Feminist, socialist, devout Muslim: woman who has thrown Denmark into turmoil

[Ms DD]

Feminist, socialist, devout Muslim: woman who has thrown Denmark into turmoil

 

 

Parliamentary candidate, 25, finds herself at centre of Europe-wide controversy

 

Ian Traynor in Odense, Denmark

Wednesday May 16, 2007

The Guardian

 

 

Danish parliamentary candidate Asmaa Abdol-Hamid.

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/05/15/asmaa10a.jpg

Photograph: Kristian Brasen/AFP

 

 

 

In the land that launched the cartoons war between Islam and the west, Asmaa Abdol-Hamid finds herself on the frontline, gearing up for a new battle.

The 25-year-old social worker, student and town councillor describes herself as a feminist, a democrat, and a socialist. She has gay friends, opposes the death penalty, supports abortion rights, and could not care less what goes on in other people's bedrooms. In short, a tolerant Scandinavian and European.

 

 

She is also a Palestinian and a devout Muslim who insists on wearing a headscarf, who refuses, on religious grounds, to shake hands with males, and who is bidding fair to be the first Muslim woman ever to enter the Folketing, the Danish parliament in Copenhagen.

For the extreme right, the young activist is a political provocateur, an agent of Islamic fundamentalism bent on infiltrating the seat of Danish democracy. To many on the left, Ms Abdol-Hamid is also problematic, personifying through her dress the reactionary repression of women and an illiberal religious agenda that should have no place in her leftwing "red-green" alliance of socialists and environmentalists.

 

As a result of announcing her parliamentary candidacy earlier this month, the young Muslim and Danish citizen has been thrust to the centre of a debate tormenting Denmark and the rest of western Europe - on the place and values of Islam in modern Europe and the treatment of large Muslim minorities.

 

Ms Abdol-Hamid is unfazed. "I see more Islam here in Denmark than in Iran or in other places in the Middle East," she says. "It's easier to be a Muslim in Denmark than in Saudi Arabia. I don't feel a stranger here. I'm interested in politics. I want to talk about this society, about political issues. But I'm not in politics because I'm a Muslim."

 

Her ambition, combined with her insistence on flaunting her religious affiliation, have outraged the Danish political establishment and triggered a new bout of soul-searching almost two years after the publication of cartoons of the Prophet ignited violence and protest across the Islamic world.

 

"This goes far beyond the extreme right," says Toger Seidenfaden, editor of the Politiken daily newspaper. "Asmaa is insisting on the right to be a religious Muslim and that's provoking broad debate among the public."

 

The key issue is the headscarf and whether it can be accommodated in parliament. This month Ms Abdol-Hamid gained the candidacy for a safe Copenhagen seat for the leftwing Unity List.

 

The Danish People's Party or DFP, the far-right movement that unofficially props up the weak centre-right government of the prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is on the warpath. A couple of DFP politicians compared the headscarf to the Nazi swastika. One described the prospective MP as "brainwashed".

 

"We don't like the idea of her performing as an Islamist in the parliament," says DFP spokesman Kim Eskildsen. "We find it wrong that she'll use the parliament as a tool for Islamism ... We don't consider this woman a Nazi. But the way the headscarf is used is comparable to other totalitarian symbols."

 

The happiest country in the world, according to one detailed survey of international living standards and public attitudes, Denmark is economically highly successful, with the lowest unemployment in the EU.

 

For the country's 200,000 Muslims and immigrants, however, that happiness is increasingly somewhere else. By virtue of the DFP's influence on the centre-right government, Denmark has enacted the tightest anti-immigration legislation in Europe in recent years.

 

Many Danes married to foreigners now commute into Copenhagen every day from the southern Swedish town of Malmo across the bridge linking the two cities because they cannot obtain residence for their spouses at home.

 

Ms Abdol-Hamid, who shares a one-room council flat with one of her six sisters in the "ghetto" of Vollsmose, in the town of Odense, says her political mission is to fight for this underclass.

 

"This is such a rich country. But we have people in Denmark in deep poverty and nobody helps them. For me the welfare system is very close to Islam. But we need to change the government."

 

But conservative Muslim leaders are also disapproving of her activism.

 

"Some Muslims don't think it's right for a female to act like this. They go to my father and tell him, get her married, get her married," she laughs. "Others think you can't be Muslim and Danish at the same time. Some of the Muslims and the extreme right are just the same.

 

"And there are women in my party who say that anyone who wears the headscarf is oppressed. It's like they think I'm dumb. They're taking away my individuality. We need the right to choose. It's up to us whether or not we wear headscarves.

 

"They think I'm a woman from the Middle East. No. I'm a Danish Muslim."

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2080453,00.html

[Ibtisam]

^^keep begging lady :rolleyes: good luck rather.

