Turncoats, turans in Copenhagen and elsewhere

When you sit in your cosy living room in a tranquil part of the world as Copenhagen and Denmark is, you are always filled with the deepest respect for people, who stand up for the rights and fight for freedom and democracy. Who would have believed to see the fall of the Berlin Wall and East Germans in their Trabis drive through the Brandenburger Tor into the free west, the end of communism in Russia, one man one vote in South Africa?

Now and then we forget the gift of democracy and freedom. The pictures on CNN from Teheran helps me remember and be grateful.

In Denmark our votes are counted. In Denmark we can speak without fear. We can even follow the religion of our choise. Denmark is indeed a heaven of freedom. This freedom also obligates us to speak out against unjust elsewhere in the world.

This obligation was reminded by the Social Democratic polician from Copenhagen Lars Aslan Rasmussen. He demands the Islamisk Trossamfund (Islamic religious society) to condemned the leadership of the Islamic Republic of Iran - or they can forget all about a grand mosque in Copenhagen for the city's Moslem population. This came after the leader Willy Søvndal of the Socialistisk Folkeparti (Socialist Peoples Party) condemned the Iranian clergy and asking for a respond from the Imams of the Islamisk Trossamfund. The speakers of Islamisk Trossamfund calling Willy Søvndal a turncoat trying to gain Danish voters.

Now this demand rises several interesting debates seen in the light of Danish democracy.

How can a presidencial election in Iran have influence on the building of a grand mosque in Copenhagen? Since we enjoy freedom of religion in Denmark can any kind of mosque building project only be affected by the local Moslim population and their ability to buy a plot of land and raise the money needed for the construction of a mosque building.

How can the oppinion of Islamisk Trossamfund representing less than 10 % of the affiliated Moslems in Denmark be the mouthpiece of all Moslems in Denmark?

Whether a grand mosque is at stake or not, why is the leadership of a Islamic congregation in a democracy not condemning the misuse of their religion by a dictatorship killing its own people?

All these questions I ask myself quietly, as I think of the hard struckle of the Iranian people in their freedom fight. All this while I sit and watch CNN in my living room in - Baruch HaShem - Danish democracy...