Rights of religious minorities

Section 67 of the Constitution protects the rights of citizens to be “… at liberty to form congregations for the worship of God in a manner according with their convictions, provided that nothing contrary to good morals or public order shall be taught or done”.

Section 70 lays down that “no person shall by reason of his creed or descent be deprived of access to the full enjoyment of civic and political rights, nor shall he escape compliance with any common civic duty for such reasons”.

Islamic communities are free to establish mosques in Denmark according to Danish law. Such communities have therefore already established a large number of mosques, though the exact number is not known.

Muslims living in Denmark are free to work as imams in the mosques by agreement with their religious communities.

Foreigners may come to Denmark and act as imams for a period. The exact number of imams in Denmark is not known.

Land has been provided in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense, among other places, where Muslim cemeteries have been established.

As is the case with other parents, Muslim parental groups may found private schools under the private independent school legislation. These schools receive some 75% of their funding from public sources. The Danish Ministry of Education does not categorise private independent schools in terms of their ideological or religious basis and is therefore not in a position to state the number of Muslim schools or pupils.

However, during the 2004/2005 academic year there were 21 private independent basic schools mainly or exclusively for bilingual pupils. This
figure, however, includes private independent basic schools for pupils speaking languages such as English and German.