Danish government to present bill criminalizing public burnings of Quran

The Danish Government is currently drafting a bill that would prohibit the desecration of religious texts in public places, with the violation of the law to be punished by imprisonment for up to two years.

As reported by the Associated Press, this law would serve as an extension to Denmark’s currently active ban on the burning of foreign flags.

"The bill will make it, for example, punishable to publicly burn the Quran or the Bible. It will affect only actions in public places or actions with the purpose of distribution into a wider circle", the Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told the Associated Press.

Caliber.Az recalls, that the need for such a ban arose amidst the repeated acts of burning of the Koran and related anti-Islam protests. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs had previously explained that the scale of the protests had reached a level where the country was accused of insulting various cultures and religions and considered it therefore necessary to intervene.