Denmark Prepares to Ban Qur’an Burnings

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Denmark was the last Scandinavian country to still have historic blasphemy laws on the books when it scrapped its 334-year-old statute in 2017, but now the nation’s left-led government is bringing them back. A new law is being drafted, targeted at a surge in Qur’an burning protests recently which would make desecrating any holy book illegal, with the government saying the legislation is a matter of national security.

Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard spoke on the new law Friday, saying terror threats had increased recently and this was a reason to show more respect towards Islam, calling the wave of Qur’an burnings “meaningless insults which have no other purpose than to create discord and hatred”. The protests harmed the interests of the Danish state, he added.

According to reports the change in law will be achieved by amending the present rules which punish with up to two years imprisonment offences against foreign nations by publicly insulting them, including flag burnings. Consequently, Denmark proposes to punish burning all religious texts including the Qur’an and the Bible with prison time.

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But exactly what constitutes “improper treatment of objects with religious significance” will be up for the courts to decide, the minister said, saying “only the imagination sets the limits” when it comes to deciding what is insulting conduct or not. At the press conference, questions by attending journalists seemed to tease out that burning a headscarf would not, while walking on a Qur’an would be considered hateful.

This vague approach has already set up a confrontation with Denmark’s law enforcement, who say they don’t want to be responsible for enforcing a contentious rule with no clarity on where exactly it applies. Denmark’s police union spokesman said in response that such a law would have to be as crystal-clear as road traffic regulations, saying “There must be no grey areas in the legislation. There must be clear boundaries that make it easy to enforce… It is a highly tense situation with very high political attention, and it is something that divides [opinions]”.

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Perhaps the strongest criticism came from former government minister Inger Støjberg, who was the minister for immigration between 2015 and 2019, and now leads the opposition Denmark Democrats party in Parliament. She said the rule was a “1-0 to the Muslims” and that “Now the unfree, medieval forces in the Middle East have won a victory today. They can now see that they can dictate our way of life in Denmark, because we have a government that bows to threats and pressure”.

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