On Monday, Inger Støjberg stood in front of Christiansborg with a metre-long cardboard cheque. Recipient: Mohamed Abdi Kahn. Amount: DKK 33,952. Purpose, written in capital letters: ‘One-way tickets from Denmark to Djibouti for 8 people.’

The cheque is signed personally by the leader of the Denmark Democrats.

– Go home, Mohamed Abdi Kahn! I am willing to pay for the eight one-way tickets that you and your family need. The price is DKK 33,952, and I am happy to sponsor them to get rid of you, Støjberg writes in the post.

Within three hours, it had received 8,000 reactions, 794 comments and 134 shares.

The story began in July. Ulrik Knudsen, a local politician for the Denmark Democrats, shared a photograph of commentator Mohamed Abdi Kahn together with his young daughter, who is wearing a yellow headscarf and holding a teddy bear in her lap.

– Here is Mohamed Abdi Kahn. A Muslim commentator who wants more Islam in Denmark. Here he encourages people to put Islamic headscarves on little girls, Knudsen wrote.

Støjberg needed no further prompting. She told Ekstra Bladet:

– I would very much like to get him out of this country.

And further:

– It is one of the few times in my life that I have considered starting a collection.

The matter could have ended there. But Mohamed Abdi Kahn took her at her word.

He replied that he was in fact willing to move permanently to Africa. There was just one problem: finances. He therefore presented a concrete budget, consisting of DKK 3 million for a five-bedroom house in Djibouti. Half a million to establish a family business. A total of DKK 3.5 million.

The agreement was to be binding, he stressed. No right of withdrawal.

Støjberg responded by asking for airfares.

What she came back with was a calculation of a different order: DKK 33,952 for eight one-way tickets, including hand luggage and two checked bags per person. Departure on 28 September. The condition was that the tickets were one-way.

The offer amounts to 0.97 per cent of the demand.

Kahn is no unknown figure in Danish public life. He has around 17,000 followers on Facebook, where he mainly shares Islamic content. Last year, he was charged under Section 136 of the Danish Criminal Code with publicly inciting the commission of a criminal offence, following a comment directed at the newspaper B.T.

– B.T. are complicit in genocide, and now they are insulting and attacking our brothers and sisters in Denmark. Muslim brothers in Denmark must actually come together, make a plan and fight them. We can stop them, and we will do so in the hard and painful way, he wrote.

Kahn himself called the charge ‘completely unacceptable’. The maximum penalty is four years’ imprisonment.

The comments beneath the photograph of the cheque followed predictable lines. ‘He shouldn’t get 1 krone,’ wrote Preben B. Olsen, receiving 143 likes. Others suggested community service. One comment went in the opposite direction and reminded Støjberg that she herself has a ‘stain on her criminal record’ – a reference to the impeachment court judgment of December 2021, in which she was sentenced to 60 days’ unconditional imprisonment for the instruction to separate asylum-seeking couples involving minors. That comment received 266 reactions.

Whether Mohamed Abdi Kahn actually accepted is unclear. Støjberg links to an interview in B.T. and writes: ‘Hear whether he accepted my offer.’ The answer itself does not appear in the post.

One question remains in any event: Kahn is Somali, but the house he wants is in Djibouti – a neighbouring country from which he does not originate.

The final calculation: Støjberg’s offer amounts to DKK 4,244 per family member. Kahn’s original demand amounted to DKK 437,500 per head.

The flight departs on 28 September.