The footage of the unprovoked verbal attack by a Danish man shouting profanities at the Muslim family was recorded near Copenhagen’s Kastrup Harbour by Kodes Hamdi -- a math teacher and a mother of two – in the presence of her husband and children and went viral on Tuesday when she shared it on social media.
"Why don't you p**s off to your own country," the man is heard shouting. "Look at your skin color, you're yellow, you don't belong here. This here, this is not your country, damn it, you are guests here."
Widely shared on social media, the clip drew the attention of local news outlets, which interviewed the victim of the incident.
Hamdi pointed out during an interview with the local TV2 that the shocking encounter was not her first and that she had been subjected to similar abuse in Denmark because of her skin color or her headscarf, emphasizing, however, that never before had it happened in front of her young children.
"My parents have taught me to leave it and turn the other cheek. But this time I needed to tell him that I understand very well what he was saying and I can defend myself by answering him," Hamdi further explained during the interview, boasting that the latest encounter had "turned her into a lioness."
The man who shouted the racist profanities against Hamdi and her family was reported to local police, but was not detained, with some authorities cited as saying that the incident may not be categorized as a crime since it did not turn violent.
The incident came amid growing Islamophobia across the European continent, the US, Canada and Australia.
Reacting to the racist abuse, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement posted on her Facebook page that she was “affected” by the incident and that “we all have a responsibility to speak out – against racism, hate, and discrimination.”
"Parents and two small children were unreasonably forced to endure shocking and racist words due to their skin color,” the prime minister wrote. “That affected me. The family had the courage to stand up in the face of the situation… It doesn't belong in Denmark."
Denmark’s Immigration Minister Mattias Tesfaye only said that he was "sad" to hear about the video.
Social Democratic citizenship spokesperson Lars Aslan Rasmussen also described the incident as "clearly racist" but then claimed that Denmark was generally a tolerant country.
"I don't think we have a general problem with racism in Denmark," he said in an interview with Danish Radio.
Jan Jørgensen of the Liberal Alliance, however, argued that this form of crime should be discussed at a higher level, emphasizing, "It must be a criminal offense to verbally attack a family that has not [done] anything wrong. It's worrying. We must have a discussion with the justice minister about what we can do about this problem.”
Denmark in recent years has witnessed an uptick in hate crimes, which surged by 27 percent from 2018 to 2019, mostly attributed to incidents involving race and religion. Race was cited in 312 of the hate crime reports and religion was linked to 180 reports.
Despite efforts to contain immigration by several consecutive governments, Denmark continues to rely heavily on immigration for demographic and economic reasons.
Numbering over 800,000, immigrants and their descendants account for nearly 14 percent of the Danish population of 5.8 million, with Turks, Syrians, and Iraqis forming the largest immigrant communities.
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