Asmaa Abdol-Hamid has made clear what she thinks of the Danish soldiers stationed in Iraq: They are occupying Iraq exactly like the Nazis occupied Denmark in the Second World War. Those who fight against them are, consequently, not terrorists, but freedom fighters, and their combat is absolutely justified. Abdol Hamid, who only appears in public with head and hair carefully veiled, is a candidate on the unified list formed by Socialists and Greens for the upcoming Danish Parliamentary elections. Her remarks in late July had immediate and wide-ranging consequences: The conservative politician Rasmus Jarlov filed charges against her for treason. Since then, the debate has been raging in Denmark over whether she has in fact broken the law or Jarlov is simply a "Nazi" who does not want immigrants to enjoy the right to free expression. This is not the first time Abdol-Hamid has made headlines. Two years ago, she demonstratively refused to shake hands with male colleagues in the municipal assembly of the city of Odense. Contrary to some media reports, however, Abdol-Hamid is not a television announcer by profession, but rather a social worker. In Spring 2006, she was hired by the Danish television network DR2 to co-host an eight-part series on the Mohammed cartoon controversy with the atheistic journalist Adam Holm. She had come to the network's attention as the spokeswoman of the radical Islamic associations that filed charges against Jyllands-Posten, the newspaper that first published the cartoons.
Asmaa Abdol-Hamid: Former Islamist Spokeswoman Runs for Danish Parliament
