Denmark

According to the Shi’i communities in Denmark, there is around 80.000 Shi’ites living in Denmark. A rapport published by Lene Kühle and Malik Larsen in 2017 concluded that the number of Shi’i mosques or centres consists of 12 % of the total number of mosque communities in Denmark. Since 2006 the number of mosque communities has increased by 54 %. The majority of the communities has an Iraqi cultural background, and the main language used in the communities is Arabic. There are few Afghan communities, Pakistani communities and one Iranian. The largest mosque is the Imam Ali mosque, which consist of three different minor communities: a Danish, an Iranian and an Arabic. The mosque was established in 2015, but there have been cultural centres and religious communities in Denmark since the 1960s. In the last 15 years the Danish speaking Shi’i communities have progressed, and today Danish speaking Shi’ites can attend Danish programs on a weekly basis. The rapport shows that 46 % of the leaders or the preachers of the communities have a hawza education, and a high number of those are young Danish speaking hawza-students, both male and female. Madina tul ilm, which is a Copenhagen based organisation cooperate with the al-Mustafa International University, Qom, providing the Danish Shi’ites an opportunity to study Arabic, Farsi and Islamic sciences in Arabic, Farsi or Urdu. Danish Shi’i women only have access to half of the mosque communities and centres, but in 2007 a group of women established a center for women. According to the rapport female participants are generally more active than the male participants despite the male part of the communities represents the leaders, lecturers and largest amount of physical space in the centres. In total, the rapport concludes that around 2 % of the Danish Shi’ites attend these mosque communities. 

https://ebooks.au.dk/index.php/aul/catalog/view/239/171/750-2