COPENHAGEN, December 3, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Despite some problems emanating from cultural rather than religious traditions, the majority of Muslims in the Scandinavian kingdom of Denmark are integrating into society.

"A big majority of the Muslims in Denmark are well integrated," Minister of Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs Rikke Hvilshøjs told IslamOnline.net.

"They have learned the Danish language, they have jobs and their children are getting an education," she added.

Muslims in Denmark are estimated at more than 180,000 or around 3 per cent of population, mostly with a Turkish background.

There are three Muslim members of the Danish parliament; Naser Khader, who hails from Syrian roots, Husain Arac, who has a Turkish background, and Pakistan-born Kamal Qurashi.

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.

The minister highlighted some challenges posed to integration by some immigrant parties.

"We have groups that I personally do not think are isolated to Muslims who are holding tight to some cultural traditions, not especially Islamic traditions, that are not compatible with the Danish society."

Hvilshøjs cited as a case in point cases of honor killing.

"It is very new for the Danish society to experience that we have honor killings.

"It scares many people that we have situations where the parents or the brothers kill their own sisters."

Two volunteers inside the Copenhagen-based Scandinavian Islamic wakf.

The integration minister also blasted some groups over denying woman their equal rights under Danish laws.

"We have groups where the women and wives are held back in the house, denied learning the Danish language and denied being an active citizen in society," she said.

"We will not accept this as a cultural difference."

Hvilshøjs stressed that this is where her government draws the line.

"We say despite cultural traditions we will not in Denmark accept that women are being held back."

She stressed that the Danish government and society are sending a clear message in this respect.

"We want to help women and send a signal to the men that they are living in Denmark and must respect the equal rights given to women in the Danish society."

She said the government was giving financial support to organizations that want to deal with these problems in society and is also hiring people with another ethnic background who can better deal with immigrants.

Minister Hvilshøjs said her government wants immigrants and foreigners to be better integrated into the Danish society.

Good integration, she believes, can be realized by focusing on three main issues.

"The first one is that immigrants and foreigners have to learn the Danish language."

Recognizing that the language is very difficult to learn, she stressed it remains "the language we speak in Denmark, the language we teach in school and the language we use in work places."

The minister stressed that immigrants need to learn the language to be able to communicate with people they work with and help their children do better in school.

The second issue of high priority for her integration ministry over the coming ten to fifteen years is education.

"Young people between 16 and 24 will grow three times when we reach 2020 compared to today," Hvilshøjs said.

"So we have to be focused that these young people get education. It is very important so that we can keep the welfare society and make it even better."

She regretted that young people with another ethnic background do not get education at the same high level as the young Danes do.

"Even if they start an education unfortunately we have a drop out of up to sixty percent and that is not acceptable."

The minister maintained that when young people with another ethnic background get education "their success afterwards in the labor market is much better".

She said that to achieve this goal her ministry is changing legislations and using more money to help young immigrants get through the education system.

Hvilshøjs underlined that employment also comes high on her ministry’s agenda as an important factor in integration.

She highlighted "a huge difference" between the percentage of employment among Danes and immigrants.