the intention to minimize its pain.

Denmark Bans Kosher and Halal Animal Slaughter

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After Attacks, Denmark Hesitates to Blame Islam – NYTimes.com

2015/02/21 Leave a comment

The debates in Denmark regarding the role Islam played in the recent attacks and the sophisticated response by the Danish Minister for Integration and Social Affairs, Manu Sareen:

Mr. Mann [a former Copenhagen gang member], who is now studying law and works part-time as a counselor to troubled Muslim youths, said Denmark and other European countries needed to defend, not stigmatize, Islam, as only this can combat “street Islam,” a toxic jumble of half-digested lines from the Quran and political passions plucked from the Internet.

Olivier Roy, a leading French expert on Islam, has taken a similar line, telling Information, a Danish newspaper, that Denmark should counter wild strains of Islam imported from the Middle East by building up a “national version of Islam” through state funding for mosques and preachers, just as it funds Denmark’s state church.

But Mr. Sareen, the integration minister, said such an approach would do nothing to “prevent scenes like we saw at the weekend” because young people were just as likely to get radicalized in jail or sitting at home watching videos on YouTube. “The state could finance dozens of mosques, but you would still see people getting radicalized,” he said.

The trigger for extremist violence, added Mr. Sareen, a self-declared atheist and former social worker, is rarely the result of a single cause. “You have a part that is social, part that is psychiatric, part that is brainwashing and part that comes from messages in the mosque or from radical preachers.”

Mehdi Mozaffari, an Iranian-born Danish political science professor, complained that mainstream Muslims and Western governments often play down the powerful pull of Islamist ideology, which mixes piety and politics.

“It is very evident that this ideology is playing a major role,” he said. “Without it we are facing just hooligans. But these people have an ideology that is very strong. It justifies their behavior and identifies their enemy.”

Sharp contrast to the rhetoric and pandering in Canada.

After Attacks, Denmark Hesitates to Blame Islam – NYTimes.com.

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What Transformed Copenhagen Gunman From Petty Thug to Lethal Jihadi? | TIME

2015/02/17 Leave a comment

One of the more interesting and in-depth pieces on the Copenhagen killer, Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein:

Increasingly, however, the distinction between common criminals and radicals is becoming meaningless, at least in Denmark. “Here, there’s crossover between criminal gangs and extremism,” says terrorism expert Magnus Ranstorp, a researcher at the Swedish National Defence College. “In other places you have a division between petty criminals and people [who join extremist groups] to give their life meaning. Here you have individuals who can switch between the two worlds, people who even use extremism as an exit strategy from gangs. Gang experience makes them more serious in extremist circles. They have access to weapons, they know how police work, they’re hardened, they have the skillset.”

The number of extremists has risen in Denmark in the past few years to around 200, according to the Danish intelligence service PET. The conflict in Syria has increased their ranks; officials say that 110 Danes have gone to Syria or Iraq as foreign fighters, though the real numbers are likely higher. Kaldet til Islam, an organization with ties to Wahabism and the British radical group Sharia4UK has been attracting a number of returning Danish foreign fighters, and posted a video in which several cartoonists, including Vilks, were depicted as targets.

There is no evidence that El-Hussein was influenced by Kaldet til Islam, and PET has admitted it had only passing awareness of him. That means his time in prison will come under even greater scrutiny as a potential source of his radicalization. Certainly it played a pivotal role for Cherif Kouachi and Amedy Coulibaly, two of the perpetrators of the attacks in Paris at the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. Both men were known to have been in contact during their time in Europe’s largest prison with convicted jihadi Djamel Beghal.

Investigators in Denmark are looking into whether El-Hussein had the same kind of experience. “The Danish prison service is vastly different from the French and Belgian, which are serious incubators of terrorism,” says Ranstorp. “In Denmark, they are aware of this issue, and they document the cases of people who get involved, and try to address it. But of course the big issue is who did he come in contact with, what was his behavior there like?”

One measure of the seriousness with which Denmark takes the issue of extremism is the nearly 60.9 million kroner ($9.1 million) deradicalization plan recently agreed to by the government. The plan includes an ‘exit center’ for foreign fighters returning from Syria and Iraq, as well as prevention programs for susceptible youth. That the plan is viewed as potentially effective was evident in Kaldet til Islam’s response. On Feb 4, it was denounced as “a hostile desire to separate Muslims from their Islam” on the group’s Facebook page.

Whether that kind of program would have prevented the Copenhagen attacks is impossible to predict. And El-Hussein’s actions, however they were inspired, suggest a keen determination to carry out violence; sources have told Politiken newspaper that he pretended to be drunk so as to get close enough to the synagogue security to shoot them. But in the choice of his victims, the young man is representative of a nascent breed of homegrown terrorists who combine radicalized views of Islam with common crime. “He’s a hybrid,” Ranstorp says of El-Hussein. “You don’t attack these specific targets based just on criminality. You need an ideology that legitimates the model.”

What Transformed Copenhagen Gunman From Petty Thug to Lethal Jihadi? | TIME.

