DENMARK'S NASER KHADER TWO YEARS AFTER THE MOHAMMED CRISIS: POSTURING TRUMPS POLICY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COPENHAGEN 000970



SIPDIS



SIPDIS



STATE FOR EUR, EUR/NB, EUR/PPD, NEA, AND INR

DOD FOR OSD-POLICY - HURSCH, AND DASD MIKE DORAN



E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/15/2027

TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PTER, KISL, DA

SUBJECT: DENMARK'S NASER KHADER TWO YEARS AFTER THE

MOHAMMED CRISIS: POSTURING TRUMPS POLICY



1. (U) Classified by CDA Sandra Kaiser, reasons 1.4 (B) and

(D).



2. (C) Summary. Two years after the Mohammed cartoon crisis

catapulted him to prominence, Syrian-born Danish member of

parliament Naser Khader still fascinates and frustrates.

Khader used his post-cartoon crisis fame and considerable

personal charisma to launch a pro-democracy Muslim NGO and a

new centrist Danish political party. Yet even as he still

consistently polls as one of Denmark's most popular

politicians, Khader's influence is waning. He has long left -

some say abandoned - his NGO, and political observers here

have scratched their heads as Khader's new party has

squandered considerable political capital on poor execution

and a thin policy platform. Friends and foes talk openly of

Khader as a smooth but flaky policy dilettante who has

mastered the art of political communication but cannot

deliver on substance. Devout Danish Muslims keep their

distance.



3. (C) Summary continued. Khader also cannot figure out what

he wants from the USG. In the aftermath of the cartoon crisis

Khader personally has distanced himself from us, at times in

unhelpful ways. Khader recently issued a harsh and public

personal attack on Ambassador Cain, criticizing the Embassy's

successful efforts to reach out to a broad spectrum of the

Muslim community here. Khader has also set his new party on a

foreign policy course critical of the USG, particularly in

the Middle East. Khader still regularly travels to the U.S.

and seeks meetings with USG and private contacts to burnish

his image here at home as a policy heavyweight. Khader is,

for all his faults, an important politician here who, when he

engages constructively, can move the political center in

Denmark. His new party, while now diminished in the polls,

could still be a kingmaker in a future Danish government.

Washington interlocutors should make clear to Khader that he

cannot shore up an eroding political base at home by engaging

in opportunist attacks on USG personnel and policies in

Denmark. We should express to Khader a readiness to engage

with him seriously and substantively, provided that he does

so with us. End Summary.



Trial by Fire...

--------------



4. (C) It is now a little over two years since the Mohammed

cartoon crisis exploded and enveloped an unprepared Denmark

in an international firestorm of Muslim rage and retribution.

The crisis left in its passage a long list of victims,

including Danish government credibility in the Islamic world

and Danish exports to the Middle East. Another legacy was

testy relations between Denmark and its Muslim community and

within the Danish Muslim community itself. Only one man

seemed to emerge from the Mohammed crisis with integrity and

image not only intact but enhanced - Danish Member of

Parliament Naser Khader. Khader, a Syrian-born Palestinian

whose family emigrated to Denmark in 1974, won the hearts of

secular ethnic Danes during and after the crisis by attacking

Muslim reaction to the cartoons as overwrought and

hypocritical, and by proclaiming Denmark's free speech laws

inviolate, particularly in the face of violent attack. Ethnic

Danes saw Khader as the ideal "new Dane," an Arab whose

family successfully integrated in Denmark and elevated their

son through education and hard work to become a member of

Denmark's political elite.



5. (C) Khader repeatedly castigated Danish Muslims for

failure to appreciate and defend the democratic freedoms that

he said had given many of them shelter as refugees or

asylees. He saved particularly withering attacks for Danish

imams who traveled to the Middle East at the height of the

crisis and who, as seen from Denmark, added fuel to the

cartoon fire by spreading misinformation and rumors about the

cartoons and the treatment of Muslims in Denmark. In February

2006, Khader established the NGO "Democratic Muslims," which

Khader and co-founders launched as a rallying point for

moderate Muslims in the conviction that "we are the proof

that Islam and democracy are not incompatible." Khader's

launch of Democratic Muslims met with an outpouring of

financial and moral support from ethnic Danes, who joined an

associated "Friends of Democratic Muslims" in the tens of

thousands. Khader and Democratic Muslims (DM) quickly rose to

prominence across Europe as they toured the conference and

seminar circuit in the hope that other European Muslims would

"react and follow our lead."





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Two Promising Projects Wither on the Vine...

