A direct question for Daniel Pipes

Submitted by Octavio Johanson (Italy), Mar 16, 2005 at 12:34

The current Danish government has taken a very tough stance, amongst other things, against Muslim forced marriages.


The new legislation on family re-unions and marriages does not mention the word "Muslim", but the target of the legislation are Muslim spouses who are brought into Denmark from the Islamic world.

The Danish legislation on immigration is much more complex than this. However, this is an interesting aspect of the new Danish immigration reform.

Spouses under 24 years of age cannot be brought into Denmark and this obviously targets Muslim men who want to marry young women who were brought up in Muslim countries.

This legislation can be looked at from 2 different angles: 1) integration into Danish society will never take place if immigrants marry women from traditional Muslim societies

2) Forced marriages are wrong per se.

QUESTION: What is your opinion about the new Danish legislation on (mostly Muslim) forced marriages?

Thanks for a possible answer.

Octavio Johanson

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Daniel Pipes replies:

The legislation is imperfect but it's a reasonable attempt to wrestle with a major problem. I prefer the approach suggested by a Canadian politician outlined at http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/419.

DP