Extremists Tell Danish Muslims: ‘Don’t Vote’

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ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

Muslims should not vote in this month’s Danish election because democracy is incompatible with Islam, two radical groups have said.

Controversial Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir urged Danish Muslims to boycott June 18’s general election to protest the “anti-Islamic” democratic system.

“We are committed to being active participants in our society, but it has to be on Islam’s terms, without compromising our own principles and values. Democracy is fundamentally incompatible with Islam, and it is a sinking ship,” the group said, adding that Muslims should oppose the country’s “Islamophobic” integration policies.

The Local also reports that a representative of the Grimshøj mosque in Aarhus, which became notorious after declaring its support for Islamic State, issued a similar statement, telling TV2 Østjylland: “People should stay clear of the voting booths. We have concluded that only Allah can pass laws, as he says himself in the Koran that this is so.”

Danish politicians condemned the statements, with Martin Geersten of the Venestre party telling Hizb ut-Tahrir to “leave Denmark and instead try to eke out an existence in the Isis-controlled areas in Syria and the Levant, which are apparently the conditions they hold up as an ideal.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir campaigns for a global Islamic caliphate based on sharia law, although it claims to reject violence to achieve this aim. Following the double-shootings in Copenhagen this February, the group caused anger after saying Danish society was to blame for the actions of gunman Omar El-Hussein.

There have been calls to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir in Denmark, with politicians asking the country’s public prosecution to explore the possibility. The group is already banned in neighbouring Germany as well as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Russia and China. Britain has failed to introduce a ban despite promises from successive governments.

 

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