CAIRO, October 10 (IslamOnline.net) – The Muslim community in Denmark and experts in Islamic affairs have criticized Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen for failing to invite Muslim representatives to a dialogue encouraging minority integration.

They maintained that Denmark's 180,000 Muslims got the message that the government was not at all interested in pursuing any kind of dialogue with Muslims, moderate or not, Denmark’s Copenhagen Post newspaper reported Friday, October 8.

Rasmusen invited to his official residence in Marienborg 22 guests, excluding Muslim leaders in the western European country.

The list entirely consists of handpicked Danes and immigrants, most of whom have publicly criticized Islam, according to the daily.

"The Prime Minister isn't going to get any results from this meeting, because he isn't looking at it realistically - you must get in touch with the Muslims," said Copenhagen imam Ahmed Abu Laban.

Experts said that Rasmusen’s dialogue is in a point of fact a call for disintegration rather than integration.

"When you fail to invite representatives of the Muslim institutions in Denmark, then it's not really an invitation to a dialogue on integration at all," said Jørgen Bæk Simonsen, the director of the Danish Institute in Damascus and a researcher at Copenhagen University.

"The entire meeting is pointless. At best, he'll get a half-drawn picture of reality. If the Prime Minister wants a better dialogue, he needs to reach out to those people that really have something to say. If he doesn't, he'll be sending a signal that he doesn't want them to take part in integration."

Simonsen's remarks were echoed by Islamic studies professor Jørgen S. Nielsen of the University of Birmingham, who for years has followed the British government's efforts to begin a productive dialogue with immigrants and refugees.

"If you don't invite people who actually represent Islam to this kind of dialogue on better integration, it's going to seem almost comical," said Nielsen.

"You can't claim to meet with representatives of immigrants and refugees - many of whom have a Muslim background - without inviting representatives of the Muslim institutions. All the experience from other countries has shown that you have to take Muslim leaders seriously."