There has been some storm over the straits of Kattegat, and the town of Elsinore has been devastated by international critique of the harsh measures the current PM has taken towards refugees.
But it is not that simple, really. Mind you, I do agree that the current PM is a stupid buffoon, but I do also agree that we have to be really careful about who we are letting into our country. Denmark does not have vast swathes of virgin land that one can settle on. It is a tight, ancient little community where everybody knows everybody. Newcomers are kept in social check for generations before they are accepted, and you can’t just wander in and settle.
But, truly, Danes are not racist bigots. In fact we are as far from as it a is possible. We do not care about skin colour, most of us, and we are proud of our history as liberal, humanistic and free.
It is this peculiar mix of, at the one hand, an ancient tribal culture, and at the other hand a modern liberal worldview, that has clashed with each other and brought out something new and special.
Gun swinging, Texas style prejudice and the like would never work in Denmark. Not that we do not like those swaggering prairie heroes, after all, most of the descent form Danes, but the liberal love for gays and feminism is just too ingrained in our culture, to heave to the old-fashioned ideas.
So we try and look at the effects of the migration and still hold on to our own values. After 9/11 I think most Danes realised that muslim migration is not unproblematic. Most Danes still did not grasp the true significance of the catastrophe, but we just had a huge backlash of anti migration feeling in Denmark, and muslims were truly not that popular. People were getting afraid of the long term consequences of the muslim migration. Then more and more terror started to happen, also in Denmark, where widespread thuggery and rape was starting to happen. Gays were targeted, our women couldnt be safe in the streets and so on. Then came the Mohamad cartoon crisis, the Charlie Hebdo attack, the Lars Vilks attack, and you must say, empirically, that muslim migration was not unproblematic.
The difficult thing for us Danes, has been to be nuanced in a situation where absurd atrocities has happened to our children; gays being beaten up, little girls mutilated, a living hell. How to counter this rape of not only our people, but also our culture, without loosing our sanity?
Here my contribution has been to weigh off the different political strands and ideologies. I have stood on a humanistic and democratic ground, and criticised whoever and whomever were doing things here. I have criticised the right and the left. I have criticised the muslims and some of those who are against muslims.
This has lead to the fight against not all muslims, but those who adhere to the political version of islam, the islamists. Hence the fight against IS.
There are two things that are criticisable with IS, one the political confrontation to democracy, and second the inhuman content of the ideology, massraping, using of slavery and so on.
This nuanced understanding of the conflict has become worldwide, and has, actually had many muslim supporters, that do not see islam as a raping and pillaging religion, but as a humanistic religion. These are my true and best of friends.
So, really, the discussion is much more diverse and complicated than just the West against the Muslims.
It is a complicated conflict, where we have to be sharp on our own values, and see the depth on the conflict, instead of just the superficial pros and cons. This is, in my view, the road to freedom and justice.
G-d bless the wisdom of political thought, and may it prevail.