DENMARK is proposing to curb the activities of radical Islamic leaders given permission to teach in the country.

The measures, to be presented to the Danish parliament tomorrow, are aimed at imams who preach against Western values, encourage Muslims to wear the hijab, the Islamic head scarf, and demand that women do not work.

The initiative is part of a package of tough immigration reforms that reflects mounting concern in Denmark about the growth of Islamic communities who reject the country’s values. There is also alarm about the rise of Islamic fundamentalism — a Danish citizen who fought in Afghanistan is being held at Guantanamo Bay. The Danish Government is trying to ban the radical Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which campaigns for sharia, or Islamic law.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Prime Minister, said: “Access to obtaining a Danish residence permit for foreign missionaries has been too easy until now. That is why we now put forward new requirements for residing in the country, like the demand that imams and others have an education and that they be financially self-sufficient.”

The new legislation will apply to missionaries from all religions, but the far-right Danish People’s Party (DPP), which first proposed the reforms, confirmed that they were aimed at curbing the activities of Muslims.

Peter Skaarup, a DPP spokesman, said recently: “In theory these rules concern all clerics from all religions. But in practice they target imams.”

The Muslim religion is Denmark’s second largest after the Lutheran Protestant Church, which is actively followed by four fifths of the country’s population of 5.3 million. Muslims account for 3 per cent of the population, or 170,000 people. About 200 visas are given to missionaries to Denmark each year, with about one quarter granted to imams.

The proposed legislation is almost certain to be passed after a political deal in September between the Liberal Conservative Government, its ally the DPP and the opposition Social Democrats.

Other measures include a doubling of the fine to £500 for people who harbour failed asylum-seekers, with imprisonment for repeat offenders. Successful asylum-seekers could have residence permits revoked if they return home on holiday, presumed to be proof that they were not persecuted. Men convicted of domestic violence will be banned from bringing another wife into Denmark for ten years.

As well as the requirement that they be educated and self-financing, imams must prove they are “worthy”. The legislation states that visas will not be given if there is “reason to believe the foreigner will be a threat to public safety, security, public order, health, decency or other people’s rights and duties”.

This last reference is meant to be a ban on imams who, for example, teach that women should not work, who promote female genital mutilation or urge the killing of Jews.

One commentator said: “It is about imams who don’t speak Danish or know nothing of Danish society. They drag Muslims back 200 years and know nothing about modern European life. It is directly the opposite of integration.”

Danish newspapers have been carrying reports about suburbs of Copenhagen with large, alienated Islamic populations, which local police and council leaders have described as a “time bomb”. Comparisons have been made to the conditions that led to the race riots two years ago in Bradford, Oldham and Burnley.

The legislation is part of a move across much of the EU aimed at curbing immigration and promoting integration. The Netherlands confirmed this week that it is to expel 26,000 failed asylum-seekers, and last week France voted to ban the hijab in public schools.

Denmark has the toughest rules in Europe for importing a husband or wife to curb the reliance in Islamic communities on arranged marriages to partners from their country of origin. Residents are allowed to bring husbands and wives to Denmark only if they are over 24, not living on benefits, and prove that they have a greater connection to Denmark than any other country.

Within a year of the law being introduced the number of husbands and wives being brought into the country fell by two thirds.

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