It was, to put it mildly, a rocky start that marked Sikandar Siddique’s entry into Danish politics.
At just 19 years old, he was elected to the Copenhagen City Council for Socialdemokratiet in 2005. Even during the campaign, he sent Ritt Bjerregaard’s (S) advisors into overdrive when it emerged that Sikandar Siddique had previously attended a Hizb ut-Tahrir conference.
Someone close to the campaign at the time recalls that initially, there was excitement over a young candidate who also had an immigrant background. But they hadn’t anticipated that the candidate had connections to Hizb ut-Tahrir.
As a result, a significant amount of damage control was needed, including advising him to turn off his phone so journalists couldn’t reach him, says the source, who wishes to remain anonymous.
Siddique himself denied any connection to Hizb ut-Tahrir, and despite the controversy, he was elected to the City Council. In fact, he exceeded expectations and was elected on the 13th of the Social Democrats’ 21 seats in the capital, despite being listed as number 34.
The subsequent council formation would prove even more tumultuous.
Social Democrat Finn Rudaizky switched to Danish People’s Party due to the Hizb ut-Tahrir meeting, and another politician also left their party. Wallait Khan from Venstre allied himself with Ritt Bjerregaard and was promised a position as the second deputy chairman of the City Council.
The Pakistani Khan was a red flag for Sikandar Siddique’s father, Malik Ghulam Siddique, who was also from Pakistan. The two belonged to different Pakistani factions, and suddenly Sikandar Siddique’s father publicly threatened—on behalf of his son—that Sikandar would leave the council formation agreement if Khan got the prestigious position.
Once again, Ritt Bjerregaard’s team had to work overtime, including meeting with the father when it became clear that he was the one making the decisions.
Wallait Khan eventually dropped the position, and the matter was settled.
But this was far from the last time Sikandar Siddique made headlines. Both when he was in the Parliament from 2019-2022 for Alternativet and Frie Grønne or now, when he is trying again to get into the City Council as the leader of Frie Grønne.
Battling »the political system«
Recently, Ekstra Bladet questioned whether his move from Herlev to Copenhagen was merely to qualify for the City Council election.
Last week, Frie Grønne’s campaign posters were a topic of debate—the wording on them to ’Free Copenhagen from Zionism’ led to the party being reported to the police for a hate crime.
Thus, Sikandar Siddique is back in conflict, a place he seemingly thrives in. He has previously said that it is his duty to create discomfort.
Politiken asked Sikandar Siddique for an interview, but he only responded in writing.
»When you consistently stand firm on your criticism of the system and always call out those in power, and you’re not in politics to make friends or be invited to lunch, some people get upset«, he writes.
Despite the 2005 City Hall controversy, Sikandar Siddique highlights his father as his inspiration. He has also previously said he was his father’s favorite child.
»I grew up with a father who fought against a dictator in Pakistan from Nørrebro—in that light, fighting against Mette Frederiksen and the rest of the political system in Denmark seems almost manageable«, he writes to Politiken.
Thirteen years after the 2005 City Hall affair, Sikandar Siddique reappeared in public as a parliamentary candidate for Alternativet. He was elected in 2019.
His more confrontational approach only emerged when he became the leader of Frie Grønne in 2020, a party formed by a breakaway group from Alternativet.
He became the first Muslim party leader in Denmark. He attended a gala dinner with the queen and appeared on live TV in party leader debates.
When the party was founded, Uffe Elbæk, who followed him to Frie Grønne, proclaimed him as »Denmark’s version of Malcolm X«. The party refused to make agreements unless they got 100% of what they wanted. This proved challenging in practice. A few years later, Elbæk disagreed with Siddique’s approach and returned to Alternativet.
Sikandar Siddique’s close ties to his Pakistani background are often noted.
In 2020, the Social Democratic newspaper Piopio described how Sikandar Siddique had attended a meeting with the Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, who was convicted of corruption and led a country where it is illegal to be homosexual. Siddique confirmed he attended the meeting but emphasized that he was there as a private individual.
Like other politicians with minority roots, Siddique has often been on the receiving end of racist comments. Conservative commentators and political opponents have zeroed in on him, questioning whether he can reconcile his Muslim base’s views with a modern, progressive left-wing platform.
But the criticism has not stopped Sikandar Siddique from provoking. For example, when he ’hijacked’ the Parliament to hold a minute’s silence for George Floyd, who died during a violent arrest in the USA, or when he tore up the special law for displaced Ukrainians at the parliamentary podium, claiming it was racist.
»10,000 to 15,000 personal votes«
Not everyone is equally critical of Sikandar Siddique.
One person who has known him for a long time is Hamid El-Mousti. The Moroccan-born man came to Denmark in 1966, was elected to the City Council in 1989 for Socialdemokratiet, and was therefore an experienced municipal politician in 2005.
»I was thrilled when he got in—it showed young immigrants were engaging with Danish society. We stuck together those four years,« says El-Mousti, who still takes pride in Sikandar Siddique’s political career.
Now 80, he’s been around the political block—he’s belonged to VS, Socialdemokratiet, SF, Enhedslisten, and Alternativet. This time he’s running with Frie Grønne and says Siddique has a »fantastic chance« of getting elected.
»He will get between 10,000 and 15,000 personal votes«, he believes, pointing primarily to voters with immigrant backgrounds.
El-Mousti rejects that the posters about Zionism should be seen as attacks on Jews.
»We have nothing—absolutely nothing—against Judaism,« he insists, but won’t venture whether some Muslim voters back Frie Grønne because they read the posters as hostile to Jews living in Denmark.
Hamid El-Mousti is also convinced that many of the Muslim voters the party is targeting have issues with LGBT rights. But this does not apply to Frie Grønne, he asserts:
»I am not against LGBT. When I was a member of the City Council for 20 years, I officiated approximately 1,000 marriages, and 10 percent of them were homosexual«, he says.
A potentially ambiguous view on LGBT+ rights is something several people—also from his own side—mention off the record when discussing Sikandar Siddique. A study from Aalborg University earlier this year showed that 60 percent of Muslim men in Denmark consider homosexuality morally unacceptable.
Critics of Siddique point out that he does not exactly flaunt his support for LGBT+ to his Muslim core voters.
Sikandar Siddique himself rejects the criticism. He writes that he has participated in Pride and that if he becomes a member of the City Council, he will officiate same-sex marriages. He believes the debate is about pitting minorities against each other, and he equates Islam with other religions:
»My personal view is that you should be a good person and not judge others for who they are. And I think everyone should approach life that way. I know that homosexuality is frowned upon in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, but there is nothing in my religion that tells me I should judge people«.
Swears by the passportless
In 2022, Frie Grønne was ousted from Parliament. But now, Sikandar Siddique is back in the Copenhagen municipal election campaign.
The party’s policy is a mix of overarching messages like anti-racism and solidarity—and specific proposals, such as using part of the capital’s construction budget to rebuild Gaza.
Sikandar Siddique grew up near Blågårds Plads in Nørrebro, Copenhagen. But a stroll through the neighborhood a little over two weeks before the election shows that not everyone knows him.
A store has one of the party’s campaign posters hanging, but a woman in the store isn’t sure if she will vote in the municipal election. She can, even though she is not a Danish citizen.
It is people like her that Siddique has identified as crucial to his election. He has explained that the party received many votes in »socially challenged areas« in Copenhagen in the 2022 parliamentary election.
»And only people with Danish passports could vote in that election«, he told Ekstra Bladet.
He might have a point: of roughly 500,000 eligible voters, just over 100,000 are foreign nationals entitled to vote in Copenhagen.
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