DENMARK MOVES TO BAN QURAN BURNINGS
Denmark’s government said Friday that it would move to criminalize the public mistreatment of religious objects, setting aside freespeech concerns with what one minister called a “targeted intervention” after a spate of public Quran desecrations caused furors in many Muslim-majority countries.
Those found guilty of mistreating an object with major religious significance could be fined or sentenced to up to two years in prison, according to a draft of a bill published by the Danish Justice Ministry. Danish coalition officials said they could enact the policy as soon as the end of the year if it is approved by parliament.
Denmark and neighboring Sweden have struggled to balance respect for free expression with the diplomatic fallout of the desecrations. Governments in many Muslimmajority countries have issued withering condemnations, and authorities in both countries have said that the risk of terrorist attacks has risen in recent months, posing a threat to national security.
After a small group of Danish nationalists filmed themselves burning what they said was a Quran late last month, hundreds of Iraqi protesters tried to storm Denmark’s embassy in Baghdad before security forces dispersed them. Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said there had been more than 170 demonstrations, including some with Quran burnings, in front of the embassies of Muslimmajority countries and elsewhere in Denmark over the past month.
Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard characterized the proposal as a “targeted invention” against Quran burnings that “damage the security of Danes both abroad and at home.”
Danish critics immediately slammed the bill as an assault on the country’s historically strong protections for free speech and as a capitulation to violence.