Controversial anti-Islamisation campaigner and lawyer Rasmus Paludan is looking set to enter the Danish parliament as his party Stram Kurs (Hard Line) passes the election threshold in recent polls.
Paludan founded the anti-Islamisation party in 2017 and has become well-known across Denmark following various protests in which members of his group have burned copies of the Islamic holy book, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
Denmark is voting Wednesday with results of the national election expected in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The Danish lawyer has constantly referred to Islam as the “stupidest religion in the world” and has claimed that his policy would be to send Muslims back to their countries.
The main reason for the controversial Quran-burning protests, according to Paludan, is to prove that Muslims do not respect freedom of speech and therefore do not belong in Denmark. “The freedom of expression is only interesting if you do something that others do not like. It is then, when it is put to the test, that one can see if it really is there,” Paludan told SVT.
Denmark Arrests 23 After Violence Triggered by Campaigner Throwing Quran in Air https://t.co/bneyxqKpnf
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 16, 2019
Breitbart London reported in April when one of these Quran burning stunts provoked riots in Copenhagen by counter-protestors.
Due to threats against his life, Paludan is now required to have 24-hour police protection, bearing striking similarities to Dutch firebrand anti-Islamisation politician Geert Wilders who has required police protection for years.
Despite the reasonably high profile the Stram Kurs party enjoys in Denmark thanks to the media attention is recieves, it remains small. Polling suggests it will receive around two percent of the vote, which will give them at least one member in the Danish parliament.
A rival party to Paludan is the The Danish People’s Party (DF), who have advocated for tougher immigration policies for several years and members of the current government — who they are part of in coalition — have spoken out against mass migration.
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen went as far as saying that he would not rule out forced deportations of Somalian refugees after Migration Minister Inger Støjberg called on Somalians to go back and rebuild their country last December.
Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com
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