Maajid Nawaz and Ed Husain visit Copenhagen, Denmark

Maajid Nawaz and Ed Husain visit Copenhagen, Denmark
3rd - 5th April, 2008

Maajid and Ed met with Muslim community leaders in Copenhagen and attended a public meeting on how to best counter extremist groups. The meeting was organised jointly by Critical Muslims http://www.kritiskemuslimer.dk/ and Quilliam Foundation. Despite the calls by Danish politicians to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir in Denmark, both Maajid and Ed called for open, democratic debate with extremists rather than shutting down operations.

While in Copenhagen, Maajid was interviewed by TV2 and Deadline (please select Sondag 06. apr. 2008 and scroll to the report and then interview with Maajid Nawaz), Denmark's most high-profile current affairs programme. Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper responsible for publishing cartoons of the Prophet, published a feature interview with Ed coinciding with the visit. Maajid and Ed both called for mainstream Danish society to recognise diversity within society, jettison the 'guest worker' mindset when referring to Muslim Danes, empower mainstream Muslims' organisational capacity, and challenged Hizb ut-Tahrir to a public debate. The event was chaired by prominent Danish journalist and academic Clement Kjesgaard

In addition to the above, Maajid and Ed met with normal, mainstream Muslims in neighbourhoods, community leaders, and prominent Danes.