(lghter) thank you. (cheers and applau) ... ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ hamish macdonald: it's not all pastries and boat trips in the state of denmark. female: don't film me, okay? hamish: okay, don't step in front of a camera. female: don't film me. hamish: there is something rotten going on here. hamish: okay, we'll see you later. rasmus paludan: could you please take the 700,000 muslims from denmark, just take them with you to your neighborhood in australia?

hash: the country that famously saved its jewish population from the nazis in world war ii has turned against its minorities. aisha: yeah, they call me "ninja" but also "terrorist" and a lot of other stuff. hamish: freedom-loving denmark is having an identity crisis. ellie jokar: when do you feel danish? what is danish? what feeling do you have when you're danish? [bell ringing] ♪♪♪

hamish: it's nudging the high 30s in denmark today, and our producers had the, frankly, inspired idea of sending me to a cozy 17th-century danish tavern in the countryside for four courses of prime danish pork. hamish: it's so hot. [laughing] you don't have an air conditioner? [laughing] hamish: i don't think i've ever seen quite so much pork in my life. hamish: the choice seems to be pork with eggs, pork with fish, or pork with pork, but pork in denmark these days is no laughing matter. i've come here tonight to meet a dane who's very proud of this tradition. male: just like you said, it's really hot. hamish: okay, thank you. female: wow. hamish: frank noergaard is a local politician who takes pork

pretty seriously. hamish: yeah. right, cheers. frank noergaard: cheers. skol. hamish: skol. nice to meet you, frank. hamish: frank is a member of the right-wing danish people's party. hamish: so, can you tell me what all of this is? what am i eating? frank: you're eating pork. hamish: yeah, i got that bit. hamish: for frank, what's served up on plates is now a matter of national importance, even national identity. frank: we have to be aware of who we are and what we are going to in the future. hamish: 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. frank: we think it's a part of being danish. hamish: 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.

frank: i will eat pork from now until my death, but i also fight for-- that my children and their children will be able to eat pork in day care, in elderly centers, everywhere. hamish: 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"? frank: if they want to be integrated and accepted, they must also accept the way we live. ♪ yo, let's take it from the top ♪ ♪ i will ♪ ♪ can't get enough spot for real dance like a five-dollar bill ♪ ♪ hey, nothing, reality shows make you something, yes-- ♪♪ hamish: things are pretty free and easy in the capital copenhagen. it's midsummer and just about the whole country's on holiday. ♪ champagne popping ♪ ♪ dancing and rocking ♪ ♪ music be loud knocking ♪ ♪ dirty dancing ♪ ♪ always flashing, ha-ha-- ♪♪ hamish: denmark led the way in being free. the first country in the world to legalize porn,

this place is every bit the scandinavian stereotype. ♪ oh, boy, i wanna be a superstar, ♪ ♪ a superstar, a superstar ♪ ♪ drop it--you with the stars ♪♪ hamish: denmark is probably about as close as you can get to a high-functioning society. everything here just sort of seems to work. they're healthy, they're wealthy, and officially some of the happiest people on earth. 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? ♪ change your face, becoming a star ♪ ♪ plastic, fantastic, that's what you are ♪ ♪ i'mma be me you be you ♪ ♪ that's how it is, and that's the truth-- ♪♪ hamish: 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. ♪ oh, boy, i wanna be a superstar, ♪

♪ a superstar, a superstar ♪♪ ellie: hello! hamish: hi, ellie. ellie: well, hello. hamish: how are you? ellie: i'm good. how are you? hamish: i'm good. busy here. ellie: you say hi, mwah. hamish: oh, nice to meet you. ellie: seatbelts on. hamish: meet ellie jokar, stand-up comedian, rapper, muslim. and the music you've just been hearing, that's her. hamish: that's a convenient name for a comedian, "jokar." ellie: yes, i know. hamish: that's your real name? ellie: yes, that's my real name, imagine? hamish: 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. ellie: in the pink taxi, i drive around people that i find interesting, people that has a story, people that has something they wanna share,

and i take them for a ride. hamish: very often these days, the big topic is migrants. in this small country of nearly 6 million people, around 700,000 have arrived in the last 40 years. around 300,000 are muslim, and a lot of danes have now decided they don't like it. hamish: some like this extremist politician, rasmus paludan, are spinning the numbers and calling for muslims to be expelled altogether. hamish: 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? ellie: 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, or extremist right-wing,

or whatever. hamish: does it sit comfortably with you that some of them don't even want you here? ellie: you have to remember-- like, one thing that is very important is-- to remember is i was brought up in a democratic country. and 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 wanna 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. hamish: massive fractures are appearing in denmark's once cohesive society. rasmus: australia? hamish: yep, that's us. rasmus: excellent. hello. hamish: 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 multi-cultural suburb

of copenhagen. [speaking foreign language] hamish: this has gotta be one of the most absurd things i've ever seen. there are riot police everywhere, even in vans down the alleyways, and inside two rings of police tape is a fully grown man making social media content, claiming that he wants to express himself. rasmus: i was a 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 quran in different ways. [speaking foreign language] hamish: this seems to be how rasmus works: do something provocative like throw a quran 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. ♪♪♪ rasmus: in april he did it, and riots flared across copenhagen. in the first four months of this year, he cost the danish taxpayer more than nine million dollars in security costs. and while he failed to win a seat at the election, it has put him on the map politically. he scored enough votes to secure electoral payments of nearly half a million dollars a year for the next three years. hamish: you know when you throw that, that that's highly offensive to muslims of all varieties. so, what's the intention? rasmus: the intention is to explain to them and make them understand that that is a 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.

