On Saturday, the Iranian singer Parastoo Ahmadi was arrested for performing without a hijab. Although she has since been released, the arrest has invited condemnation across the West. One such critical country was Denmark, where a politician from the Moderate Party called it “crazy” and many more condemned the move from the Iranian regime. But while warranted, denunciations of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s morality police can ring hollow in Denmark in 2024.
Two weeks ago, Denmark’s controversial Quran law celebrated its first anniversary. To mark the occasion, the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) praised the Danish government in the publication Politiken, stating that although only six people have been investigated under the law in the last year and no one has been charged, it works as a “strong deterrent and symbolic declaration against religious hatred”. At the time, many defended the law by claiming it protected Danish Muslims against Islamophobia. It was also argued that it would keep Danes safe abroad, although most weren’t keen to clearly state the source of the threat — with the exception of those who observed that the Quran law was brought in, among other reasons, “to appease the Iranian theocracy”.
On the anniversary, Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen proclaimed the law a “success”, as it ended the Quran burnings that were domestically unpopular and stoked tensions abroad. The far-Right politician Rasmus Paludan who burned cheap editions of Qurans across the country — once pouring buttermilk over it first to symbolise the “semen from Christian men and apostates” — made defending the bill look suitably sensible. Books should be read, not burned, said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen at the time. While the Danish establishment continues to defend the law, in practice it prioritises religious sensitivities over freedom of speech.