Islam in Denmark

Islam in Denmark being the country's largest minority religion plays an important role in shaping its social and religious landscape. According to the U.S. Department of State, approximately 3.7% of the population in Denmark is Muslim. Other sources, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, cite lower percentages. However, according to figures reported by the BBC, about 270 thousand Muslims live in Denmark (4.8% out of a population of 5.6 million).

Majority of Muslims in Denmark are Sunni, with a sizeable Shia minority. Other Islamic denominations represented in Denmark include Ahmadiyya. In the 1970s Muslims arrived from Turkey, Pakistan, Morocco and the former Yugoslavia to work. In the 1980s and 90s the majority of Muslim arrivals were refugees and asylum seekers from Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Bosnia. In addition, some ethnic Danes have converted to Islam; an estimated 2,800 Danes have converted and about seventy Danes convert every year. However, an even larger amount of people, about 4,000, have converted to Christianity from Islam.

Religious freedom is guaranteed by law in Denmark, and as of 2005, nineteen different Muslim religious communities had status as officially recognized religious societies, which gives them certain tax benefits. However, unlike the majority of countries in the West, Denmark lacks separation of church and state, resulting in economic advantages for the Church of Denmark not shared by Muslim or other minority communities, although they are compensated by tax benefit.

Muslims in Denmark hail from many different backgrounds. During the 1980s and 1990s a number of Muslim asylum seekers came to Denmark. In the 1980s mostly from Iraq and in the 1990s mostly from Somalia and Bosnia. Another large Muslim group in Denmark is originally from Turkey, followed in number by refugees and their descendants from Pakistan, Kosovo, Iran and Lebanon.

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