Radio ReOrient S14:7: Surveilling Muslimness in Denmark, with Amani Hassani, hosted by Claudia Radiven and Amina Easat-Daas

In 2024, as Danish politicians campaigned on proposals to limit Muslims' ability to vote, borrow public spaces, or express their faith, a seemingly contradictory fact emerged: Denmark's pro-Palestine movement had become one of the strongest in Europe, holding weekly demonstrations across major cities. This tension—between state efforts to contain Muslim political agency and grassroots movements that refuse to be contained—runs through the entire Danish experience of Islamophobia, according to Amani Hassani, a lecturer at Brunel University whose research focuses on the Danish Muslim experience.

How Muslims came to Denmark—and how the state changed its posture

Muslims first arrived in Denmark in the late 1960s and early 1970s through a guest worker scheme that brought unskilled laborers from Turkey, former Yugoslavia, Morocco, and Pakistan. The arrangement was explicitly temporary and exploitative: mostly single men were invited to rebuild Danish society after World War II, with the expectation they would leave when no longer needed. When the oil crisis hit in the 1970s, the scheme ended, but many workers chose to stay, reuniting with their families and beginning to form communities in public housing around the major cities.