Naser Khader

Naser Khader (Arabic: ناصر خضر Levantine pronunciation: Arabic pronunciation: [ˈnɑːsˤer xɑdˤer]; born 1 July 1963) is a Syrian-Danish politician and member of the Folketing 2001–2011 and again 2015–2022. Until 2021 he was a member of the Conservative People's Party.

He was first elected to Parliament representing the Danish Social Liberal Party in 2001. In 2007, he left this party to found New Alliance (later Liberal Alliance). In the national elections on 13 November 2007, Naser Khader's New Alliance party won five parliamentary seats. After a tumultuous year, the party dissolved and Khader became an Independent Member of the Danish Parliament until joining the Conservative People's Party on 17 March 2009. Khader lost his seat in the 2011 Danish parliamentary election, but regained it in the 2015 election. In 2021, Khader left the Conservative People's Party and announced he would not run for re-election.

In 2000, he introduced the idea of a 24-year rule. In his book 'Khader.dk', he argued that the rule should be included in the Danish immigration law to prevent forced marriages. The 24-year rule was introduced in 2002. It was voted into law supported by all major political parties in Parliament as Immigration Law §9, 1.

A leading proponent of peaceful co-existence of democracy and Islam, Khader co-founded an association of opponents of Islamic supremacism and jihadism in 2008, with the aim to promote freedom of speech and inspire moderate Muslims worldwide when the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy began. The new movement was called Moderate Muslims, later renamed Democratic Muslims. In 2023, Khader converted to Christianity and opted to pursue priesthood within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark. He expressed that while the Quran instilled fear within him, he discovered love within the Bible.

In 2009, Khader first suggested a complete ban on the burqa as part of an integration initiative by the Conservatives' parliamentary group, describing it as "un-Danish" and "oppression of women". But it wasn’t before May 2018, lawmakers approved the law, suggested by Khader and popularly known as the Burqa Ban.

Naser Khader has been named among the hundred most influential Danes of the 20th Century, and has been one of the world's 500 most influential Muslims since 2009.