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Özlem Cekic takes down hate, one cup of coffee at a time
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Lunch meet-up: Former Danish MP Özlem Cekic (center) talks with members of the media in Jakarta on Oct. 15. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
Former Danish MP Özlem Cekic talks about cultural understanding, having coffee with neo-Nazis and agreeing to disagree.
Being a minority is never easy, even in seemingly idyllic cultures. Özlem Cekic certainly knows this by heart, yet her approach lies in reaching out when others would have blocked out.
Born in Ankara, Turkey, to Kurdish parents in 1976, Cekic immigrated to Denmark with her family as a child and grew up in Copenhagen’s Vesterbro district.
Cekic entered politics by being elected to the Socialistisk Folkeparti (Socialist People's Party) committee in 2004, but it was in 2007 when she made history by being the first female member of the Danish Parliament with a Muslim immigrant background.
Despite being a part of Denmark’s political legacy, it was soon made clear that not everyone was happy with the election results.
Throughout her eight-year tenure as MP, Cekic’s inbox was always inundated with racially-tinged hate speech peppered with Islamophobia and general misogyny. As she became more involved, the abuse became increasingly worse.
While at first Cekic simply deleted the messages, she began saving them as a colleague suggested that it could be used as evidence in the case of an attack.
