Is Denmark Really Xenophobic?
Let me be honest. I have no doubt in my mind that Denmark these days is one of the most xenophobic countries in western Europe; one of the worst xenophobic parties in the western world, Danish People’s Party (which I’ve talked about before) is the third largest party in Denmark; the Danish government has cut down on immigration; Denmark is currently involved in a major political and diplomatic crisis because of satirical cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, etc., etc. (however, this situation is of course not directly related to the fact that xenophobia appears to be widespread in Denmark as well as in other European countries and the Danish population is not in any way responsible for this foolish publication of some cartoons - more comments about this below).
But can the relative xenophobia in the European countries be measured?
If there is one place where you - in principle - always can find the answer, its Google. So, I tried to search for the word “xenophobia” together with the name of certain countries. Here is how many hits Google returned:
1. 569.000 for xenophobia And france (60,7 million)
2. 558.000 for xenophobia And germany (82,4 million)
3. 352.000 for xenophobia And italy (58,1 million)
4. 341.000 for xenophobia And england (60,4)
5. 242.000 for xenophobia And austria (8,2 million)
6. 228.000 for xenophobia And sweden (9,0 million)
7. 206.000 for xenophobia And belgium (10,4 million)
8. 198.000 for xenophobia And portugal (10,6 million)
9. 180.000 for xenophobia And norway (4,6 million)
10. 169.000 for xenophobia And denmark (5,4 million)
The number in the parentheses is the population of the country in question. Maybe not so surprisingly, France and Germany top the list with Norway and Denmark taking last places, which actually surprised me. We all know about the problems with attitudes towards foreigners in France and Germany (and we should not forget the riots in the suburbs of Paris last month).
What if we look a relative index, which I more or less randomly define as the number of hits in thousands divided by the population in millions? Then we observe something completely different: Norway and Denmark top the list with Austria coming in at third place (which might not be too surprising for obvious historical reasons):
1. Norway 39.1
2. Denmark 31.3
3. Austria 29.5
4. Sweden 25.3
5. Belgium 19.8
6. Portugal 18.7
7. France 9.4
8. Germany 6.8
9. Italy 6.0
10. England 5.6
It is a strange historical fact that Norway also published the satirical drawings of Muhammad from the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. To conclude, in my mind, Denmark is not only xenophobic but also relatively xenophobic…
However, I also want to make the following completely clear: Liberty of expression is fundamental to our society. And I resent fanaticism in any form.
Concerning the cartoons mentioned earlier (and which are not really directly related to the question of how xenophobic Denmark is), there is a large amount of stupidity on both sides (for example has Prophet Muhammad been depicted several times earlier in history, both in the Western and the Arab world, see here, and therefore the question can not just be about depicting Prophet Muhammad; my guess is that it is much more about frustration and internal political conflicts). The question is not about the Prime Minister acting against freedom of expression. And the question should not, I think, be about politics (I don’t like mixing up religion with politics even though that might be impossible in principle). The question is about respecting other peoples beliefs - even though maybe only 0.0001% of the people demonstrating against Denmark have actually seen those satirical drawings…
Update: The origins of xenophobia in Denmark are analyzed by a Danish historian at Random Platitudes (this is, by the way, an excellent blog).
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what has to do a satirical cartoon of Prophet Muhammad with xenophobia? Do you want to resucite the Inquisition?
In Europe we have liberty of expression!!
The France and Germany scores are probably deflated due to the search being in English.
Certainly not! Liberty of expression is fundamental to our society. (Try reading my previous post). So, directly nothing. But indirectly, many things. You should know that Denmark is now almost “world-famous” for its treatment of foreigners (mostly Muslims), for its completely obnoxious media-coverage of problems with foreigners (again mostly Muslims), for its very strict immigration laws, for public statements by members of the Danish People’s Party - for example comparing Muslims to c*ncer cells etc etc…
Best, Kasper
@ Invcit: Sure, this is not - in any way - a scientific study. But MAYBE it reflects some trends in the GLOBAL discussion about xenophobia in different European countries…
Best, Kasper
Today I learned that muslim rebels in Iraq have issued a Fatwa against the Danish troops who are there as Denmark’s contribution to the Coalition. This shouldn’t really surprise anyone, as the issuing of Fatwas seems to be the standard answer to anything the muslims don’t like.
In honour of this latest Fatwa I have taken it upon myself to issue a Fatwa of my own.
I hereby decree that due to my blatantly apparent moral and ethical superiority to the Islamic extremists the following orders shall be carried out.
All Danish companies shall hire muslims only to carry out the most demeaning and trivial of tasks, and only if such tasks are rewarded with a low salary.
All Danish Universities and places of higher learning shall only accept one in a hundred muslims, and let even fewer graduate.
The Danish Police and Danish Courts shall arrest and convict muslims in such a number as to make them disproportionately represented in the various crime statistics (Sometimes by a ratio so disproportionate that they will be more than 1000 times more likely to commit certain crimes than native Danes)
The Danish Population shall treat muslims with contempt wherever they encounter them, leaving them to feel isolated both socially and economically.
So let it be written, so let it be done. My every command shall be carried out.
Wow, my Fatwa is already working….
Xenophobia - Bite me! Nobody has the right to limit the freedom of expression granted by the Constitution, regardless of how much their precious feelings have been hurt. Grow up, dry your eyes and move on.
I am not updated on the treatment by the Danish against Islam, but will be sure to read up on it further and return with informed finds. Nonetheless what are the historical reasons for this stance/anti-semitism (yes thats what it says - check the defoinition) from Denmark.
Kasper I am not sure I understand what you mean by juxtiposing xenophobia and the freedom of expression. Freedom of expression surely accommodates the fact that one is entitled to express a xenophobic attitude. It is not so black and white.
http://culture.wordpress.com
Read this: http://www.juancole.com/2006/02/muslim-protests-against-anti-muhammad.html
Interesting (if superficial) study of the popular view of the status of xenophobia in Europe. Worth remarking, of course, that this only reflects the views of the English-speaking, net-using population, and that it fails to take into account that not everybody who writes about the subject uses “high-falutin’ words” like “xenophobia”. All the same, an interesting read. For my view on the origins of the Danish xenophobic tendencies, see Origins of Xenophobia in Denmark at my blog.
RP, sure it is superficial. It was more or less just thought as an experiment
However, the result is not so much different from what I would have anticipated.
And BTW: it was quite interesting to read your historical account of xenophobia in Denmark.
Regards, Kasper
I can’t agree this is a scientific analysis.
Is Denmark really xenophobic?
The author equate xenophobia with Islamic critical - it’s two different topics.
If the author ever been travelling in Islamic countries, he would know, and if the author use his human sense, he also will recall, we have adopted many refugees and immigrants from different countries with Christian culture, but only had problems with integration in connection with Moslems.
Just take a phonebook and look up surnames in the register, and see how many alien names can be found, that have their origin from countries all over the world.
It’s a universal fact, that if we want settle in a new country, it might be because we find something in origin country we don’t like - why then bring it with us to a new country.
Also it’s universal fact, that if we settle in a new country, it must be on the conditions that is valid in this country.
It’s also universal fact - Moslem or Christian.