Michael de Laine

Copenhagen local politicians must not meet with ‘extremist Muslims’, says welfare minister - report

By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen, 10th February 2009

Local politicians in Copenhagen must not meet with ‘extremist Muslims’, according to Welfare Minister Karen Jespersen, Jyllands-Posten reports. The city’s integration alderman said Jespersen is going to extremes.

The municipality of Copenhagen should not collaborate with and get inspiration from well-known Muslims such as Abdul Wahid Pedersen and Zubair Butt Hussain, who have represented the umbrella organisation Muslim Council of Denmark (Muslimernes Fællesråd) at meetings at City Hall, according to Welfare Minister Karen Jespersen.

The daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten reported that Jespersen said the two Muslims are ‘extremists’.

“One should not give people with extremist attitudes influence,” Jespersen said. “As an example I see the municipality of Copenhagen, which has asked the Muslim Council of Denmark to prepare educational material on radicalisation with a view to getting young people away from those ideas. That’s naive. It means the municipality is asking extremists to prepare material about extremists. It also means the municipality puts a stamp of approval and recognition on an organisation whose spokesmen in reality prefer to have a Koran-run society than a secular democracy.”

The meetings have been with Copenhagen’s employment and integration alderman, Jakob Hougaard of the Social Democrats. Having heard Jespersen’s views at a meeting, he said the minister is going to extremes.

“It is dangerous to demonise such a large group, which I believe the Muslim Council of Denmark represents,” Hougaard said. “I have no reason to believe that Abdul Wahid Pedersen and Zubair Butt Hussain are extremists. What is problematic is that we must have a debate about extremism every time there is a new organisation that tries to gather the Muslim community.” Hougaard added that he would never meet with an organisation such as Hizb ut-Tahrir.

Jespersen, once a member of the Left Socialists, then the Social Democrats, is a member of the Liberals, one of the parties in Denmark’s coalition government.