COPENHAGEN,
April 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Denmark’s
Queen Margrethe II claimed that Islam poses a global threat and urged
government to show no tolerance toward the Muslim minority in the
north European country, reported the Telegraph on Friday, April
15.
“We
have to show our opposition to Islam and we have to, at times, run the
risk of having unflattering labels placed on us because there are some
things for which we should display no tolerance,” the queen said in
an official biography published on Thursday, April 14.
The
queen told her biographer Annelise Bistrup that Islam is posing a
major challenge to the whole world which requires taking serious
measures to face it.
“We
are being challenged by Islam these years - globally as well as
locally.
“It
is a challenge we have to take seriously. We have let this issue float
about for too long because we are tolerant and lazy.”
Queen
Margrethe, who turns 65 on Saturday, April 16, said the country could
have handled “this challenge a bit better, if we had realized what
we were up against”.
The
monarch who has ascended the throne since 1972, wields no political
power in the north European country but does occasionally give
comments on political issues.
Extremists
 |
|
Danish
Muslims fear more restrictive steps to be taken by the government
in future.
|
Queen
Margrethe said she was feeling frightened from Muslim “extremists”
who have dedicated their life only for religion, Reuters said.
“There
is also something frightening about such a totality which is also a
part of Islam.”
She
stressed that certain response must be shown “and sometimes one must
run the risk of being labeled in a less flattering way. Because there
are certain things with which one should not be tolerant.”
The
monarch said there is “something impressive about people for whom
religion imbues their existence, from dusk to dawn, from cradle to
grave.”
The
Danish government announced last year plans to curb the activities of
“radical” religious leaders, a measure seen as specifically
targeting imams.
The
rules oblige religious leaders to be financially self-sufficient,
speak Danish and respect Western values or risk being declared persona
non grata.
Integration
The
monarch said immigrants in the Nordic country should learn the Danish
language in order to easily integrate into society.
She
maintained “it is wise to make demands on the language. We should
not be content with living next to each other. We should rather live
together.”
Many
newcomers do not learn Danish and unemployment rates among them is
still much higher than among Danes, as are crime rates.
Immigrants
make up about 8% of Denmark's 5.4 million -- about a third of them
come from other EU countries or North America.
Among
the immigrants is Margrethe's daughter-in-law, the very popular Crown
Princess Mary, who is from Australia.
But
Denmark has cracked down on migration in the past three years and the
anti-immigrant Danish People's Party, an ally of the center-right
government, has pushed through laws making it harder to bring in
foreign spouses or qualify for asylum.
Danish
Muslims - estimated at 170,000 or around 3 per cent of Denmark's 5.4
million -
sounded
the alarms
that much more restrictive steps would be taken by the government in
future.
Islam
is Denmark's second largest religion after the Lutheran Protestant
Church, which is actively followed by four-fifths of the country's
population.
