DENMARK OUTLAWS BURNING OF THE QURAN
After a series of Quran burnings in Scandinavia caused uproar in Muslim communities, Denmark on Thursday banned the “improper treating” of religious texts in public.
Under a law passed by Parliament, those found guilty of the crime can be fined or sentenced to up to two years in prison.
“Quran burnings must be stopped,” Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard, who presented the law, said on Instagram on Thursday. “We must protect the security of Denmark and the Danes.”
Desecration of the Quran is now banned both in the public space and in private if the act is recorded and distributed.
Like Sweden, Denmark in recent months has struggled to balance a deeprooted commitment to free speech against the anger and outrage the burnings have caused in Muslim-majority countries, whose governments have condemned the acts. Governments in both Sweden and Denmark have said that the risk of terrorist attacks has risen in recent months.
With anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment widespread, there have been more than 500 demonstrations in Denmark in recent months, Hummelgaard said, including some where the Quran was burned.
Danish authorities said that the burnings put the country in a difficult diplomatic situation, and that the government could not just sit idle. They called the law a targeted intervention intended to protect the security of Danes abroad and at home.
But the measure was sharply criticized by opponents, including the rightwing Liberal Alliance party. Steffen Larsen, a Liberal Alliance lawmaker, said during a heated debate in Parliament on Thursday that it was a product of “political correctness” and that it was “designed to restrain the freedom of speech and the artistic freedom.”