Precis

It’s one of the most open and equal countries in the world. Denmark has long had a reputation for welcoming migrants and protecting its minorities. But these days there are fractures in this once cohesive society. Its mood of tolerance has shifted and now migrants feel on the outer.

“When do you feel Danish? What is Danish?” asks actress and comedian Ellie Jokar, who arrived in Denmark from Iran with her family when she was four. Now she feels she lives in a no man’s land.

"I define myself as a grey zone kid because people like me are not accepted by the Danes and not accepted by the Muslims.”

In recent years, the government has passed a hundred laws which place strict controls on immigrants: they’ve frozen the intake of refugees, banned the burqa in public and made it mandatory for children of migrants to attend Danish cultural training from the age of one.

The laws are some of the most draconian in Europe and have the backing of both sides of politics. Some areas with large immigrant populations have been designated as ‘ghettos’, where you get double the punishment for a crime.

Foreign Correspondent reporter Hamish Macdonald travels through Denmark in midsummer and takes the temperature of a country in the middle of an identity crisis.

He meets a far-right politician whose provocative stunts include throwing around the Koran and who often needs a police entourage when he appears in public. He wants all Muslims deported.

Hamish visits a young Muslim woman who has been driven indoors by the burqa ban, and he has lunch with the local councillor who’s making pork compulsory on the menu at restaurants and schools in his area.

“If you want to be integrated and accepted, they must also accept the way we live,” he says.

Hamish also takes a ride in Ellie’s pink taxi – made famous in her popular YouTube show – where she interviews Danes from all sides of the political fence, using humour to navigate and explore the cultural divide.

“I meet people that are different than me… and I try to get to the bottom of, how did they become extreme Muslims? Extremist right wing?” she says. But Ellie is increasingly worried about the growing divisions in her country and longs for strong leaders who can build bridges.

“So the Danes are over here. The Muslims are over here and…they don't really know how to communicate.”

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  It’s not all pastries and boat trips in the state of Denmark. There is something is rotten going on here.

"Don't step in front of the camera… Okay, we'll see you later."

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:  Could you please take the 700,000 Muslims from Denmark? Just take them with you to your neighbourhood in Australia.

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter: The country that famously saved its Jewish population from the Nazis in World War 2 has turned against its minorities

AISHA:  Yeah they call me a ninja but also terrorist, and a lot of other stuff.

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Freedom loving Denmark is having an identity crisis.

ELLIE:  When do you feel Danish? What is Danish? What feeling do you have when you're Danish?

Episode teaser:

Music

00:00

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  It’s not all pastries and boat trips in the state of Denmark. There is something is rotten going on here.

"Don't step in front of the camera… Okay, we'll see you later."

00:11

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:  Could you please take the 700,000 Muslims from Denmark? Just take them with you to your neighbourhood in Australia.

00:23

Music

00:30

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter: The country that famously saved its Jewish population from the Nazis in World War 2 has turned against its minorities

00:34

AISHA:  Yeah they call me a ninja but also terrorist, and a lot of other stuff.

00:48

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Freedom loving Denmark is having an identity crisis.

00:53

ELLIE:  When do you feel Danish? What is Danish? What feeling do you have when you're Danish?

00:57

Rural tavern. Title: THE STATE OF DENMARK

01:09

Hamish into tavern. Super:
Reporter
Hamish Macdonald

01:17

Food cooking in tavern kitchen. Hamish in kitchen

Music

01:23

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  It’s nudging the high thirties in Denmark today and our producer has had the frankly inspired idea of sending me to a cosy 17th Century Danish tavern in the countryside for four courses of prime Danish Pork! 

01:33

Hamish:  "It's so hot… You don't have an air conditioner?"

01:48

"I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite so much pork in my life.”

02:00

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  The choice seems to be pork with eggs, pork with fish, or pork with pork.

02:03

But pork in Denmark these days, is no laughing matter.

02:13

I’ve come here tonight to meet a Dane who’s very proud of this tradition.

02:20

Hamish with Frank Noergaard at table for meal

Frank Noergaard is a local politician who takes pork pretty seriously.

02:31

Hamish:  "Right, cheers! Skoll! Nice to meet you, Frank."

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Frank is a member of the right-wing Danish People’s Party. 

02:37

"Can you tell me what all of this is? What am I eating?"

