Dansk Folkeparti (DF) will vote against the bi-annual citizenship law that will grant Danish citizenship to around 1,600 individuals later this week because the list contains the names of too many Muslim immigrants.

Only parliament can confer citizenship through law, which is done twice a year, but DF does not want to confer citizenship to the the 422 Iraqis and Afghanis who have otherwise fulfilled all the necessary requirements.

DF argues that Denmark risks being taken over by Muslims and that the soon-to-be Danes ought to instead go home and build up their respective countries.

The decision has been widely criticised, even by fellow right-wing parties Liberal Alliance and lead opposition party Venstre. “I don’t think that we can differentiate between people simply because they come from a country where the majority of citizens are Muslims,” Venstre spokesperson Jan Jørgensen told Politiken.

Liberal Alliance also condemned the move, while Johanne Schmidt Nielsen from the far-left party Enhedslisten said it was “pure discrimination”.

DF’s Christian Langballe says his party wants to end all immigration from Islamic and non-Western countries. “We think that too many people from Islamic countries and the Muslim world immigrate to Denmark and are given citizenship, so it’s up to other people to argue their case,” Langballe told Politiken.

Earlier this year, Dansk Folkeparti was sued after the party ran an advert with the names of around 700 new citizens with the warning that one might be a terrorist.

Copenhagen Post, 17 December 2013

Update:  See “DF semi-apologises for Muslim comments”, Copenhagen Post, 22 December 2103