Denmark
Population: 5,947 millions
National Security Service: Politiets Efterretningstjeneste (PET)
National threat level: 4 "Significant"on a 5-step scale (Last update: September 11, 2010)
Last Islamist terrorist attack: 2015 Copenhagen shootings (February 14-15, 2015)
Islamism started in Denmark on the threshold of the 80's with the arrival of several extremist militants from the Muslim world notably Tunisia, Egypt Palestine and Afghanistan, who settled in the Nordics to avoid repression in their own countries and used their host countries as rear bases to continue their subversive activities. One of them was Abu Talal, a radical Egyptian involved in the murder of President Sadate who could express his radical opinions freely for a long time alongside other radical militants such as Moroccan Saïd Mansour, in Denmark. Part of the militants coming from Levantine countries as students or refugees were affiliated to the Muslim Brotherhood and developed throughout the years their local wing in Denmark, the Dansk Islamisk Råd.
At first, Danish authorities did not pay much attention to the proliferation of radical Muslim militants in Denmark. After all, most of their propaganda and recruitement activities focused on their home countries. It is only after the 911 attacks and especially in the aftermath of the 2005 Jylands Posten caricatures controversy, when Denmark was the target of Muslim execration worldwide, that Danish authorities finally decided to stand up to Islamism. The Islamist threat in Denmark was given a decisive impetus by the appearance of a third generation of Islamists born and raised in Denmark and aiming at reshaping this country according to their radical values. They ultimately set up their own groups such as Call to Islam and the Muslim Youth Centre which some members reportedly went to fight in Syria in 2015. Their influence extended to some mosques visited by the Turkish and Arab communities notably the al-Furqan mosque in Copenhagen.
Among the Nordics, Denmark definitively stands as a forerunner in the struggle against Islamism. Danish authorities started as soon as 2004 to monitor mosques spreading radical narratives and keep mapping them on a regular basis ever since. Terrorist crimes are covered by Chapter 13, Section 114 of the Criminal Code. Danish legislation is quite comprehensive and ruthlessly effective. Individuals convicted of terrorist crimes throughout the 2020's were severely punished, their sentence usually ranging from years in prison, to being stripped of their citizenship and deportation. In December 2022, the harshest judgement in Denmark history for terrorism-related crimes was passed by the Holbæk Court against Ali Al Masry, who was sentenced to sixteen years of prison for hoarding chemical products in order to commit a terrorist attack.
Around 160 Danish foreign fighters departed to Syria and joined the Islamic State throughout the 2010's. Danish authorities were reluctant to assist in their repatriation out of fear that they would avoid indictment upon their return. However, it was pointed out that contrary to other Nordic countries, the Danish legal definition of terrorism is broad enough to conduct prosecution. A major repatriation took place in October 2021 with the return of three women and their 14 children. The last repatriation occured in october 2024 with the return of a womand and her son from al-Roj camp. One of the returnees who had dual-citizenship faced trial in February 2023 and got stripped of her Danish citizenship. Five Danish children still remain in Syria but since their mothers were stripped of their Danish citizenship and that they refused to part with their children, they cannot hope to be repatriated.
Several individuals were arrested in successful police operations, the most notorious one having been carried out in February 2021, yet no major terrorist attack was committed in Denmark since the 2015 Copenhagen shootings. However, the security landscape in Denmark deteriorated alarmingly in August 2023 when the country was explicitly targeted by Al-Qaeda after Qurans were burned by demonstrators in Copenhagen. Threats were further enhanced by the spillover effects of the war in Gaza, as Israeli and Jewish interests were repeatedly assaulted by shadowy offenders just like in Sweden. In October 2024, the embassy of Israel was targeted by grenades thrown by two criminal agents dispatched from Sweden. Danish autorities confirmed in June 2025 that the Islamic Republic of Iran recruited proxies among the criminal networks in Denmark and Sweden to carry out terrorist operations in the Nordics. Other individuals were arrested for conducting terrorist operations in Denmark on behalf of Hamas.