Anti-Muslim backlash

last updated 8 January 2015

Copenhagen, Denmark

Two dozen Muslim graves were desecrated in a Danish cemetery last week, in the latest sign of a growing anti-Muslim backlash. Support for the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party has surged in the wake of worldwide protests over cartoons satirizing the Prophet Mohammed. The far-right party gained 4 percentage points in the past two weeks, to nearly 18 percent support. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, for his part, said he wants to “start a dialogue with Danes of Muslim faith about, among other things, integration.” But he refuses to meet with established Muslim groups. He said he will meet instead with a new group called Democratic Muslims, which was set up earlier this month by a Muslim member of the Danish parliament.