 

I hate when they do this:

 

 

The 25-year-old social worker, student and town councillor describes herself as a feminist, a democrat, and a socialist. She has gay friends, opposes the death penalty, supports abortion rights, and could not care less what goes on in other people's bedrooms.

and then this

 

She is also a Palestinian and a devout Muslim who insists on wearing a headscarf, who refuses, on religious grounds, to shake hands with males,

come again, sounds like a confused lady, not a devouted Muslim. She needs to check into the local mosque, they will tell her what time it is!

[Ms DD]

Isnt there a balance where a muslim woman can participate the political process of her country and the practicing of her faith faithfully? I think we need practising muslim women who can counteract the neacon sweethearts such as Xirsi and Derwish.

[NGONGE]

Xan,

 

What is confused about holding those views at one and the same time?

[Ibtisam]

^^Are you serious?

[NGONGE]

Lets not play the one line game. Yes I am. Now answer me you bigot.

[N.O.R.F]

^^Pick on someone your own size!

[Ibtisam]

^^lol North

 

NGOnge:

 

^^I was not playing the one line game, I was just hoping you will not make write a long post explaining why I think the lovely lady is slightly confused, since no such luck (you must be bored at work, and the day is too dull to watch out of the window! :mad:

 

Here it comes...

 

The 25-year-old social worker, student and town councillor, which is all fine, but she describes herself as a "feminist, a democrat, and a socialist" Now leaving the radical argument that one cannot be true followers of any of these ideologies without compromising their value system and faith, lets see what else she is about. . Okay She "has gay friends, this I can over look, opposes the death penalty,okay this one is pushing it, but I let that one go too, but then she starts taking the biscuit. She supports abortion rights, which is a direct contradiction with her faith (I checked on her to see if she added for medical reasons etc, and she doesn't) finally she could not care less what goes on in other people's bedrooms, okay fine, unless it is rape, domestic violence etc (But I know that’s not the intended purpose)

 

So what is my problem, well she seems to imply (not in this article specifically, but in interviews and other material I have read) that it is her that makes this changes, a so called Modern Muslim who is more open minded than the rest of the Danish Muslims, and I have no respect for someone that try's to get a leg up by standing on their own community, the very same people she is claiming to help, Isolating them further is not going to help her or them.

 

So in conclusion, I think the compromises she has made in values (which may be due to her ideological believes) at times have and will put her at odds with the Muslim Community.

 

The rest of my comment, can be summarized as she is the Dawaco who left her raat and could not reach the raat waarabe

 

p.s. I have no problem with her being in Politics, good on her, I just wonder how far she would got to please these people, who will always view her as Islamist.

 

Capish..

[N.O.R.F]

^^youve done it now. Youve got him going.

 

Expect an avalanche

[NGONGE]

^^ Naah. I'm off for a shiisha

[-Lily-]

I have a problem with her supporting abortion, and there really is not much she can do about people being gay. Apart from that, she seems to acknowledge that whatever sin people commit (non Muslim people at that) is between them and their Lord.

 

Personally I hope she succeeds. There are 20 million Muslims in Europe and not one Muslim MEP to represent them. I’m tired of people complaining and not doing anything to help their cause. All this woman is doing is fighting for her right to participate in democracy and her right to be a Muslim in Denmark, what kind of Muslim she chooses to be is again between her and God. It’s interesting to see though that they are getting stressed when she has actually chosen to exercise the rights given to her. It’s like they are saying to her ‘this cake is yours in theory but you are not allowed to eat it’.

 

Perhaps if we had more Muslim ppl in such positions scarfs would not get banned in schools.

 

I think she did well to be running for parliament at her age, and that is an achievement for anyone.

[Ms DD]

Originally posted by NGONGE:

^^ Naah. I'm off for a shiisha

It is because she nailed you proper and good

 

Lily

That is my position too. I think with regards to abortion issue, she is just toeing the party's line and maybe being a tad economical with the truth there (like any other politician) as I find it hard to believe that she will not shake a man's hand but she is all for murdering foetus.

[Ibtisam]

north lol, I was ready to duck, saved by shisha.

 

Ngonge: Shisha will be banned soon, then the addiction is gone give you withdrawal symptoms.

 

Lily, I more or less agree, apart from few things I agree and hope she will make it if she will be a useful tool for the Muslim community, is she is going to be used as just another stick to beat the community down then, I hope she fails.

[N.O.R.F]

Enjoy the last few days of Shisha cafes in the UK.

[NGONGE]

^^^ There are lots of ways around these bans.

 

Xan,

 

So you support her but think she's confused?

I think she's far from confused. The lady knows what she's doing and has chosen a path (right or wrong) that she is comfortable with. Have you not heard of people that wish to separate the 'church' from the state? For most, it does not mean that they're not religious. Rather that they don't want to impose that religion on others or make it a universal law. It's a position that one can take and strongly defend, and just because it does not meet with your own moral standards does not make it a confused stance (expect Kheyr to arrive any minute now with his usual war cry ).

 

By all means, come out and call her WRONG but to call her confused is simply patronising.

 

ps

North,

I have lost weight you know. Lots of weight. I think I'm as slim as Xan here (unless she's a size zero of course).