Denmark, Sweden mull banning of Quran burning protests
Berlin, Jul 31 (EFE).- Denmark and Sweden are mulling banning the burning of the Quran and other protests in front of foreign embassies amid concerns of a diplomatic crisis between the Nordic nations and Muslim governments.
Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has summoned foreign affairs rapporteurs for a Monday meeting to discuss the issue.
“The government looks very seriously at the international reactions to the Koran burnings in Denmark,” the Danish minister said.
“We must not let our disagreements about this create division – neither outside the world nor here at home,” Rasmussen added.
The move comes after several Quran-burning incidents and desecration of the Holy Scripture in both Denmark and Sweden by anti-Islam protestors.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Sunday that he is “in close contact” with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, to take joint measures against the Quran burnings.
“We are in the middle of the most serious security policy situation since World War II, and here at home, we know that both states, state-like actors and individuals can take advantage of the situation,” Kristersson said, on Instagram.
Kristersson had already warned last week of the high-risk situation amid fresh calls from protestors to desecrate the Holy book this week.
The incidents have sparked fury among Muslim-majority nations and widespread protests.
In Baghdad, hundreds of demonstrators stormed and torched the Swedish embassy after an Iraqi refugee in Sweden announced a Quran burning in Stockholm.
In the end, the refugee did not burn the holy book but kicked and desecrated it in front of the Iraqi embassy amid protests by groups of mainly Muslim demonstrators, an event that garnered much media coverage.
The Iraqi refugee’s actions, who has been in Sweden since 2019, follows similar incidents staged both in Denmark and other Nordic countries by the Swedish-Danish neo-Nazi Rasmus Paludan.
Both countries have condemned the incidents but past protests were approved under the freedom of expression and right to protest laws.
Sweden in particular will be closely monitoring developments with Turkey’s parliament set to vote on Swedish NATO membership in October.
At the last NATO summit in Vilnius (Lithuania), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to lift his blockade on Sweden’s Nato membership.
One of the main objections raised by Ankara was that Sweden harbors members of militant groups, including the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which is considered a terrorist group in Turkey.
Several majority Muslim nations, including Turkey, Jordan and Iraq have condemned the police-authorized desecrations of the Quran and demanded that Stockholm and Copenhagen ban them. EFE
gc/ch