Frank:  "You are eating pork."

Hamish: "Yeah, I got that!"

02:45

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  For Frank, what’s served up on plates is now a matter of national importance, even national identity. 

02:52

FRANK NOERGAARD, Randers Councillor:  So we have to be aware of who we are and what we are going to in the future.

03:00

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  When a local kindergarten took pork off the lunch menu because Muslim parents didn’t want their kids near it, Frank and many others were upset.

03:08

FRANK NOERGAARD, Randers Councillor:  We think it’s a part of being Danish.

03:17

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  His council passed regulations which in many ways reflect a broader, seismic shift underway right now in Denmark. They’re forcing pork to be offered in all public institutions.

03:21

FRANK NOERGAARD, Randers Councillor:  I will eat pork from now until my death. But I also fight for my children and their children will be able to eat pork in day-care, in elderly centres, everywhere.

03:34

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Do you feel like, as a politician, you've sort of targeted one group of the community and said, you know, "You must live like us."?

03:52

FRANK NOERGAARD, Randers Councillor: If you want to be integrated and accepted, they must also accept the way we live.

04:00

Copenhagen GVs. Summer activity

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04:06

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Things are pretty free and easy in the capital, Copenhagen. It’s midsummer and just about the whole country’s on holiday.

04:15

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04:23

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:   Denmark led the way in being free – the first country in the world to legalise porn, this place is every bit the Scandinavian stereotype.

04:29

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04:39

Copenhagen. Hamish cycling

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:   Denmark is probably about as close as you can get to a high functioning society – everything here just seems to work.  They’re healthy, they’re wealthy, and officially some of the happiest people on Earth.

04:46

But something quite radical is happening here. This country has introduced some of the most draconian laws on the planet, targeting migrants and Muslims. So, how did this country of fairy tales, and great design and tolerance, find itself here?

04:59

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05:16

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  For all its historic charm, this is a very modern, dynamic place. Denmark’s been on a real journey in recent years, and so today I’m going on one, too. 

05:22

Ellie pulls up in Pink Taxi and greets Hamish. Hamish into car

05:33

Ellie:  "Hello!"

Hamish: "Hi, Ellie. How are you?"

Ellie: "I'm good. How are you?"

Hamish: "Busy here… Nice to meet you."

Ellie: "Seatbelt on."

Hamish: "Okay."

05:37

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Meet Ellie Jokar—stand-up comedian, rapper, Muslim – and the music you’ve just been hearing? That's her.

05:48

Hamish: "That's a convenient name for a comedian, ‘Jokar’."

Ellie: "Yes, I know."

05:55

Hamish: "That's your real name?"

Ellie: "Yes, that's my real name, imagine."

05:59

From YouTube: Pink Taxi titles

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06:02

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Ellie stars with her pink taxi in a popular YouTube series. She talks to conservative Muslims, and right wingers; prominent people with a point of view.

06:05

Ellie and Hamish in Pink Taxi driving around Copenhagen

ELLIE JOKAR:  In The Pink Taxi, I drive around people that I find interesting, people that have a story, people that have something they want to share. And I take them for a ride.

06:21

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Very often these days, the big topic is migrants. In this small country of nearly six million people, around 700,000 have arrived in the last 40 years – about 300,000 are Muslim. A lot of Danes have now decided they don’t like it.

06:38

Paludan in Pink Taxi episode. Super:
The Pink Taxi
February 2019

Some, like this extremist politician, Rasmus Paludan, are spinning the numbers, and calling for Muslims to be expelled altogether.

06:55

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:  Listen, the 700,000, they're Muslims. Probably not one is good enough to remain.

07:07

Ellie and Hamish in Pink Taxi

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  How do you handle it when it's people that, for example, don't want you in the country? People that don't like Muslims, don't like migrants. Are you happy for them to get in the car?

07:13

ELLIE JOKAR:  Yeah.  I meet people that are different than me, most often, and I try to get to the bottom of, how did they become extreme Muslims, extremist right wing or whatever.

07:24

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter: Does it sit comfortably with you, that some of them don't even want you here?

07:40

ELLIE JOKAR:  One thing that is very important to remember is, I was brought up in a democratic country. If they have an opinion about, they want me out, then I challenge them and say, “So, if you want me out, how do you want to throw me out? And then when you talk to them, you kind of find out that they don't really have an idea, they have a wish, or they're just angry about something else that is bothering them.

