Denmark 2020 international religious freedom report

DENMARK 2020 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT

Executive Summary

The constitution guarantees the right of individuals to worship according to their beliefs. It establishes the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) as the national church, which has privileges not available to other religious groups. Other religious groups must register with the government to receive tax and other benefits. Muslim and Jewish leaders expressed concerns over the reintroduction of a resolution, with significant public and political support, to ban ritual circumcision of boys. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and the leader of the largest opposition party both opposed the resolution, which was scheduled for a parliamentary debate and vote in early 2021. Residents in select communities throughout the country filed discrimination lawsuits after they faced evictions under the government’s “ghetto” law regulations, which critics said targeted Muslim-majority areas. The same regulations required parents in the “ghettos” to send their young children to government day care and receive instruction in “Danish values,” including in Easter and Christmas traditions, in order to be eligible to receive social welfare payments. Parliament was considering a bill, reportedly with widespread support, that would require religious sermons to be translated into Danish to prevent the development of “parallel societies.” At year’s end, there were 14 foreign preachers on a government lists banning them from entering the country. The Pew Research Center categorized the country as having “high government restrictions on religion,” a ranking the Pew Center attributed in part to the government’s ban on face coverings.

Police reported 180 religiously motivated crimes in 2019, the most recent year for which data were available, 61 percent more than in 2018. There were 109 crimes against Muslims, 51 against Jews, eight against Christians, and 12 against members of other religions or belief groups. Most incidents involved harassment, hate speech, and vandalism, including desecration of cemeteries. In separate incidents, anti-Muslim protestors set a Quran on fire in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood, a man repeatedly kicked and punched a teenaged Muslim girl and tried to remove her headscarf, another man forcibly removed a Muslim woman’s face covering, and a Jehovah’s Witness was slapped while he was proselytizing. In January, unidentified persons vandalized a mosque in Copenhagen, and in September, on Yom Kippur, members of the Nordic Resistance Movement put up posters in 16 cities accusing the Jewish community of pedophilia in connection with circumcision.

The U.S. Ambassador and other embassy officials met with government representatives, including members of parliament and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Office of the Special Representative for Freedom of Religion of Belief, to discuss the importance of religious freedom. Embassy officials engaged with religious leaders from the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities throughout the year to discuss issues, including the debate on the proposed circumcision ban, the ban on ritual slaughter, the proposed bill requiring the translation of sermons into Danish, and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on their faith practices.
They also met with media to discuss the proposed circumcision ban. In their discussions, embassy officials stressed the importance of religious freedom and tolerance.