"This is unacceptable and violates Danish laws," imam Pedersen told IOL.

By Nidal Abu Arif, IOL Correspondent

COPENHAGEN, December 4, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Muslim activist blasted recent anti-Islam remarks by a Danish lawmaker, cautioning that recurrent attacks on their faith by politicians and some media hinder the minority's integration into society.

"The Muslim minority has for sometime been suffering from anti-Islam and anti-Muslim statements which send shockwaves through the minority," Qassim Saeed Ahmed, the media officer of the Copenhagen-based Scandinavian Wakf, told IslamOnline.net.

MP Martin Henriksen of the People's Party has recently described Islam as a "terror network," describing Muslims and their faith as enemies of the Western civilization.

"Such statements infuriate Muslims and stymie their integration into the Danish society," Ahmed said.

He stressed that the Scandinavian Wakf, the main Muslim organization in Denmark, is coordinating with other groups the possibility of taking the lawmaker to court.

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.

Muslim Reverts

Henriksen described Islam as a "terror network," describing Muslims and their faith as enemies of the Western civilization.

Henriksen's attack on Danes who revert to Islam have also triggered rebuke.

"I think such statements would eventually having their toll on Muslim reverts," Ahmed.

The Danish legislator described Danes who embrace Islam as morally inferior, accusing them of betraying their roots and culture by becoming Muslims.

"This is unacceptable and violates Danish laws," Abdul Wahid Pedersen, a Danish-born imam, told IOL.

"Such statements demonstrate utter ignorance of the true teachings of Islam," he added.

Pedersen, who embraced Islam 28 years ago, shrugged out any influence of such hostility on himself.

"But new reverts might be affected."

Both Ahmed and Pedersen agreed that the more the Danes understand Islam, the more they will respect the Muslim faith and its believers. 

Repeated

Henriksen's anti-Islam remakes, not his first, were swiftly criticized by Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

He stressed that Denmark's cherished freedom of expression is based on respecting the religious beliefs of others.

This was not the first time a member of the right-wing People's Party, the third largest party in parliament with 24 seats, has attacked Islam.

In October, MP Louise Frevert triggered a political storm by describing Muslims as "a cancer".

Jyllands-Posten, Denmark's best selling daily, has also send shockwaves across the minority by published twelve drawings depicting Prophet Muhammad in different settings.

In one of the drawings, the Prophet appeared with a turban shaped like a bomb strapped to his head.

The images, considered blasphemous under Islam, have drawn rebuke from the Muslim minority especially with the paper's adamancy to apologize on the ground of freedom of expression.