Denmark: MP: ‘Only thing worse than a devout Muslim is a convert

From the Danish edition of The Local

A debate spurred by Muslim student’s complaint that she is not allowed to pray in school has resulted in a racism complaint against a Danish People’s Party MP.

Alex Ahrendtsen of the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party (DF) will formally be reported to police for racism on Monday over remarks he made about Muslims on Friday night. Speaking to TV2, Ahrendtsen gave his full support to a suburban Copenhagen school that has told its Muslim students not to pray and accused Muslim converts of “boasting” about their faith.

“There is only one thing worse than devout Muslims and that is converts,” Ahrendtsen said. “They want to absolutely show how good they are as Muslims, and that should happen in full public view and as often as possible. On the floor, everywhere,” he added. “They want to boast, they want to flaunt their new-found Muslim faith.”

The organisation AnmeldHad (Report Hate) said over the weekend that it would file a formal complaint against Ahrendtsen on Monday, contending that his remarks violate article 266b of Denmark’s penal code, best known as “the racism paragraph”.

..the organization’s chairman, Qasam Ijaz, told TV2. “They were deeply offensive comments and when a member of parliament speaks in that way, it become acceptable for normal Danes to express themselves in the same way,”

Ahrendtsen said he wasn’t particularly worried about the complaint leading to a criminal charge. “People use the [racism] paragraph as a tool to shut the mouths of politicians and it is always rejected by the police,” he told TV2 on Sunday. He stood by his comments and said “it is a fact” that Muslim converts “are often more extreme”. 

Ahrendtsen also clarified that when he talked about “devout Muslims” he meant those who “oppose Danish society and encourage deception, fraud and violence against women”.