NewsTracker Answers for week of Jan. 21, 2019

Q: Afghan-born Sakandar Khan last week was among the first nine new Danish citizens who shook hands with Denmark’s immigration minister under a new law that makes a handshake the final step in the naturalization process. Where is Denmark?

Circle the area on this map


Q: The law has been criticized for breaching freedom of religion, as some observant Muslims and Jews avoid touching unrelated members of the opposite sex. The official Church of Denmark is part of which branch of Christianity?

A. Calvinist

B. Lutheran

C. Roman Catholic

D. Eastern Orthodox


B. While 75.3% of Denmark’s people are members of the Lutheran-oriented Church of Denmark, only 3% of the population regularly attend Sunday services and only 19% of Danes consider religion to be an important part of their life. Khan, a former practicing Muslim, shook the hand of the female immigration minister and said he was “thrilled” by the naturalization event.


Q: Denmark has been taking an increasingly harder line against immigration since the crisis that brought more than 1 million asylum seekers to Europe in 2015. Where did most of those immigrants come from?

A. Afghanistan

B. Iraq

C. Syria

D. Yemen


C. The civil war in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State created a flood of refugees and helped spark a backlash against immigration in Europe.. Between 2014 and 2017, a total of more than 919,000 Syrians applied for asylum in the European Union. Refugees also fled to Europe from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.


Q: The anti-immigration Danish People’s Party is part of the three-party coalition government ruling Denmark. What is Denmark’s form of government?

A. Constitutional monarchy

B. Federal republic

C. Socialist commonwealth

D. Theocracy


A. The 1849 Constitution of Denmark replaced an absolute monarchy with a parliamentary government and a monarch with strictly ceremonial duties. The parliament is comprised of a single chamber with members selecting the prime minister and cabinet who exercise executive authority. The nation is often run by coalition governments made up of rival political parties.


Q: Denmark accepted 45,000 asylum seekers between 2014 and 2017, while more than 1.6 million were accepted by its southern neighbor . . .

A. France

B. Germany

C. Norway

D. Sweden


B. Denmark lies south of Norway and southwest of Sweden, and it is bordered by Germany to the south.