Denmark: Proposal to register crimes against converts as hate crimes

Denmark: Proposal to register crimes against converts as hate crimes


Violence and threats against converts in Denmark should from now on be registered as hate-crimes, several parliamentary parties announced. The parties want to ensure that criminal acts against converts will bring about a harsher punishment, as is now the case for crimes against homosexuals.

Kristeligt Dagblad recently reported how several Christian converts with refugee or immigrant background were baptized in secret for fear of threats and violence against themselves and their family, both in Denmark and abroad.

The publication caused the parliament's Ecclesiastical Affairs Committee to ask the Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, Birthe Rønn Hornbech (Liberals) for an account of the extent of the problem. The minister answered that she didn't know of concrete cases of secret baptisms, but that she requested both the Justice ministry and the Interior and Social Affairs ministry for a report.

Today the law already allows for the possibility of helping converts who feel threatened, according to Karen Klint, Church matters spokesperson for the Social-Democrats, who cites article 81 of the penal code which says hate-crimes based on ethnic origin, faith and sexual orientation can be punished more harshly.

Karen Klint says that just as violence against homosexuals should be registered as hate-crimes, the same should be done when the persecution is due to a person's religious situation.

Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen, church matters spokesperson for the Red-Green Alliance, has the same attitude. Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen says the legislation is already in place and it just needs to be used.

She adds that the problem can't be completely dealt with politically.

"We certainly can't forbid families from disagreeing and it doesn't matter whether it's Muslim families who can't accept a Christian daughter, or an Inner Mission family which casts out a homosexual son. But we can help those who are outcast, and thus we can ensure that decidedly criminal acts lead to harsher punishment, when it's about hate-crimes," says Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen.

Pernille Vigsø Bagge, the Socialist People's Party's church matters spokesperson also calls for persecution of converts to be registered as hate crimes.

"It's an important element in the constitutionally-ensured freedom of religion that people won't be persecuted for changing religion, and therefore people should naturally use the means available. We might accept that in some religious groups, both Christian and Muslims, converts are outcast, but we can't accept actual persecution," says Pernille Vigsø Bagge.

Charlotte Dyremose, Conservative church matters spokesperson, says the same. The starting point should be that already today criminal persecution of converts should be registered as a hate crime, and if that's not the case, it should be. Freedom of religion doesn't mean anything if one isn't assured the right to also change religions. Charlotte Dyremose also stressed that politically it is only possible to intervene in real criminal acts. Families can stop being friends for many things, and it's not something we can intervene in, as long as it's within the legal limits. We must help those who feel outcast, but we can't make a law that forbids parents from disagreeing with their child's conversion.

It was not possible to get a response from the Liberal Party and the Danish People's Party.

Source: Kristeligt Dagblad (Danish)

See also: Denmark: Teenagers convert to Islam at home