Copenhagen: Under pressure, Danish government has decided to take legal steps that will enable officials to prevent the desecration of the Quran in front of foreign embassies in Denmark, the country’s Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has said.
In a statement, Rasmussen said, “The burnings are deeply offensive and reckless acts committed by few individuals. These few individuals do not represent the values the Danish society is built on.”
The decision came after the Quran, the holy book of Islam, was damaged and destroyed during rallies in recent weeks, placing Denmark and Sweden in the international limelight.
“The Danish government will therefore explore the possibility of intervening in special situations where, for instance, other countries, cultures, and religions are being insulted, and where this could have significant negative consequences for Denmark, not least with regard to security,” Rasmussen added.
According to AL Jazeera, Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, said in a separate statement on Sunday that he had been in close touch with Mette Frederiksen, his Danish counterpart, and that a similar procedure was already underway in Sweden.
“We have also started to analyze the legal situation already … in order to consider measures to strengthen our national security and the security of Swedes in Sweden and around the world,” Kristersson said in his Instagram post.
Widespread protests have been organized in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Morocco, Qatar, and Yemen in response to the public burnings of the Quran in the Scandinavian nations.
On Monday, last week, two extremist ‘Danish Patriots’ ignited an Iraqi flag and a copy of the Quran on fire in a tin foil plate by trampling them, according to Al Jazeera.
Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old resident of Iraq who is also a citizen of Sweden, burned several pages of the holy book earlier this month.