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Multiculturalism Is Not Dead

2015/02/02 Leave a comment

Rumours of the death of multiculturalism and related policies are exaggerated according to this recent European study:

Countries will create formal policies for citizenship and declare the issue resolved, but that does not mean citizenship is really possible. The authors found that, even in countries such as Denmark and Germany where multiculturalism was never formally adopted, some public policies were being developed to recognize minority communities and facilitate their participation in the labor market, educational systems and other key social sectors at local and national levels.  Europeans love to insist that Americans should just give amnesty to people who got into the United States illegally but they won’t even give citizenship to their legal residents.

In countries where some multiculturalism has formally been adopted, such as the UK and the Netherlands, the picture was more mixed but showed that newer approaches, such as civic integration – including citizenship education, naturalization ceremonies and language classes – also built on and developed multiculturalism rather than erasing it. National identities have been remade in light of it – players of Indian descent can even get on the British cricket team now.

Dr. Nasar Meer, a Reader in Comparative Social Policy and Citizenship at the University of Strathclyde, lead author of the paper, said, “As European societies have become more diverse, the task of developing an inclusive citizenship has become increasingly important. In recent years, however, there has been a backlash against multiculturalism as path to achieving this.

“The reasons for this include the way that, in some countries, multiculturalism is seen to have facilitated social fragmentation and entrenched social divisions, while for others, it has distracted attention away from socio-economic disparities or encouraged a moral hesitancy amongst ‘native’ populations. Some have even blamed it for incidents of international terrorism.”

Dr. Daniel Faas, of Trinity College Dublin’s Department of Sociology, a co-author of the research, said, “Legislations have become more inclusive of diversity, and the large anti-far right demonstrations highlight the solidarity with migrants, but also show that multiculturalism is a fragile concept there.”

Meer added, “Our study clearly shows that, where there have been advances in policies of multiculturalism, these have not been repealed uniformly, or on occasion not at all, but may equally have been supplemented by being ‘balanced out’ in, or thickened by, civic integrationist approaches.”

Reinforces the Kymlicka analysis of the ongoing multicultural integration policies being implemented.

Multiculturalism Is Not Dead.

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ISIS fighter from Ottawa appears in video threatening Canada with attacks ‘where it hurts you the most’

2014/12/09 Leave a comment

The latest ISIS recruitment video, starring John Maguire from Ottawa (see earlier profile on Maguire’s troubled past in  Ottawa jihadi seeking ‘martyrdom’ with ISIS in Syria | Ottawa Citizen):

“It follows quite closely to the theme of a variety of videos aimed at Western audiences, like the video aimed at French Muslims a few weeks ago,” said Professor Amarnath Amarasingam of the Dalhousie University Resilience Research Centre, who is studying Canadian foreign fighters.

“The interrelated themes are of course ones of religious obligation: if a caliphate has been established and Muslims have been persecuted by the state you are living in, you are required to leave the state you are living in. The risk of staying is hellfire. Maguire’s video is similar to the video aimed at French Muslims, asking a simple question: what are you waiting for?”

The video refers repeatedly to the October killings of two Canadian Forces members in Quebec and Ottawa by men who had adopted Islamist extremist beliefs. It said the attacks were a “direct response” to Canada’s military role in Iraq.

“The more bombs you drop on our people, the more Muslims will realize and understand that today, waging jihad against the West and its allies around the world is beyond a shadow of the doubt a religious obligation binding upon every Muslim.”

ISIS fighter from Ottawa appears in video threatening Canada with attacks ‘where it hurts you the most’.

John Maguire, Ottawa man fighting for ISIS, urges attacks on Canadian targets in video

And good in-depth reporting on deradicalization programs in Germany and Denmark in the Globe:

 Reversing radicalization through anti-terror ‘psychological warfare’ 

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Denmark’s jihadist rehab: school, sport and Islam

2014/12/08 Leave a comment

More on the Danish approach (see earlier post Denmark tries a soft-handed approach to returned Islamist fighters, sending them to therapy, not jail):

Belying its reputation as a harmonious, wealthy country, Denmark has the second largest number of foreign fighters in Syria relative to its size among Western nations, behind only Belgium, according to an estimate by The Economist magazine.

The young men Mads works with grew up in places like the sprawling Gellerupparken, a dreary housing estate where four out of five are from immigrant homes.

With its graffiti, crumbling concrete and broken glass it is a far cry from Denmark’s wealthy image — and only a short walk from Grimhøj mosque, which has gained notoriety for refusing to denounce the ultra-radical Islamic State (Isis).

This may help explain why in a city like Aarhus, with just 324,000 residents, as many as 30 people have gone to fight in Syria.

At least 100 Danes have taken part in Syria’s bloody civil war, according to estimates by the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET). At least 16 have been killed, and roughly 50 have returned home.

Faced with this challenge, Denmark is offering rehabilitation programmes to would-be fighters — and most controversially of all, even helps those returning from Syria.

A young man who came back from Syria was “shaken” and had seen things “that weren’t quite normal for a regular young Danish guy,” Mads said. The two started out by talking about football. But the real objective was to prevent him from returning to Syria, and to motivate him to finish his education.

“Those were our primary targets, and they succeeded,” Mads said, with a hint of pride.

It is part of a two-pronged approach — slapping travel bans on radicalised youths and jailing them if they break them, but also investing in preventive measures.

Denmarks jihadist rehab: school, sport and Islam – The Local.

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