The anti-Islam organisation Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark (SIAD) has been told by police to stay away when Denmark’s first grand mosque opens its doors for the first time today in Copenhagen.

The organisation had asked the police for permission for a non-violent demonstration in front of the mosque – located on Rovsingsgade on the border of the city’s Østerbro and Nørrebro districts – but the police rejected its application.

The police cited that they feared that the demonstration in front of the mosque would lead to personal attacks and vandalism, and that there would be a “considerable risk that public peace would be compromised”, they told SIAD in an email.

READ MORE: Politicians and royals steering clear of grand mosque’s opening

No demo
Instead the police referred the about 50-person demonstration to outside the front of parliament at Christianborg – a proposal that SIAD rejected.

“We could just have well have done it at Thorsø Station then,” Anders Gravers, the chairman and founder of SIAD, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “We wanted this to happen in front of the mosque.”

The rejection of the application by the police means that the demonstration has been cancelled.