07:44

Policeman cordons park. Paludan greets Hamish

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Massive fractures are appearing in Denmark’s once cohesive society.

Rasmus: "Australia?"

Hamish:  "Yes that’s us."

08:12

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter: And Rasmus Paludan is a symptom of that. He leads an extreme right-wing political party. It's called Stram Kurs, which means, basically, ‘Hard Line’. Today, he’s standing in a quiet park in a multicultural suburb of Copenhagen.

08:22

Hamish to camera at park

This has got to be one of the most absurd things I’ve ever seen. There are riot police everywhere, even in vans down the alleyway, and inside two rings of police tape is a fully grown man making social media content, claiming that he wants to express himself.

08:40

Hamish and Paludan

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:  I was a very, very famous person during the election in Denmark -- I guess I still am a pretty famous person here, and that means that many religious fanatics, Islamic terrorists and such, they want to kill me, because they think I have desecrated their Koran in different ways.

08:58

Paludan and supporters toss Koran around as Muslim women walk in park

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  This seems to be how Rasmus works: do something provocative, like throw a Koran in an area with a big Muslim population, wait to see what happens and then create some content to feed into the alt-right online stream. He stages these stunts regularly.

09:21

Projections of riot footage on building wall

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09:43

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  In April he did it and riots flared a cross Copenhagen. In the first four months of this year he cost the Danish taxpayer more than $9million in security costs. And while he failed to win a seat in the election, it has put him on the map politically. He scored enough votes to secure electoral payments of nearly half million dollars a year for the next three years.

09:47

Hamish and Paludan

"You know when you throw that, that that's highly offensive to Muslims of all varieties. So what's the intention?"

10:10

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:  Yes… The intention is to explain to them and make them understand that that is the premise of being a citizen in a democratic society. For instance, when they tell me, that they're just as much Dane as I am, I find that extremely offensive.

10:19

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Even if they're born here?

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:  Well, that doesn't matter.

10:34

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  But isn't someone born here, that's a Danish citizen, a Dane?

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:   No, no, no, no. The Danes are an ethnic group. And we are hailing from the Germanic tribes that came here many hundreds of years ago. We're an ethnic group together with the Swedes, and the Norwegians, and to a lesser extent, the Icelanders and so forth.

10:37

Paludan leaves park

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:   Now, nothing much happens here today. Rasmus packs up and leaves. And so, too, do the police. But as we hang around to film the area afterwards, we get a glimpse of how fragile it is here.

11:00

Hamish piece to camera. Woman interrupts

And I guess that shows that underneath this very friendly face that Denmark shows you, there's something much darker at play. 

Woman: "What is it you don't understand? You're filming the same way as before."

Hamish:  "It's a public space."

11:12

Woman swipes at camera

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  A group of extreme leftists, anti-fascists, appear, almost out of nowhere to let us know we’re not welcome.

11:27

Hamish and crew leave

Woman:  "And you don't have any plans to—"

Hamish:  "Don't touch the camera. Okay, let's just get out of here… Don't step in front of the camera… Okay. We'll see you later."

11:35

Hamish driving, to camera

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  You can see how quickly things turn in Denmark today. That was really just probably five minutes, I think, since the police left the scene. And those people were really angry and really agitated. And I’ve got to say, pretty threatening. And for all the things that Denmark projects itself as – as friendly, as open, as tolerant – I guess it's that kind of thing that obviously exists not very far below the surface.

11:47

Rainy Copenhagen GVs/Hamish on bike

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12:22

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:   Political change, a bit like the weather in a Danish summer, is sweeping through here quickly, at both national and local level.  

12:32

Hamish on bike, to camera

Now, we’re not just talking about a few tweaks to policy here and there. We're talking about a wholesale change in the way that Denmark views migrants, and Muslims. And last year, this country celebrated passing 100 new laws reflecting just that. Among them, strict new controls on all migration.

12:46

They’re even offering money to people already here to go back to where they came from. The children of migrants are being put through Danish cultural training from the age of one. There’s an effective ban on the burqa and the niqab, and migrant areas are being officially designated ‘ghettoes’, and earmarked for bulldozing.

