[Aptrgangr]

Rising racism, intolerance in Denmark

BY JOHN MOMANYI BIRONGO

Ninth April, 1940 is a day many older generation Danes would rather not recall. This was the day Hitler’s army swept through Denmark and Norway in Operation Weserübung. While the clearly overpowered but valiant Norwegian soldiers fought pitched battles with the technologically superior German war machine, the Danish army surrendered without as much as firing a single mortar, much to the chagrin of present day Danes who would rather hear heroic tales of bravery and epic encounters between Danish and German forces.
The only tale unfortunately, is the one of how Danish soldiers showed their athletic muscle as they tore and pounded through the streets--running away from the advancing German army.
Despite the legendary cowardice of the Danish forces, ordinary Danes defied Hitler in a way that still captures the world’s imagination.
When Hitler ordered the commencement of racial laws in Denmark and ordered for the rounding up of Jews, Danes from all walks of life took it upon themselves to save the Jews. Altogether, Danes managed to help 7,000 Jews by hiding them in their homes, cellars, churches and safe houses before slipping them across the border to neighbouring Sweden.
With this single act of immense courage and standing up for others, Danes sent out a message of hope of what ordinary unarmed people can accomplish even when faced by a danger of ernomous proportions. Many Danes understood what it was to be an immigrant because over 300,000 Danes (10% of the entire population) had left Denmark and made the journey to America, in search of the “American Dream” between 1840 and 1920 alone. Others chose to travel the unbeaten track and ventured into Australia, Canada, and some even ended up in Africa.
Karen Blixen is perhaps the most famous of the small group of Danes who attempted to see what the “African Dream” had to offer.
But that was then. Exactly sixty years later, the country now seems to be racing head-first to the far-right, a euphemism for racism.
The ultra-right Danish Peoples’ Party (DPP) swept into parliament as the country’s third-largest party following the 2001 elections, taking 12% of the vote and 22 seats in Denmark’s parliament.
This racist party joined the government in a centre-right coalition and helped push through tough new asylum and immigration laws as well as the drastic cut in aid to the developing world. The Danish Front, a violent anti-immigrant organisation supports the DPP and agitates for the violent expulsion of non-white immigrants in Denmark.
Though the Danish Peoples’ Party denies links to the Danish Front, journalists posing as members of the Danish Front managed to apply and acquired membership of the DPP.
Pia Kjaersgaard is the leader of the DPP. Until twenty years ago, she was a happily married mother of two working as a house-help. When her 16-year-old daughter brought home an African boyfriend, it was more than the conservative Pia could take. She plunged into politics and her message of “Denmark for Danes” struck resonance with other like-minded Danes. She quit her humble job of bathing and feeding old people and plunged into politics and went on to form her own party--the Danish People’s Party.
In the six years the DPP has been in the coalition government, Denmark has numerously been criticised by both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch for the rising intolerance in the country. For example,
Denmark has forced Danes marrying foreigners out of the country with their spouses due to tight family reunification laws. Most of the asylum centres have been closed down and the horrifying mistreatment of inmates including children at the functioning asylum centre at Kongelunden near Copenhagen has drawn international condemnation.
The party’s nominee for Mayor for Copenhagen posted a message on her home page calling for the shipping of Arabs residing in Denmark to Siberia’s labour camps “as we are not allowed to kill them”.
Other party officials have been quoted saying Somali refugees should be rounded up, put on planes and ferried to Somalia. It speaks volumes that Denmark is the only country in the world that has licensed a Nazi radio station (Nazi Radio) to broadcast racial propaganda.
Freedom of speech is given as the reason for the existence of the radio station. Interestingly, when a Danish newspaper drew cartoons of the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist causing upheaval in the Muslim world, the Danish government defended it using the freedom of speech excuse.
Pia Kjaersgaard successfully applied for an injunction that makes it illegal in Denmark to refer to her or her party as “racist”.
A Danish university student I talked to, said of the injunction: “It is like hyena successfully petitioning to be called Sheep.
It is noteworthy that there has been no debate arguing that the ruling goes against freedom of speech by limiting the choice of adjectives one may use when talking about official proponents of racism in Denmark.
If Hitler lived today and invaded Denmark, maybe today’s Danes would round up Jews and other “inferior races” and kill or hand them over before Hitler even says the word “Jew”. Maybe the Danish soldiers wouldn’t be instant marathon runners either. Maybe they would march forward to meet the German soldiers to ask if they can borrow swastikas.

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