Unless the Islamic organisation Islamisk Trossamfund distances itself from controversial statements made by the local religious community and visiting imams, the city of Copenhagen says it will stop working with the organisation.

The organisation has, according to the city, welcomed an imam who advocated stoning and who said that Jews were descended from apes and pigs. Islamisk Trossamfund has denied the imam said the latter.

30 days
City politicos have set a one-month deadline for the society to renounce the inflammatory statements.

“We have given them one month to denounce these preachers and their statements,” municipal councillor Lars Aslan Rasmussen told Berlingske. “If they do not, the majority of the city’s municipal council will stop co-operating with them.

Rasmussen said Islamisk Trossamfund does not “meet the democratic principles on which Danish society is based”.

Legal action a possibility
Islamisk Trossamfund disagrees with the municipal council and is ready to take the issue to court.

“We are going to pursue several of these cases and these libelous allegations,” Islamisk Trossamfund spokesperson Imran Shah told Berlingske. “This is an unprecedented and unjustified demonisation.”