hamish: even if they're born here? rasmus: well, that doesn't matter. hamish: but isn't someone born here that's a danish citizen a dane? hamish: 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. hamish: 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. hamish: and i guess that shows that underneath this very friendly face that denmark shows you, there's something much darker at play. female: what is it you don't understand? you know, you're filming the same way as before. why you can't respect us? hamish: it's a public space. hamish: a group of extreme leftists, anti-fascists appear almost out of nowhere to let us know we're

not welcome. female: and you don't have any plans to-- hamish: don't touch the camera. just, okay, let's just get out of here. female: don't film me, okay? hamish: okay, don't step in front of a camera. female: don't film me. hamish: that's just-- okay, we'll see you later. hamish: oopf. well, you can see how quickly things turned 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 gotta say, pretty threatening. and for all of 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. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ hamish: political change, a bit like the weather in a danish

summer, is sweeping through here quickly at both national and local level. ♪♪♪ hamish: 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. 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 ghettos and earmarked for bulldozing. ♪♪♪

hamish: the burqa ban was introduced to encourage integration, but it's pushing some people quite literally behind closed doors. hamish: aisha? how are you? as-salaam alaikum. aisha: wa-alaikumssalaam. welcome. hamish: today, i'm going to meet aisha. she's 20 and was born here in copenhagen to turkish parents. aisha: the face scarf is called a niqab and the head scarf, which i wear around my face is called a hijab, yeah. hamish: tell me, how did you decide to start wearing the veil? aisha: i started wearing the veil two or three years ago, and i started wearing it because i wanted to get closer to god. it's, like, a sign of dedication and love for him. ♪♪♪ hamish: 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.

aisha: when some look at me with hate, you can see it automatically. for some, stare you with hatred, but they also say stuff, say mean stuff and racist stuff to you, yeah. hamish: like what? aisha: like "ninja," but that's the, you know, cute one. hamish: they call you a ninja. aisha: yeah, yeah. they call me "ninja" but also "terrorist" and a lot of other stuff. ♪♪♪ hamish: under the burqa ban, if she leaves her home wearing the veil, she faces fines starting at $200. aisha: i used to work and go to school before this ban, but now i'm all-- like, all the time at home. hamish: and how does that make you feel? aisha: makes me feel sad, because i was born and raised in this country. i love this country,

so i think it's important that we remember that we are in denmark, and in denmark there's freedom of speech and freedom of religion. i have the right to practice my religion and wear the clothing that i want to wear. hamish: and aisha's right. denmark is a place where freedom is paramount. ♪♪♪ 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. ♪♪♪ to see how they got to this point, it might be worth going back to where it all began. ♪♪♪ 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 runestone.

hamish: the big rock that everybody comes here to see is known as denmark's birth certificate. king harald bluetooth had it struck back in 965 a.d. and crucially, on the back, there's a depiction of christ and a crucifix, and that symbolized that this had become one united kingdom that was christian. now, it was 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 we named some new technology after him: bluetooth. ♪♪♪ hamish: denmark remained largely white and christian for a thousand years, up until the 1960s, when the first wave of migrants arrived, mostly from turkey. hamish: hey, ellie. ellie: hi! hamish: how are you?

ellie: i'm good. how are you? hamish: i'm doing good. nice to see you. hamish: some, like ellie's family, from iran were pretty much pioneers. hamish: don't hit the cyclist. hamish: so, where are we going today, ellie? ellie: we are going to see my mom. hamish: your mom? ellie: my mom. hamish: okay, tell me about your mom. ellie: my mom is the coolest woman in the world. hamish: right. ellie: yeah, my mom is persian, of course. she's one of the strongest women i know. hamish: ellie's mom, ettie, arrived here when she was 28. she started from scratch, building a new life with her young family. hamish: so, this is it. ettie: yeah. we make it for hundred person for tomorrow. hamish: a hundred people...turning up. ettie: yeah. hamish: she's a wedding planner now, a business she started 18 years ago. it was one of the first catering for muslims.

