Activism, Europe, Featured

Democratic Elections in Denmark – Challenges and Opportunities for Muslims and Islam

News:

It is election time in Denmark, but even before the election date was set, political analysts and surveys predicted that the issue of “foreigners” (read Islam and Muslims) would be within the top three important topics. Now with two weeks to go it is probably the most important election topic in Denmark, and as usual, that means an increase in Islamophobia, verbal and physical attacks on Islam and Muslims. The last few days have been more than hectic.


 

Comment:

Election topics and debates started out being more about welfare and economy and less about Islam and Muslims. When some Muslims, including Hizb ut Tahrir, started running online campaigns informing the Muslims about the Islamic prohibition of participating in secular democratic elections, things evolved quickly and among other resulted in the destruction of a Muslims cemetery.

Especially the campaign driven by Hizb ut Tahrir, was very successful from the very beginning and created a lot of attention, which then resulted in many media outlets focusing on the subject. In a country where there is a history of winning votes by attacking Muslims, politicians started competing in degrading and foul comments about Islam. At the same time, they are very aware of pointing out that they do not have a problem with all Muslims, but only the anti-democratic “extreme” ones.

In this way, Danish politicians and media are united unanimously, in trying to create tension and division within the Muslim community, by focusing on the internal Muslim discussion on the whether Muslims should vote or not. They aim at using this internal discussion to divide the Muslims into “moderates” and “extremists”, and then accuse the extremists of destroying the possibilities for the community, in order to become expelled from the community and thereby become easy victims of new laws and pressure.

These are all negative results of the election time for the Muslim community, but there are also positive ones. All the focus on democracy as a system of ruling also creates critical awareness, not only among Muslims, but even among ordinary westerners. Recently a report written by researchers and specialists, concluded that a number of 423 people were the real people of power in Denmark, and only 32 of them very politicians. This, amongst others, indicate that democracy, as a ruling system for the general masses is an illusion, promoted by the few, to profit from the masses.

Quite a few articles have been published, where ordinary people explain that they do not vote, because in reality they have no influence on the real politics after elections. Though this being an interesting phenomenon in itself, it also reveals something else. When ordinary westerners or other religious minorities do not vote because they do not believe in democracy, there is no outcry and no direct attack on them, but when Muslims criticize democracy, things are completely different.

The reason for this is actually quite simple. Other critiques of democracy do not pose a real alternative, but just end up as passive opponents.  Muslims on the other hand have in Islam a complete way of life and a perfect ruling system suitable for humankind.

When politicians turn to arguments such as “go back to where you came from”, in an intellectual debate about ruling systems and the illusion of democracy, then it is an all-out defeat. Maybe this clear lack of valid arguments will make people realize that it cannot be intellectually defended and definitely not against Islam as an alternative.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by

Junes Kock

Media Representative of Hizb ut tahrir in Scandinavia