Danish Queen Says Tolerance of Muslims Has Limits
Thu Apr 14, 2005 10:45 AM ET By Per Bech Thomsen COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Denmark's Queen Margrethe urged Muslim immigrants to learn Danish to help them feel more at home and said in an official biography published on Thursday society should show limited tolerance of radical Islam. "We are being challenged by Islam these years. Globally as well as locally," said the 64-year-old queen, who was interviewed by journalist Annelise Bistrup for her book "Margrethe." "We must take this challenge seriously. We have simply left it flapping around for far too long, because we are tolerant and rather lazy," she is quoted as saying. About 8 percent of Denmark's 5.4 million people are immigrants -- about a third of those come from other European Union countries or North America and only 150,000 are Muslims. Among the immigrants is Margrethe's daughter-in-law, the very popular Crown Princess Mary, who is from Australia. But Denmark has cracked down on migration in the past three years and the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party, an ally of the center-right government, has pushed through laws making it harder to bring in foreign spouses or qualify for asylum. The monarch said people who dedicated their lives to religion were fascinating and felt she had gained insight into Islam from her studies of archaeology. She went on to say "there is also something frightening about such a totality which is also a part of Islam. A certain response must be shown and sometimes one must run the risk of being labeled in a less flattering way. Because there are certain things with which one should not be tolerant." Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen won a second term in February thanks to the popularity of new rules which have cut the number of asylum-seekers by 80 percent. Human rights organizations have criticized such measures. Many newcomers to the Nordic country do not learn Danish and the unemployment rate among immigrants -- particularly from developing countries -- is still much higher than among Danes, as are crime rates. "We could have handled this challenge a bit better, if we had realized what we were up against," Margrethe said. Muslims should learn the language properly to prevent them feeling excluded and seeking security in radical Islam. "Therefore it is wise to make demands on the language. We should not be content with living next to each other. We should rather live together," she said. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=8182819 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Give underprivileged students the materials they need to learn. Bring education to life by funding a specific classroom project. http://us.click.yahoo.com/FHLuJD/_WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
