Recently, a number of social media users have been claiming that the right to vote has been taken away from the Muslim community in Denmark. One such tweet came from Kajal Mishra, who describes herself as the city president of the Sathia Foundation, Lucknow. (Archive link)

Several people on Twitter are now posting identical tweets which suggest that law to abolish the Muslim right to vote was passed in Denmark. Many of these tweets have been liked more than 1,000 times.

This claim has also made its way to Facebook.

Fact-check

Alt News did not come across any reports in our keyword search which suggested that voting rights were being snatched from Muslims in Denmark. According to the Danish Parliament’s website, “Danish citizens who have permanent residence in Denmark, Greenland or the Faroe Islands and are at least 18 years of age, the voting age in Denmark, are entitled to vote.” Nowhere does this state that the right to vote is granted on the basis of religion.

In October 2019, it was reported that Denmark had enacted a law to end the citizenship of Danes who went abroad to work with militant groups like the Islamic State. According to an October 14, 2019 report by Reuters, officials believed that since 2012, at least 158 ​​people from Denmark joined militant Islamic groups in Syria or Iraq, of which around 27 remain in the conflict zone. A report by DW News from October 24, 2019, corroborates this.

Furthermore, the total population of Denmark in 2017 was 58 lakh. According to a report, Muslims formed 5.3% of the Danish population, meaning that there were over 3 lakh Muslims in the country. In the last three years, this number would have naturally increased. That the voting rights of such a large section of people were taken away in any country is improbable and would have gained international attention had it been true.

Therefore, the viral online claims stating that Denmark has abolished the Muslim right to vote are completely false.

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About the Author

She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.