13:04

Aisha looking out window

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13:25

Hamish arrives at Aisha's

13:30

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:   The burqa ban was introduced to encourage integration. But it’s pushing some people quite literally behind closed doors. Today, I’m going to meet Aisha. She’s 20 and was born here in Copenhagen to Turkish parents.

13:34

Aisha 100%

AISHA:  The face scarf is called a niqab, and the head scarf, which I wear around my face, is called a hijab.

13:53

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter: Tell me, how did you decide to start wearing the veil.

14:03

AISHA:  I started wearing the veil two or three years ago. I started wearing it because I wanted to get closer to God. It is like a sign of dedication and love for Him.  

14:05

Aisha at home, sits with book

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14:17

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Aisha says no one, certainly not any man, has forced her to do this, but the conscious choice she’s made, is having a huge impact on her life.

14:24

AISHA:  When someone looks at me with hate, you can see automatically. For some, they don't just stare at you with hatred but they also say stuff. Say mean stuff and racist stuff to you.

14:36

Aisha 100%

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Like what?

AISHA:  Like, 'ninja'. But that's the cute one.

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  They call you a ninja?

AISHA:  Yeah they call me a ninja, but also terrorist, and a lot of other stuff.

14:47

Aisha looks out of window

Music

15:03

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Under the Burqa ban, if she leaves her home wearing the veil, she faces fines starting at $200.

15:10

AISHA:  I used to work and go to school before this ban, but now I am all the time at home.

15:19

Aisha 100%

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  How does that make you feel?

AISHA:  It makes me feel sad, because I was born and raised in this country.

15:26

I love this country. So I think that it is important that we remember that we are in Denmark. And in Denmark there is freedom of speech and freedom of religion. I have the right to practice my religion and wear the clothing that I want to wear.

15:31

Hamish driving through countryside to Jelling Rune Stone site

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  And Aisha’s right, Denmark is a place where freedom is paramount.

15:46

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15:52

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  This is a country that prides itself on equality and tolerance, so the current push against Muslims and migrants is provoking some serious soul searching.

15:57

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16:06

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:   To see how they got to this point, it might be worth going back to where it all began.

16:12

Music

16:17

Jelling Rune Stone

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  At the doorstep of a little church in the Danish heartland, in a giant glass case, is a landmark from the Viking era, it’s called the Jelling Rune Stone.

16:23

Hamish to camera

The big rock that everybody comes here to see is known as Denmark’s birth certificate.

16:37

Jelling Rune Stone

King Harald Bluetooth had it struck back in 965 AD. And crucially, on the back there’s a depiction of Christ and a crucifix, and that symbolised that this had become one united kingdom that was Christian.

16:43

Hamish to camera

Now, it was King Harald’s great powers of communication that had united what had been warring tribes. And it's for that same reason that some 1,000 years later that we named some new technology after him – Bluetooth.

17:00

Drone shot over buildings

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17:13

Muslim women in park, on street

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Denmark remained largely white and Christian for a thousand years, up until the 1960s when the first wave of migrants arrived

17:20

Hamish into Pink Taxi

– mostly from Turkey. Some, like Ellie’s family, from Iran, were pretty much pioneers.

Hamish: "Don't hit the cyclist.

17:27

Ellie and Hamish in Pink Taxi

So where are we going today Ellie?"

Ellie: "We are going to see my mum."

Hamish: "Your mum?"

Ellie: "My mum."

Hamish: "Okay. Tell me about your mum."

17:42

Ellie: "My mom is the coolest woman in the world."

Hamish: "Right."

Ellie:  "My mom is Persian, of course. She's one of the strongest women I know."

17:52

Hamish and Ellie with Ettie at wedding preparations

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Ellie’s mum, Ettie, arrived here when she was 28. She started from scratch building a new life with her young family.. 

18:07

Hamish:  "So this is it!"

Ettie: “We are making it for 100 person for tomorrow."

Hamish: "100 people turning up?"

Ettie:  "Yeah."

18:16

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  She’s a wedding planner now, a business she started 18 years ago – was one of the first catering for Muslims.

18:25

Ettie:  "Tomorrow is only women."

Hamish:  "Okay."

Ettie: “We don’t have any men here."

18:32

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  They’d fled from Iran after the revolution in 1979. They’d helped a Jewish family escape, and the secret police were after them.

