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A pro-Palestinian demonstration held in Copenhagen
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WASHINGTON,
September 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – In an article
published in the Canadian newspaper the National Post, two Danish
politicians said that they were offended by the way integration problems
in Denmark were portrayed in an article written by authors Daniel Pipes
and Lars Hedegaard.
The
article attacking Muslims in Denmark was published in the National Post
newspaper on August 27. The authors were Daniel Pipes, director of the
Middle East Form, a think tank established in 1990 to promote American
interests in the middle east, and a contributor for several Israeli
newspapers and Lars Hedegaard contributor to two Copenhagen newspapers
Berlingske Tidende and Weekendavisen.
The
authors said that there were several problems associated with
Denmark’s 200,000 Muslim immigrants, all related to the fact that they
have little desire to fit into their adopted country.
They
said that the “third-world immigrants”, most of them Muslims from
countries such as Turkey, Somalia, Pakistan, Lebanon and Iraq --
constitute 5% of the population but consume upwards of 40% of the
welfare spending.
In
addition, Pipes and Hedegaard said that Muslims are only 4% of Denmark's
5.4 million people but make up a majority of the country's convicted
rapists. Immigrants, according to them, also self impose isolation onto
themselves and that they wish to mix less with the indigenous
population. They quoted a recent survey which said that only 5 per cent
of young Muslim immigrants would readily marry a Dane.
Pipes
and Hedegaard said that “Muslim violence threatens Denmark's
approximately 6,000 Jews” and that “anti-Israel marches have turned
into anti-Jewish riots”.
Responding
to their article Elisabeth Arnold and Elsebeth Gerner Nielsen, both
members of the Danish Social Liberal Party and of the Danish Parliament,
wrote to the National Post on Friday, September 6 and said that they
wanted to “set the record straight”.
With
regards to the claim that 40% of Danish welfare expenses are consumed by
Muslim immigrants, Arnold and Nielsen said that Denmark has a much
broader spectrum of welfare costs than countries in North America.
“We
include not only unemployment benefits and social security but also
substantial allocations to housing, transport, homecare, early
retirement, protected workplaces, daycare and other smaller schemes.
Muslim immigrants do not receive 40% of those allocations even though
they represent a substantial part of the clients. The main reason being:
It is hard to compete on a job market not interested in employing
immigrants,” they said.
They responded to Pipes and Hedegaard’s claim that the majority of
rapists in Denmark are Muslims is without any basis in fact, because
criminal registers do not record religion.
They also said that the reason many Muslims may not want to marry Danes
is because the new Danish government has made it extremely difficult for
Danish citizens to bring a foreign spouse to Denmark, an indication that
the ruling opinion is that intermarriage should be avoided.
“We
welcome the brave 5% who accept intermarriage -- they are true pioneers
for peaceful co-existence and human contact across cultures,” said
Arnold and Nielsen.
In response to the claim of Muslim violence threatening Denmark’s
6,000 Jews, they added that police investigators have so far found no
evidence of real threats against Jewish Danes and that Danish
authorities take death threats very seriously.
The
ended their letter by saying that during the coming decade, Denmark will
need 100,000 new pairs of hands in the workforce.
“The
Danes produce fewer children and live longer. Integration must work
better and immigrants admitted to Denmark should be welcomed,” they
said.
According
to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Pipes has
throughout his career exhibited troubling bigotry toward Muslims and
Islam. As early as 1983, even an otherwise positive Washington Post book
review noted that Pipes displays "a disturbing hostility to
contemporary Muslims...he professes respect for Muslims but is
frequently contemptuous of them," CAIR said on their website.
Recently,
Pipes questioned the origins of the Quran, Islam's revealed text, and
questioned whether the Prophet Muhammad ever existed. According to
Pipes, the night journey of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem
referred to in the Quran (17:1) never occurred.
Pipes
also displays a racist's distaste for Muslim immigrants who "wish
to import the customs of the Middle East and South Asia." (Los
Angeles Times, 7/22/99) For Pipes, this sort of raw bigotry is nothing
new.
In
1990, he said: "Western European societies are unprepared for the
massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and
maintaining different standards of hygiene...All immigrants bring exotic
customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than
most." (National Review, 11/19/90).
