Daniel Pipes interviewer Flemming Rose og Naser Khader

Jeg har fundet et interview, jeg ikke kendte. Det er fra september 2007 og stammer fra The Middle East Quarterly:

Naser Khader and Flemming Rose: Reflections on the Danish Cartoon Controversy

On March 9, 2007, Middle East Quarterly publisher Daniel Pipes interviewed Naser Khader, a prominent Danish parliamentarian, at the parliament building in Copenhagen, and Flemming Rose, who as culture editor of Jyllands-Posten commissioned the cartoons at the center of the controversy. After a brief leave of absence while the controversy cooled, Flemming returned to his duties at the paper. At the height of the violence in February 2006, Khader founded the Democratic Muslims in Denmark to unite moderate Muslims to stand against the radical imams fueling violence and intolerance. On May 7, 2007, Khader announced he would leave the Social Liberal Party to form the New Alliance after a party member and immigration spokesman donned a Muslim headscarf in an effort to pander to religious conservatives.

Naser Khader

Middle East Quarterly: You formed the Democratic Muslims in Denmark organization after the cartoon scandal, intending it to be the political voice of moderate Danish Muslims. How is it going?

 

Naser Khader: Before the cartoon crisis, I never wanted to begin a Muslim organization. I’m a firm believer that Danish Muslims should aspire to integrate into Danish life, and I felt that a Muslim political organization would serve to undermine this. But, as Islamists claimed to speak for all Muslims during the cartoon crisis rather than speaking for themselves personally or organizationally, I changed my view. Moderate Danish Muslims needed their own political voice. So, I started the Democratic Muslims in Denmark organization in response.

MEQ: What specifically did you do?

Khader: Right after the cartoon crisis broke, I recruited Mustafa Kassem, a distinguished scientist who shares my point of view. At first, we had great success because we were the opposition within the Danish Muslim community to the Islamists creating all the trouble. But later it became clear that although united in opposition to Abu Laban and other Islamist leaders, we had many differences among ourselves in the organization. For example, our views on women wearing the veil and the death penalty differed strikingly from each other. So, we hit some rocks and faced some difficulties. Recently, we decided to stay away from specific domestic issues and focus instead on our common belief that democracy is good and compatible with Islam.

Muslims of Denmark differ widely on politics and religion, and to our delight, it turns out that the largest group of Muslims were those who supported our work. A year ago, surveys showed our support at 18 percent. It has now gone down to 14 percent, but this is still a plurality and the largest group that the survey research has found. We were surprised, pleased, and inspired by this large number.

MEQ: Moderate Danish Muslims, it is said, are scared to join the network. Is that true?

Khader: Many Muslim members dropped out of the Democratic Muslims of Denmark because they were threatened. One board member was attacked physically. Young females are especially vulnerable. I remember a woman board member, a Somali, who said that she could not continue on the board because she was intimidated. When I went to visit her with a bodyguard, I encountered five to ten Muslims who were hostile to me. When I got out of the car and went to her flat, they smashed the police car. Extra police protection was brought in to help us. So there is a real and present physical danger.

Læs resten af Daniel Pipes dobbeltinterview med Flemming Rose og Naser Khader HER i Middle East Quarterly. Det er ganske interessant…