Analysis, Europe, Side Feature

Pressure Causes Counter Pressure

According to a new survey made by the Danish newspaper Politiken and television station TV2, 37% of Muslims in Denmark feel looked down upon because of their Muslim background. The survey also states that 33% of Muslims in Denmark have experienced hardship finding a job because of their Muslim background and 32% answered that their physical appearance has been criticized because it could be connected to Islam.

Comment:

Unfortunately these findings and numbers are not surprising, most likely the real numbers are much higher. Most Muslims are reluctant to talk openly about these issues because of fear of repercussions.

The tone in the public debate has become increasingly worse during the last two decades and especially after 2001 all over the West, but Denmark still stands out compared to its neighbors. The political debate about Islam and Muslims in Denmark has been and still is, so inflamed that even Anders Breivik (Norwegian right wing mass murderer) praised it in his manifest before shooting and killing 69 youths.

Another sad but good indicator of the Danish supremacy when it comes to anti Islam, is the very recent praise, on the 5th of March 2017, by the Dutch right wing politician Geert Wilders when he said that the tight border control and rejection of Muslims refugees, shows that the Danes are smarter than the Dutch.

The purpose of the harsh rhetoric has always been to make Muslims compromise or let go of their Muslim identity, but the fact is that it has the opposite effect. Experts warn of the possibility of isolation and closed Muslim communities. The second and third generation Muslim immigrants are even closer to Islam, than their parents despite growing up in Denmark. The pressure and unreconciling tone has only made them reconsider their Islamic background and made them firm in their conviction.

Pressure causes counter pressure, and today more and more young Muslims, try to build and strengthen Islamic personalities; and increase and refine an arsenal of arguments in the intellectual clash between Iman and Kufr.

 

Junes Kock