Muslim Politician Could Be Kingmaker in Danish Elections

Naser Khader is one of Denmark's most popular MPs. Raised in a village outside Damascus by his Palestinian father and Syrian mother, the family moved to Copenhagen when he was 11.

Now the 44-year-old politician is set to play a key role in the outcome of next week's general election. He could be the the king maker of the country's next government.

The centrist party he founded six months ago, the New Alliance, currently holds 4.5% of the popular vote. This puts him in a position either to support the current prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who leads a center-right coalition, or the social-democrat opposition leader, Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Mr Khader's prominence is all the more paradoxical as this Nordic country of 5.4m inhabitants has gone through six years of virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric, led by the far-right Danish People's Party, the country's third most important political force, and a key parliamentary ally of Mr Fogh Rasmussen's minority government.

During that time, the DPP was able to push the government into introducing some of the toughest immigration rules in Europe. For instance, it is forbidden for Danish citizens aged 24 or under to bring in spouses from outside Denmark.

The immigration rules are so tough that Danes who marry foreigners often move to neighboring Sweden because it is easier to get a residence permit for their spouse there than in their own country. Many live in the Swedish city of Malmo and cross the bridge linking Sweden and Denmark to work in Copenhagen.

Whether to relax immigration rules and asylum policies has been one of the main issues of contention in this election - and is one of the issues that will determine who Mr Khader will support.

"We need to have more regular work permits, like the [US] green card, so we can attract highly qualified immigrants," he told foreign reporters yesterday. "We also need to allow asylum seekers to live among us, and not in asylum centers, where they lose their self-respect and skills, and children suffer [from the situation]."

Other top issues of debate in the Danish election include reform of the Danish welfare state and possible changes to the high level of taxation. Top-rate tax is 63% and many people pay it, including an estimated 60% of schoolteachers.

Another issue of contention is limiting the influence of the far-right DPP. This was one of the main reasons why Mr Khader quit his original party, the centrist Social Liberal Party, to create the New Alliance and try to play a "kingmaker" role.

As he met foreign reporters yesterday, Mr Khader recalled with a smile how he grew up in Copenhagen's red-light district. "My father thought we lived in the safest street in Copenhagen because the police was always there," he said.

Mr Khader is not the only prominent politician of Middle Eastern origins in Denmark. Asmaa Abdol-Hamid, a 25-year-old social worker from the far-left Red-Green Alliance, and the daughter of Palestinian political refugees, is also running for parliament.

If she is elected - and at this stage, it looks like she will - she would become the first MP to wear the hijab both in the Danish parliament, and in Europe.

Her decision has created a storm of controversy. "Some politicians said I should get psychiatric help, others questioned whether I should be a parliamentary candidate because I am a religious person," she told Guardian Unlimited yesterday.

The Danish general election will take place on November 13.