Danish Radikale Venstre candidate stonewalls on Ramadan dinner at mosque running sharia council

• Radikale Venstre's Folketing candidate Rabih Azad-Ahmad attended a Ramadan dinner arranged by a mosque previously exposed for running a sharia council
• Azad-Ahmad is refusing to respond to B.T.'s questions about his ties to the mosque
• The story surfaces days before Denmark's March 24 parliamentary election
• Radikale Venstre has historically positioned itself as a defender of secular liberal values

Rabih Azad-Ahmad, a Folketing (Danish parliament) candidate for Radikale Venstre (the Danish Social Liberal Party), attended a Ramadan dinner hosted by a mosque that has been exposed for operating a sharia council — and is now refusing to answer questions about it. B.T. reports that Azad-Ahmad has shut down all inquiries about his connections to the mosque, offering no explanation for his presence at the event. Denmark votes on March 24.

Radikale Venstre has long presented itself as the party of secular liberalism, individual rights, and integration. Its platform explicitly opposes parallel legal structures and religious courts operating outside Danish law. A sharia council — where family disputes, divorces, and inheritance are adjudicated according to Islamic jurisprudence rather than Danish civil law — is precisely the kind of institution Radikale Venstre claims to stand against. A candidate attending a social event hosted by such a mosque is not illegal, but a candidate refusing to explain why he was there tells voters more than any explanation would.

The pattern is familiar across the Nordics. Politicians publicly champion secular values and integration while quietly maintaining ties to religious organisations whose internal practices contradict those values. The calculation is straightforward enough: mosque networks deliver votes in districts with large immigrant populations, and the cost of association only materialises if journalists ask questions. The usual response when caught is a brief statement about dialogue and bridge-building. Azad-Ahmad has chosen not even to offer that much.

Danish media have documented several mosques operating sharia councils in recent years, and each exposure has prompted political outrage followed by limited action. The fundamental tension remains unresolved: Danish law does not explicitly criminalise informal religious arbitration, and political parties that rely on votes from communities served by these mosques have little incentive to push for a ban. Radikale Venstre's leadership has not commented on Azad-Ahmad's attendance or his refusal to discuss it.

With days left before the election, Azad-Ahmad's silence is itself a kind of answer. Danish voters who want to know where their candidates stand on parallel legal structures now know that at least one candidate would rather not say.

Sources: B.T.