(SBU) BURQA: PM TRIES TO END DEBATE, DPP

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SUBJECT: (SBU) BURQA: PM TRIES TO END DEBATE, DPP
STOKES IT

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1. (SBU) Summary and Introduction: The Government
and opposition agree that a complete ban on wearing
face-covering garments such as the burqa or niqab
would be unconstitutional. At the same time, the
Government associates such garments with an agenda
that is oppressive to women and thus contrary to
Danish values. The topic gets a disproportionate
amount of press in Denmark; the Prime Minister's
Office has tried to close debate and restore
Government unity on the matter by instructing public
employers to enforce existing rules against wearing
the burqa/niqab in public-sector work places, and by
striving to increase the penalties for coercing
anyone into wearing them. The right-wing Danish
People's Party (DPP, on whose support the Government
depends) intends to pursue a total ban. Meanwhile, controversial
statements about Muslims by DPP
representatives could affect the party's reputation
and even the Government's. End Summary and
Introduction.

(SBU) PM SEEKS TO CLOSE BURQA BAN DEBATE
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2. (SBU) The office of Danish Prime Minister Lars
Loekke Rasmussen on January 28 issued a press release
on the outcome of a working group on the use of burqas
and niqabs in Denmark, concluding: "The Government is determined to
fight the view on(...) women which the
burqa and the niqab symbolize. The Government
therefore urges that existing rules and possibilities
for actually limiting the use of burqas and niqabs be
applied to the fullest possible extent." The
ministers of Finance, Interior and Social Affairs were instructed to
organize briefings of employers in the
national, regional and municipal governments: "All
public sector work places must be made aware of
existing rules and possibilities, so that burqas and
niqabs are not worn in central government, regional
or municipal work places."


3. (SBU) Existing rules in this area are almost
exclusively applied in a labor market context, to the
effect that almost all public sectors jobs -
especially those involving contact with clients -
require full facial visibility. Employers in both the
public and private sectors enjoy extensive freedom to
determine dress-code requirements for employees; in
very few cases will an employer allow the use of
garments covering the face, which in practice excludes
burqa- and niqab-wearing women from the Danish labor
market. However, there is no blanket ban on wearing
the burqa or niqab in public; the Government and the parliamentary
opposition agree such a total ban would
be unconstitutional.


4. (SBU) In addition, the PM's Office announced
intent to amend the criminal code to double prison
sentences for those forcing others to wear garments
covering the face. It also intends to change the
Administration of Justice Act so that only in rare
cases allowed by the court can witnesses in
courtrooms cover their face.

(SBU) DPP AND CONSERVATIVES FIGHTING FOR AGENDA
-------------- --


5. (SBU) The Government's parliamentary support
party, the Danish People's Party (DPP),has
repeatedly proposed a comprehensive ban against
wearing the burqa/niqab in public. The real challenge
for the Prime Minister started last summer when his
junior coalition partner the Conservatives proposed a comprehensive
reform of integration policy that
included a total 'burqa ban.' The proposal triggered
immediate opposition in the PM's Liberal Party
'Venstre,' and the Conservatives were embarrassed when
experts in the Justice Ministry (whose Minister Brian
Mikkelsen is a Conservative) determined that a total
ban would violate the constitution. The latest moves
by the PM's Office are an attempt to restore unity to
the ruling coalition; the Conservatives trumpeted them
as a "huge victory."

(SBU) DPP MP OFFENDS MUSLIMS, RISKS HURTING COALITION
-------------- --------------


6. (SBU) In a January 23 op-ed, DPP MP - and vicar -
Jesper Langballe wrote: "Of course... should not have
said that there are Muslim fathers who rape their
daughters, when rather the truth seems to be that
they merely kill the daughters (the so-called honor
killings) - and otherwise turn the blind eye to rape
by uncles."


7. (SBU) The PM strongly distanced himself from
Langballe's statement, when asked about it at his
weekly press briefing January 25. DPP leader Pia
Kjaersgaard too rejected the statement shortly
afterwards, calling it "stupid," while an apologetic
Langballe regretted any offensive effect of an ill-
considered humorous slant in his wording. Both
insisted on their right to discuss the topic of honor
killings, however. DPP foreign policy spokesman
Soeren Espersen stressed to Poloff and Pol FSN January
28 that Langballe's remarks did not represent the
party's position but were "stupid" and embarrassing,
coming from a generally intelligent and experienced
politician. Espersen had begun his meeting with the
Embassy by good-naturedly pointing to a newspaper
article calling him a "fool" - he was making the point
that Danish culture is used to rough-and-tumble verbal
jousting and expects people to keep a sense of humor
about it.


8. (SBU) Meanwhile, DPP MP Christian H. Hansen quit
the party last week to go independent, objecting to
what he perceived as excessive anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Hansen's defection does not alter the balance of
power, as he pledged to continue to support the
Government. Some commentators saw the DPP's continued
lack of discipline in the public debate as recalling
the image of a gathering of 'village fools' - that was
the commonly-used label for the Progress Party that
Pia Kjaersgaard quit in 1995 to form the DPP, which
she has labored hard to make respectable. While
Muslim-bashing plays to the DPP's base, the extremist
views expressed by some DPP representatives have the
potential of scaring away traditionally moderate,
tolerant, and humanitarian-minded right-of-center
voters and thus hurting the right-of-center ruling
coalition at the next election.

FULTON