--------------



6. (C) Khader wanted Democratic Muslims as an organization to

focus exclusively on promoting integration and democratic

values, while other DM co-founders wanted to enlarge DM's

agenda to address other political issues of concern to

Muslims (the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, etc.). Khader

stepped back as these internal conflicts intensified, leaving

DM rudderless. Khader also in April/May 2006 largely withdrew

from public view after he became the target of threats from

within Denmark's Muslim community, who saw Khader's secular

and democratic agenda as a betrayal of Islam. Danish press

reports and embassy contacts all confirm that Khader

effectively suffered a nervous breakdown in the spring of

2006 as these pressures mounted. Still, when he re-entered

the public scene in summer 2006, Khader seemed ready to

re-engage.



7. (C) When Khader re-emerged, however, it was to leave DM

and turn his attention back to Parliament, where he fought

with other (Social Liberal) party members over the party's

positions on Muslim integration and other domestic issues.

Khader, still enjoying significant popularity in the polls,

soon emerged as a serious internal threat to his party's

leadership. After a series of increasingly public spats with

party leaders in early 2007, Khader announced in May that he

was founding Denmark's first new political party in a decade,

New Alliance (NA). Khader's stated goal in founding NA was to

position it to replace the anti-immigrant (and frequently

anti-Muslim) Danish People's Party in any future

right-of-center government. New Alliance immediately

registered polling support from 12 - 13 percent of Danish

voters, putting it in the ranks of those parties that could

make or break future governments. Yet over the course of the

summer, NA delayed again and again the launch of its party

platform and lost valuable momentum. Poll numbers fell, and

by the opening of the Parliament in mid-September, NA's

support numbers had fallen to around 5 - 6 percent. Khader

again dithered as initial supporters asked for policy

positions and threatened to withdraw financial support to the

new party. Khader's party now struggles in the polls, a

spent force even before it contests its first election.



Comment: What Does Naser Khader Want?

--------------



8. (C) Khader's experience with both Democratic Muslims and

New Alliance reinforces a view confirmed to us by other

parliamentary contacts, that of Khader as a personally

charismatic and media-savvy politician who is unable to

follow through on his best intentions. One prominent

parliamentarian, who has tangled publicly with Khader but

also told us he respects Khader's political instincts,

nevertheless described him as "flaky" when it came time to

turn ideas into concrete policies. Khader himself seems

unperturbed by these increasingly public criticisms, either

wrapping himself in a cloak of victimhood or redirecting fire

away from himself by attacking others.



9. (C) One of his increasingly preferred diversionary tactics

is to attack the USG. Khader rarely pronounced on USG foreign

policy during and after the Mohammed cartoon crisis, but as

he moved away from DM and toward New Alliance he began

issuing frequent criticisms of U.S. Mid-East policy, usually

focused on the war in Iraq or the Israeli-Palestinian

conflict. A favorite theme following New Alliance's founding

has been Guantanamo and detainee policy. Ambassador Cain has

personally reached out to Khader many times over the past

year to discuss, among other issues, both those that Khader

has criticized us for and to seek common ground with Khader

on our very active outreach program to Denmark's Muslim

community. Khader has ignored nearly all our invitations

(accepting only one to a reception for a visiting

Congressional delegation),but has continued to attack us in

the press. Khader issued a particularly severe personal

attack on Ambassador Cain on October 12 regarding the

Ambassador's recent Iftar dinner held on October 4. Khader

took issue with two guests on our Iftar dinner list, claiming

they were Islamic extremists and calling Ambassador Cain a

"useful idiot" for hosting them (along with more than 30

others from half a dozen different Danish Muslims

organizations). Khader also, in a bizarre event associated

with a visit to the U.S. earlier this year, attacked the U.S.

public broadcaster PBS for "censoring" him when it delayed

publication of a documentary that featured Khader, portraying



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the discussion as "the U.S." succumbing to public pressure

from Islamic extremists. Khader said he had much to teach

U.S. authorities about "the danger of giving in to Islamists."



10. (C) Khader continues to make regular visits to the U.S.,

and it is worth continuing to reach out to him. Khader

remains a popular politician in Denmark who is able to shape

the opinions of centrist Danes. We no longer view Khader as a

useful contact in promoting Muslim integration in Denmark. He

has been so vocal and extreme in his attacks on both

observant Muslims and our programs that we alienate more

Muslims by working with Khader than by ignoring him. The vast

majority of observant Danish Muslims don't agree with the DM

agenda and view Khader as a polarizing figure. Washington

audiences, in conversations with Khader, should remind him

why the U.S. seeks to engage broadly with Muslims in Europe -

even those who do not necessarily agree with us - and the

danger of harsh anti-U.S. invective. Unfortunately, for now,

Naser Khader is more interested in opportunist posturing than

in sincere dialogue and engagement. We welcome the day when

he might change that approach.

KAISER