18:36

Ettie and Ellie sit with Hamish

ETTIE:  If we stayed, I was 100% sure my husband can be hanged.

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  He would be hanged?

ETTIE:  Hanged. I was really very sure. 

18:45

ELLIE: The only thing we had was the clothes that we wore. We walked four days to Turkey.

18:58

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  What was your first impression when you got to Denmark?

19:04

ETTIE:  It was a very good, and people was very kind. They reassured us, "You are in Denmark, you are safe and you are with us. in our house. We are here and help you.

19:07

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Do you think that Denmark as a society has changed since then?

ETTIE:  From that time? Yes. 

19:21

They don't want to accept us as Danish, but I feel I am Danish.

19:33

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  How does that make you feel, having lived here for 40 years?

19:39

Ettie upset

ETTIE:  I feel I am home. My country. Here is my country. I'm living here. But I don't know. I don't know. Maybe tomorrow will come some law will say, “You must go back”?  We don’t know.

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Is that really what you think?

ETTIE: Yeah… Yes. It's not only me; I know many people.

19:42

ELLIE:   I didn’t know you had an urge to become a Dane. I didn’t know she wanted to be a Viking!  

20:32

When do you feel Danish? What is Danish? What feeling do you have when you're Danish? Isn't it just getting along with people, getting along with your neighbour?

20:40

Isn't that just being a human being? What is it that is so important for us human beings that we feel like we have to claim a country and say, "This is my place?"

20:51

I define myself as a grey zone kid, because people like me are not accepted by the Danes and not accepted by the Muslims or the Persians. So, I make fun of all of this.

21:01

Drone shots. Copenhagen

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21:17

People on street/Riot footage projection

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  So what has turned Denmark against people like Ellie and her mum? It wasn’t just 9/11. When a Danish newspaper published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in 2005, causing riots to flare around the world, two hundred people were killed and the violence shocked many Danes.

21:26

Hamish cycling

It set the country on a very different course.

21:45

Music

21:49

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  I want to meet one man who is central to all of this, negotiating a lot of the new anti-immigrant laws. Martin Henriksen is spending summer at his farm.

21:53

Hamish with Henriksen

He was in parliament for 15 years with the right-wing People’s Party.

22:03

Do you acknowledge that some Muslims that have lived here for a very long time, who are citizens, good upstanding citizens now feel less welcome, because of these politics.

22:08

MARTIN HENRIKSEN, Danish People’s Party: Well, basically no.

22:18

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  You don't acknowledge that?

22:21

MARTIN HENRIKSEN, Danish People’s Party:  I know that somebody has that feeling. I won’t deny that people are having those feelings, but I actually think that the debate is very strange, because a lot of the debate is about how Muslims are feeling. I think the debate should be about how Danes are feeling about that they are treated like foreigners in some areas of their own countries. That’s the debate we should have.

22:24

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  And what makes Denmark even more interesting is that it’s not just the right wing parties, a new Social Democrat government has just been elected – the left, too, is embracing these policies.

22:46

Did this year’s election in Denmark prove that you cannot win an election here, you cannot form government, unless you convince the public that you're going to be tough on migrants and tough on Muslims?

23:01

MARTIN HENRIKSEN, Danish People’s Party: You have to be tough on migration or you have to at least act like you’re tough on migration. And that’s one of the reasons why the Social Democrats are coming to power in my view.

23:12

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  They couldn’t have won without doing that?

23:23

MARTIN HENRIKSEN, Danish People’s Party:  I don’t believe so. No, I don’t believe so.

23:25

Drone shot. Vollsmose

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23:28

Vollsmose GVs

23:30

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  This is Vollsmose. Officially it’s a ghetto, one of 29 across the country - with high migrant populations, low incomes and high crime rates.

23:37

Ali boxing at gym

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23:48

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:   If you commit a crime here, you get double the punishment. Soon, a thousand families will be evicted, and the homes demolished to promote integration.

23:57

Music

24:06

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  The boys at Vollsmose Boxing club are trying to fight off that stigma. Ali is already a champion boxer.

24:11

Music

24:18

Ali 100%

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI: Yeah, I am very proud, because I made my family, I made a lot of people proud of me so I’m also proud.

24:24

Music

24:30

Hamish with Ali and friends

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Do you like it here?

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI:  I like it here, and I don’t want to move any place.

