Denmark Moves to Ban Quran Burnings After Muslim Outrage

Denmark’s authorities mentioned on Friday that it might transfer to criminalize the general public mistreatment of non secular objects, setting apart free-speech considerations with what one minister referred to as a “targeted intervention” after a spate of public Quran desecrations brought about furors in lots of Muslim-majority international locations.

Those discovered responsible of mistreating an object with main non secular significance may very well be fined or sentenced to as much as two years in jail, in accordance with a draft of a invoice revealed by the Danish Justice Ministry. Danish coalition officers mentioned they may enact the coverage as quickly as the top of the yr whether it is authorised by Parliament.

Both Denmark and neighboring Sweden have struggled to stability respect at no cost expression with the diplomatic fallout of the desecrations. Governments in lots of Muslim-majority international locations have issued withering condemnations, and authorities in each international locations have mentioned that the danger of terrorist assaults has risen in current months, posing a risk to nationwide safety.

After a small group of Danish nationalists filmed themselves burning what they mentioned was a Quran late final month, a whole bunch of Iraqi protesters tried to storm Denmark’s embassy in Baghdad earlier than safety forces dispersed them. On Sunday, the Iranian authorities summoned Danish and Swedish diplomats to chastise them over one other sequence of desecrations in each international locations.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen informed reporters that there had been greater than 170 demonstrations, together with some with Quran burnings, in entrance of the embassies of Muslim-majority international locations and elsewhere in Denmark over the previous month. The protests, that are usually small, typically denounce Islam and Muslim immigration.

“This has put Denmark in a difficult foreign-policy situation,” Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, the nation’s deputy prime minister, mentioned on Friday. “And the government cannot just sit and listen to that.”

Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard characterised the proposal as a “targeted invention” towards Quran burnings that “damage the security of Danes both abroad and at home.” Presenting the measure on Friday, Mr. Hummelgaard pledged {that a} “very broad framework” for freedom of expression would stay in Denmark.

He mentioned the proposed legislation wouldn’t apply to clothes or satirical drawings, for instance, and wouldn’t constrain criticism of faith. “I think there are more civilized ways to express your opinions than by burning things down,” he mentioned.

Danish critics instantly slammed the invoice as an assault on the nation’s traditionally robust protections at no cost speech and as a capitulation to violence. The Liberal Alliance, which holds 14 of 179 seats in Parliament, mentioned it was “a sad day for Danes and a good day for extremists.”

Jacob Kaarsbo, an analyst at Think Tank Europa in Copenhagen, referred to as the invoice “an effort to reach out to the Muslim mainstream” and tamp down tensions by exhibiting Muslim-majority international locations that Denmark was taking the issue significantly.

“It’s ultimately very few people that are behind this, but they’re having an outsized impact,” Mr. Kaarsbo mentioned, referring to the Quran desecrations.

This is much from Denmark’s first brush with controversy surrounding the boundaries of free speech and Islam. In 2005, a Danish newspaper revealed a number of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that many Muslims thought-about blasphemous and that set off violent protests and assaults.

Far-right Scandinavian provocateurs have burned the Quran often for years to sign their opposition to Muslim immigration into international locations like Denmark. But tensions this yr started to rise after Rasmus Paludan, a right-wing nationalist and twin citizen of Sweden and Denmark, set a duplicate of the Quran ablaze in January.

In late June, Salwan Momika, an Iraqi immigrant to Sweden, burned a Quran outdoors a mosque in Stockholm. A Muslim man was later granted a allow to burn a Torah and a Bible outdoors the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm however didn’t observe by way of. He later informed reporters that his intention had been to not burn the scriptures however to underscore the abhorrent nature of such acts.

The governments of many Muslim international locations have fiercely denounced Denmark and Sweden for permitting the burning of Qurans. Both governments have repeatedly condemned the desecrations however mentioned they have been constrained by free-speech legal guidelines.

Sweden, which hopes to affix NATO, fears that the controversy may delay its membership. Turkey’s international minister mentioned final month that Stockholm’s lack of ability to “prevent provocations” had raised questions on Sweden’s credentials for membership.

In mid-July, a whole bunch of individuals stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad and set components of it on hearth over the Swedish authorities’s resolution to permit the desecrations. Iraq additionally expelled the Swedish ambassador and directed his Iraqi counterpart to withdraw from the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm.

Last month, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden described the safety state of affairs there as essentially the most severe since World War II. This month, Sweden’s home safety company raised its terrorism risk stage to “high,” the second-most extreme designation in a five-point scale.

Jasmina Nielsen contributed reporting from Copenhagen.