Accused by Muslim countries of allowing copies of the Koran to be burned without reacting, Copenhagen is proposing a bill to Parliament on Tuesday to prohibit the “inappropriate treatment of scriptures with important religious significance”. A sensitive text, the result of a compromise.
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Between freedom of expression and public order, the Danish authorities are walking on a ridge. The bill discussed Tuesday, November 14 in Parliament is the result of a clever compromise. In this country, the offense of blasphemy was legally abolished in 2017. But following a series of Koran burnings in Denmark and Sweden, which aroused anger within Muslim countries and threatened national security, Copenhagen has decided to legislate.
At the end of June, during Eid, several pages of a Koran, wrapped in ham, were burned by an Iraqi refugee of Christian faith. The government then appeared very embarrassed, stuck between defending the right to demonstrate and condemning an Islamophobic act.
But how far should we place the cursor so as not to restrict individual freedom, in this very liberal country? Danish authorities have chosen to narrow the scope of the law to specifically target the inappropriate treatment of scriptures with important religious significance, rather than “all objects” as mentioned in the first version of the text. A change to make the law easier to understand, particularly for the police and the courts, assures the Minister of Justice, who notes that the terrorist threat has intensified in recent months.