After a sequence of Quran burnings in Scandinavia brought about uproar in Muslim communities, Denmark on Thursday banned the “improper treating” of spiritual texts in public.
Beneath a new regulation handed by Parliament, these discovered responsible of the crime may be fined or sentenced to as much as two years in jail.
“Quran burnings have to be stopped,” Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard, who offered the regulation, mentioned on Instagram on Thursday. “We should shield the safety of Denmark and the Danes.”
Desecration of the Quran is now banned each within the public house and in non-public if the act is recorded and distributed.
Like Sweden, Denmark in current months has struggled to steadiness a deep-rooted dedication to free speech in opposition to the anger and outrage the burnings have brought about in Muslim-majority international locations, whose governments have condemned the acts. Governments in each Sweden and Denmark have mentioned that the danger of terrorist assaults has risen in current months.
With anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment widespread, there have been greater than 500 demonstrations in Denmark in current months, Mr. Hummelgaard mentioned, together with some the place the Quran was burned.
A small group of nationalists in Denmark who filmed themselves burning what they mentioned was a Quran, and at the least two public desecrations of the Quran in Sweden, provoked assaults on the international locations’ embassies in Iraq and led to their diplomats being summoned by Iranian authorities.
The Danish authorities mentioned that the burnings put the nation in a troublesome diplomatic state of affairs, and that the federal government couldn’t simply sit idle. They referred to as the regulation a focused intervention supposed to guard the safety of Danes overseas and at residence.
“The terrorist risk degree in opposition to Denmark is alarmingly excessive,” mentioned a spokesman for the Moderates occasion, which is a part of the coalition authorities. “This regulation is launched out of necessity, not out of need.”
However the measure was sharply criticized by opponents, together with the right-wing Liberal Alliance occasion. Steffen Larsen, a Liberal Alliance lawmaker, mentioned throughout a heated debate in Parliament on Thursday that it was a product of “political correctness” and that it was “designed to restrain the liberty of speech and the creative freedom.”
The measure, Mr. Larsen mentioned, is “nothing to be happy with.”
Nina Palesa Bonde, a deputy decide on the Copenhagen District Court docket, additionally criticized the ban, arguing on social media that it protected a textual content that “is used as a dying sentence for girls, Jews, homosexuals in lots of international locations.”
Mr. Hummelgaard supplied assurances that the brand new regulation doesn’t forbid criticism of faith or satirical drawings. However he mentioned that whereas a broad house needs to be allowed for non secular criticism, “destroying books shouldn’t be a really clever strategy to criticize one thing you don’t like.”
The Swedish authorities can also be investigating methods to forestall the burning of the Quran, together with by increasing an current public order regulation that may permit the police to disclaim an indication allow on the grounds that it may pose a risk to Sweden’s safety, mentioned Nils Funcke, a free speech knowledgeable primarily based in Stockholm.
Christina Anderson contributed reporting.