ettie: tomorrow is only woman. we don't have any men here. hamish: they'd fled from iran after the revolution in 1979. they'd helped a jewish family escape, and the secret police were after them. ettie: if we stay, so i was 100% sure my husband can be hang up. ellie: they would've hanged, hanged. ettie: i was very, very sure. ellie: the only thing we had was the clothes that we wore. we walked four days to turkey. hamish: what was your first impression when you got to denmark? ettie: it was very good, and people was very kind. they assure us, "you are in denmark. you are safe, and you are with us. and we are here and help you." hamish: do you think that denmark as a society has changed since then? ettie: from the time? yeah. they don't want accept us as danish,

but i feel i'm danish. hamish: how does that make you feel, having lived here for 40 years? ettie: i feel i am home, my country. here is my country. i living here, but...no. i don't know. i don't know. maybe tomorrow is coming some law will say, "you are must going back." we don't know. hamish: is that really what you think? ettie: yeah...yes, it's not only me. i know many people. ellie: i didn't know she had an urge to become a dane.

i didn't know she had-- she wanted to be a viking. 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 neighbor? isn't that being just 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"? i define myself as a kid-- a gray-zone kid, 'cause 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. ♪♪♪ hamish: so, what has turned denmark against people like ellie and her mom? it wasn't just 9/11. when a danish newspaper published cartoons of the

prophet muhammad in 2005, causing riots to flare around the world, 200 people were killed, and the violence shocked many danes. it set the country on a very different course. ♪♪♪ i wanna 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. he was in parliament for 15 years with the right-wing people's party. hamish: 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 policies? martin henriksen: well, basically no. hamish: you don't acknowledge that? martin: no, i know that somebody has that feeling, and i won't deny that people are having those feeling, but i actually think 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 is the debate that we should have. hamish: 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. [crowd chanting] hamish: 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 gonna be tough on migrants and tough on muslims? martin: 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 reason why the social democrats come into power, in my view, and-- hamish: couldn't have won without doing that. martin: i don't believe so. no, no, i don't believe so. ♪♪♪

hamish: this is vollsmose. officially, it's a ghetto, one of 29 across the country, with high migrant populations, low incomes, and high crime rates. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ hamish: 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. ♪♪♪ the boys at vollsmose boxing club are trying to fight off that stigma. ali is already a champion boxer. ♪♪♪ ali aziz al-tamimi: yeah, i'm very proud, because i made my family-- i make a lot of people proud of me, so i'm also proud. ♪♪♪

hamish: do you like it here? ali: i like it here, and i don't want to move any place. hamish: but the politicians wanna bulldoze this place. ali: i know, yes, but it not a good idea. hamish: why? ali: because i don't think it will help with the crime and violent. hamish: can you fix the problem by knocking down the buildings? ali: no, no, we need to take these people that are criminal and help them, not say that all people in vollsmose. hamish: do you think that everyone here is being punished for the crimes of a few? ali: yeah. [speaking foreign language] hamish: 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.

ali: he said to all people that we will never be a danish citizen. hamish: and he said it to your face? ali: to my face, to some of the other, to my friends. hamish: are you a citizen? ali: yes, i am. i'm very d-- lucky. hamish: how does that make you feel? ali: actually, i don't give a f--, because i met a lot of people like him, and i used to it. hamish: 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. hamish: do you think they want you to do this? they want you to go in the army? ali: i think rasmus paludan want to show the people that we fall down. hamish: and so you're doing the opposite. ali: i do the opposite. i learn from boxing. hamish: what's that? ali: that i will never fall down. every time i fall down, i will stand up.

hamish: 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. rasmus: you are without a doubt the most culturally marxist journalist from elsewhere that i've ever met. hamish: it turns out this is less interview and more a repeat performance. rasmus: could you please take the 700,000 muslims from denmark that you love so much, just take them with you to your neighborhood in australia? i will be very much in your debt. what you should've done in those interviews, instead of being their complacent, white slave, what you should have done is-- hamish: this stuff dragged on for an hour or so, a torrent of abuse and hate speech. rasmus: there's no point in me telling you the facts, because you'll just ignore them. hamish: 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 schooled an australian journalist, apparently, but in truth, it was clearly

about getting a reaction. rasmus: and i will speak very highly of you, hamish, forever, okay. ♪ oh, boy, i wanna be a superstar, ♪ ♪ a superstar ♪ ♪ oh, girl, i wanna be a superstar, ♪ ♪ a superstar-- ♪♪ hamish: today, ellie is 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 center. ♪ oh, girl, i wanna be a superstar, ♪ ♪ a superstar ♪♪ hamish: ellie is using humor to navigate and explain this cultural divide, like the call center 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. it's something the country and the current crop of leaders is struggling to answer. ♪ oh, girl, i wanna be a superstar, ♪ ♪ a superstar ♪♪ hamish: do you think denmark needs, today, to find leaders

that have that ability to communicate, to sort of bring the different tribes together? ellie: of course, i think that 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 know-- they don't really know how to communicate. does it make sense? hamish: yeah, like in modern-day king harald the bluetooth. ellie: yes. hamish: is that you? ellie: no, i don't think i'm harald bluetooth. no, i'm just me, just crazy persian dane, whatever. ♪♪♪ [male singing in danish] [male singing in danish]

[male singing in danish] cc by aberdeen captioning 1-0-688-6621 aberc (engine humming) (engine sputtering) it's january 8, 2014 and i'm standing in front of a building that's supposed to have a leaf plate with my name on it that was written by a sage thousands of years ago.