Anti-immigrants Premier Rasmussen is expected to win the election. (Reuters)

COPENHAGEN, February 5 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Twenty-one imams in Denmark have called on the Muslim community in the western European country to vote and follow their conscience in the upcoming legislative elections, slated for February 8.

“We are part of this society and we have to participate in all activities in this society,” Kasem Said Ahmad, a spokesman for the Danish Muslim Society, told Reuters Friday, February 4.

“Most of the Muslims in Denmark agree with us,” he averred.

Ahmad has told Jyllands-Posten newspaper that imams were urging Muslim voters, through sermons, the Internet and leaflets, to elect pro-immigrants and anti-Iraq war candidates.

Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who backed the US-led invasion of Iraq, is expected to win.

Denmark's participation in the war, with 525 troops deployed, is widely unpopular with the public.

Last week more than 300 writers, authors, musicians and directors signed a petition calling for Danish troops to be pulled out of Iraq and accusing the government of ignoring the war in their election campaign.

Rasmussen swept to power in 2001 with promises to clamp down on asylum seekers.

The latest polls show Rasmussen's ruling Liberals getting around 31.6 percent of Tuesday's vote, meaning that with their coalition partners they should get a clear majority with almost 100 seats in the 179-seat parliament.

In the current legislature, they hold 94 seats.

Anti-Immigrations

The right-wing anti-immigrant Danish People's Party (DPP) – whose support in parliament is key to Rasmussen's coalition government - also played the immigration card last week, calling for the expulsion of immigrants.

“I don't see any racism in this, I don't care where they come from,” Soren Espersen, spokesman for the DPP which became the third-biggest party in 179-seat parliament in 2001, told Reuters.

Many Danes, however, are uncomfortable with the government's strict immigration policies.

“I think the rules are too tight with this government,” said Celina Salver, a physiotherapist.

“We have got so many resources and so much to give, I don't know why it should be such a big problem.”

The Danish government announced last year changes to the immigration laws and 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.

Danish Muslims - estimated at 170,000 or around 3 per cent of population - 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 of 5.3 million.