24:36

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  But the politicians want to bulldoze this place.

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI: I know yes, but it’s not a good idea.

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Why?

24:41

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI:  Because I don’t think it would help with the crime and violence.

24:48

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter: Can you fix the problem by knocking down the buildings?

24:53

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI: No. We need to take the people that are criminals and help them, and not say all people in Vollsmose.

24:57

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Do you think that everyone here is being punished… for the crimes of a few?

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI: Yeah, I do. Yeah.

25:09

YouTube: Rasmus Paludan in Vollsmose

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:   The extremist politician Rasmus Paludan pulled a few stunts at Vollsmose during the election campaign, so the boys have seen Denmark’s new politics up close. 

25:14

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:  They are not to be assimilated, they are to be sent home…”

25:27

Ali interview

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI:  He said to all the people that we will never be Danish citizens.

25:34

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:   He said it to your face?

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI:  To my face, to some of the others, to my friends.

25:40

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:   Are you a citizen?

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI:  Yes, I am. I am very damn lucky.

25:44

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter: How does that make you feel?

25:48

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI:  Actually, I don’t give a fuck because I've met a lot of people like him and I’m used to it.

25:50

Ali boxing

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Ali may challenge what many Danes think it looks like to be a Dane, but next week he’ll do something that he thinks will prove the doubters wrong. He’s joining the Danish Army.

25:56

Ali interview

Do you think that they want you to do this? They want you to go in the Army?

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI:  No, no. I think Rasmus Paludan wants to show the people that we're falling down.

26:12

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  And so you're doing the opposite?

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI: I do the opposite. I learnt from boxing.

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter: What’s that?

ALI AZIZ AL-TAMIMI: That I will never fall down. Every time I fall down, I will stand up.

26:23

Hamish with Paludan

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Rasmus Paludan may sit on the extreme, but he is shaping much of the political conversation. So I want to understand what he actually wants.

26:33

Paludan interview

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:  You are, without a doubt, the most culturally Marxist journalist, from elsewhere, that I've ever met.

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  It turns out this is less interview, and more a repeat performance.

26:45

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:  Could you please take the 700,000 Muslims from Denmark that you love so much, just take them with you to your neighbourhood in Australia. I would be very much in your debt. What you should have done in those interviews, instead of being their complacent white slave, what you should have done is...

26:54

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter: This stuff dragged on for an hour or so: a torrent of abuse and hate speech.

27:12

Rasmus/Hamish interview  on YouTube

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs:  There's no point in me telling you the facts, because you just ignore them.

27:17

On screen comment:
"Watch "Rasmus Paludan" destroy the most ignorant journalist from Australia."

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  And it turns out, well, it was a performance of sorts, he was recording the whole thing himself to put online and feed into the alt-right universe. He’d 'skooled' an Australian journalist, apparently, but in truth it was clearly about getting a reaction.

27:21

RASMUS PALUDAN, Stram Kurs: And I will speak very highly of you, Hamish, forever. OK?’

27:38

Ellie on set recording TV pilot

Music

27:43

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Today, Ellie’s recording a comedy pilot. The character is being told not to use her Muslim name, or her ghetto accent in her new job at a call centre.

27:52

Music

28:03

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Ellie’s using humour to navigate and explain this cultural divide. Like the call centre boss who wants the new arrival to fit neatly into the Danish way, this country is trying to figure out just how much change it can tolerate.  

28:07

Drone shots. Copenhagen

It’s something the country and the current crop of leaders is struggling to answer.

28:22

Music

28:27

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Do you think Denmark needs today

28:30

Ellie interview

to find leaders that have that ability to communicate, to sort of bring the different tribes together?

28:34

ELLIE JOKAR:  Of course. We need some leaders in Denmark that can connect us, that can build bridges. That's like one of the main things. So the Danes are over here, the Muslims are over here and they're kind of not really, they don't really know how to communicate. Does it make sense?

28:39

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Yeah, like a modern day King Harald the Bluetooth?

ELLIE JOKAR:  Yes.

HAMISH MACDONALD, Reporter:  Is that you?

ELLIE JOKAR:  No. I don't think I'm Harald. No, I'm just me. Just crazy Persian Dane, whatever.

28:56

Hans Christian Anderson performance.
Credits over [see below]

Music

29:09

Outpoint

29:47