From the U.S. to Ishøj
By Tom Carstensen, BT
March 30, 2006
In a dark suit, white shirt, blue tie, and stocking feet, the U.S. Ambassador, James P. Cain, ambled across the floor of a Turkish mosque situated in an industrial area of Ishøj yesterday afternoon.
The mosque was the last stop of the Ambassador's visit to Copenhagen's so-called West Side. Earlier the Ambassador had visited the Mayor's Office, an integration project for young female minorities, and a local factory that employs a large number of "new Danes." In celebration of the event, the factory had raised the Stars and Stripes – something that is probably a rare sight in this neighborhood.
Ambassador James P. Cain was shown around the mosque by the local imam, Suleyman, together with Ishøj's Deputy Mayor Ahmet Ozkan as well as a number of other people from the Muslim congregation and the Ambassador's armed body guards – all of them having taken their shoes off.
Tolerance and Dialogue
Tolerance and dialogue were the themes of the day. Contrary to what one might have thought, the visit was not sparked by the Muhammad cartoon controversy.
"We have worked with the Muslim community since I arrived in the fall, and we started planning this visit before the cartoon crisis started. I wanted to visit Ishøj, because it is known to be an integration success story. But the controversy regarding the cartoons accelerated the timing of the visit," the Ambassador told BT's correspondent before hurrying off with his guards towards an enormous Renault and on to the next point on his busy diplomatic schedule.