ISLAM and immigration have slipped out of Denmark’s political discourse since the centre-left government led by Helle Thorning-Schmidt came to power two years ago and dismantled the ministry for refugees and immigrants. Now they are back in the news, because the country’s first big purpose-built mosque is soon to open its doors.The mosque, jammed between a railway line and a back street in Copenhagen’s gritty north-west, comes complete with a dome and a minaret, even though local by-laws prohibit any noisy call to prayer. The news of its opening took many Danes by surprise. Denmark’s Muslims have tried for years to have a proper place to worship, but previous attempts failed or were foiled.When the first news stories about the mosque appeared, the focus was on the architectural elegance of the new building—a pleasant blend of Scandinavian restraint and the strictures of the Islamic building code. But soon articles started to appear that fretted about fights between Islamic sects, radicalisation, foreign influence and even local vandalism. Carl Christian Ebbesen of the populist Danish People’s Party (DPP) said it was wrong to allow the building of a “symbol of a religion that doesn’t recognize democracy and women’s right to freedom”. And when it emerged that the new mosque was funded (at least in part) by a hefty donation from the Qatari royal family, the DPP waded in with a…