Danish Islamic Society

There's a power struggle going on in Denmark: Various Muslim Communities are competing for the right to represent all Muslims in Denmark. The stakes are high: The man who can speak to the Danish government as "Mr. Islam" will have a tremendous influence; The organization that can present itself in the Middle East as the True Defenders of the Faith will be able to funnel millions of petro-dollars into the right pockets.

One of these organizations is "Islamisk Trossamfund", which I dutifully translate as "the Danish Islamic Society". This might lead an unsuspecting reader into wrongly assuming that they represent all 200,000 Danish Muslims.

Surely their spokesmen do nothing to correct this misunderstanding. For instance when Akmed Akkari speaks about Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen Danish article, my translation, "Let us see now if he has convinced the Arab world. I doubt that a little. But we Muslims in Denmark are satisfied says Ahmed Akkari" or as the previous spokesman Kasem Ahmad said about the "campaign" in this Danish article: "With the exception of a very few hypocrites everybody support us. Furthermore one has to remember, that this not only concerns the 200,000 Muslims in Denmark, but 1,3 billion Muslims world-wide".

They seem to have made their point in some of the countries they visited, while showing their own false Mohammed drawings. Take this article from the Saudi Gazette:

DANISH Muslim leaders are being threatened with prosecution and banishment while the Danish editor-in-chief of Jyllands-Posten, Carsten Juste, refuses to apologize for printing blasphemous cartoons and defiantly says that he cannot promise not to reprint them or similar ones in the future.

Muslim leaders in Denmark are worried after the Danish People's Party announced that they are suggesting to the Danish government to prosecute the Muslim leaders who have been rallying Muslims around the world against the publication of 12 cartoons.

Yes, there has been talk about looking closer at the lying imams. The opposite would have been strange - with deaths in two digit figures and hundreds of millions in property damage. But in the state-controlled paper, the lying imams are equated with "Muslim leaders".

The newspaper EkstraBladet has checked the organizations that the society claim support their "crusade" against the twelve drawings. The list will be boring and repetitious but sometimes repetition is the key to understanding:

Swindler's list:

Union for Solidarity and Upbringing (Århus) - cannot be located
The Somali Culture and Upbringing Union (Århus) - Between 100 and 200 due-paying members - 400-500 if you include children
The Islamic Society on Fyn (Odense) - the union won't report the number of members. They refer to spokesman Akmed Akkari, who as usual says, "no comments".
The Somali Culture Union in Odense - number unknown
Islamic Information Centre (Odense) - 30 due-paying members
The Islamic Council in Denmark (Copenhagen) - The union claims to be a charity but the chairman Jehad al Farra admits that this is not the case. Between 100 and 150 members.
The League of Muslim Immigration Unions - an umbrella organization for 42 Turkish immigration unions. The chairman does not know the number of members.
The Islamic Society on Fyn (Odense) - this is a duplicate listing.
Pakistan Study & Culture Center (Odense) - cannot be located
Idara Minhaj Ul Quran (Odense) - about 200 members.
The Arabic Culture Center (Copenhagen) - cannot be located
Youth and Culture Center (Copenhagen) - cannot be located
Danish Islamic Society (Copenhagen) - Abu Laban's own union has 500 due-paying members - but about 1,500 supporters.
The Arabic Culture Union (Århus) - 180 members, 60 are between 5 and 17 years, the rest are younger than 25 years.
Equality and Brotherhood Union (Århus) - The union won't report the number of members, but a source from the union says that between 200 and 300 people visit the mosque.
Islamic Culture Center (Århus) - between 250 and 300 members
Multi Activity Union (Århus) - cannot be located
Al-Nour Youth Union (Århus) - has 150 members between 5 and 17 years. Does not want to appear on the list.
Al Helal Union (Århus) - cannot be located
The Family Activity House (Haderslev) - 92 members younger than 25. Including parents and other members: 140-150
The Somali Culture Union in Esbjerg - closed three years ago
Cultural Union for Children and Young (Aalborg) - According to the city: 618 members - 165 of these are older than 25 years.
The Eastern Union (Aalborg) - According to the city: 280 members - 68 of these are older than 25 years.
VUKF (Vejle) - 150-200 members. Does not want to appear on the list.
The Arabic Culture Union (Vejle) - cannot be located.
The Somali Culture Union (Vejle) - cannot be located.
The Arabic Friendship Union (Skive) - the union won't report the number of members. They refer to spokesman Akmed Akkari, who as usual says, "no comments".
Muslim Youth in Denmark (MUNIDA) - Won't report the number of members. According to the Net it's 41. Same address as Danish Islamic Society.

So the result is: Duplicates (1), cannot be located (9), closed (1), unwilling to be on the list (2). You will also note how often the words "culture" and "youth" are mentioned. This is no coincidence - religion (except for the official Lutheran church) is not funded - but culture and youth is. The Danish state will support unions who teach their young ones about Muslim culture, Arabic language, Quran-singing etc. etc.

I have already quoted Yakub Ekici, chairman of the Youth and Culture Union (Vejle) for saying, "I have never asked to be added on that list. As a matter of fact I don't think the delegation should have gone to the Middle East to discuss these here Prophet-drawings. We can easily discuss it openly here in Denmark."

The chairman for Al-Nour (Århus), Khaled Mansour, says the same, "We didn't want to be on the list. It's a mistake, that I'll demand be corrected. We only represent children and young, and therefore i don't think we belong on the list".

And just in case you think the reason EkstraBladet weren't able to locate 9 of unions, was that they were too lazy, they actually paid imam Abu Laban a visit. Imam Laban admitted that many of the names were added because he personally knew the chairmen. After some bargaining with the reporters, he admits that 15.000 would probably be a more correct number. EkstraBladet's guess is 5,000 - including small children. The double-tongued imam explains, "One could say that the list shows the truth plus sales tax".