Denmark Cracks Down on Muslim Migrants

Muslim migrants have become a problem. They are a problem for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They are a problem for Sweden and France. They are a problem in Great Britain. They are fast becoming a problem for Italy and Spain.

Groups that are acting more like invaders than refugees are a problem.

In China, they have their own, more home-grown Muslim problem. A large group of Chinese citizens, called Uighurs, has been a problem. Some have committed terrorist actions. Most have not. When a Muslim terrorist murdered over two dozen people in a train station, the Chinese government rounded up the usual suspects, put them on trial, convicted them and executed them. It moved on to restrict the practice of Islam, even going so far as to require Muslim shopkeepers to stock alcohol.

More recently, the Chinese government has opened re-education camps to “brainwash” thousands of Muslims. China wants its Muslims to assimilate and it is using a technique developed under Mao Zedong, brainwashing, to show them the way.

Naturally, we do not approve. But, then again, how is European tolerance working out? The Chinese, President Xi Jinping averred in a different context, do not turn the other cheek. They hit back.

Apparently, the Danes hit back too. No one believes that Denmark is a hotbed of Islamist radicalism. It has not suffered an inordinate number of terrorist attacks, if any at all. And yet, it did welcome a certain number of Muslim migrants over the years and it does not want to find itself with the problems that its neighbors in Germany and Sweden and Norway have.

It's citizens believe that migrants are taking advantage of them, are living off the work of Danes while contributing very little. 

So, the Danes have instituted acculturation programs, re-education programs for Muslim citizens.  Beginning in childhood every Muslim must undergo these programs, the better to become true Danes.

The New York Times reports:

When Rokhaia Naassan gives birth in the coming days, she and her baby boy will enter a new category in the eyes of Danish law. Because she lives in a low-income immigrant neighborhood described by the government as a “ghetto,” Rokhaia will be what the Danish newspapers call a “ghetto parent” and he will be a “ghetto child.”

Starting at the age of 1, “ghetto children” must be separated from their families for at least 25 hours a week, not including nap time, for mandatory instruction in “Danish values,” including the traditions of Christmas and Easter, and Danish language. Noncompliance could result in a stoppage of welfare payments. Other Danish citizens are free to choose whether to enroll children in preschool up to the age of six.

So much for tolerance. So much for free choice. Denmark is forcing its Muslim citizens to assimilate. No news yet on what happens if people resist the edict:

Denmark’s government is introducing a new set of laws to regulate life in 25 low-income and heavily Muslim enclaves, saying that if families there do not willingly merge into the country’s mainstream, they should be compelled.

For decades, integrating immigrants has posed a thorny challenge to the Danish model, intended to serve a small, homogeneous population. Leaders are focusing their ire on urban neighborhoods where immigrants, some of them placed there by the government, live in dense concentrations with high rates of unemployment and gang violence.

The Muslim enclaves, called No-Go zones in other nations are breeding gang violence. The Danes believe that they will forestall the problem with reeducation.

The country is also considering stricter punishments for those who are non-Western:

One measure under consideration would allow courts to double the punishment for certain crimes if they are committed in one of the 25 neighborhoods classified as ghettos, based on residents’ income, employment status, education levels, number of criminal convictions and “non-Western background.” Another would impose a four-year prison sentence on immigrant parents who force their children to make extended visits to their country of origin — described here as “re-education trips” —in that way damaging their “schooling, language and well-being.” Another would allow local authorities to increase their monitoring and surveillance of “ghetto” families.

Of course, Denmark is a small homogeneous nation. Will the presence of a relatively small number of migrants suffice to change the culture forever? We do not know. Clearly, more and more Danes and Europeans think so. It appears that European Muslims have worn out their welcome.

Will this work? We do not know. We do know that Danes are afraid, perhaps even panicking. They see what is going on in their neighborhood and they do not want any part of it.