Denmark’s parliament Thursday handed a brand new regulation making it unlawful to desecrate any holy textual content within the nation after a current string of public desecrations of the Quran by a handful of anti-Islam activists sparked offended demonstrations in Muslim nations.
The Scandinavian nation has been considered overseas as a spot that facilitates insults and denigration of the cultures, religions and traditions of different nations. The function of the regulation was to counter “the systematic mockery” which, amongst different issues, has contributed to intensifying the specter of terrorism in Denmark, the Justice Ministry has stated.
“We must protect the security of Denmark and Danes,” Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard stated in an announcement. “That is why it can be crucial that we now get higher safety towards the systematic desecrations we’ve seen for a very long time.”
The Folketing, or parliament, adopted the regulation in a 94-77 vote, with eight lawmakers absent. The new laws will make it a criminal offense “to inappropriately deal with, publicly or with the intention of dissemination in a wider circle, a writing with vital spiritual significance for a spiritual group or an object that seems as such.”
Works of artwork the place “a minor half” features a desecration, however is an element of a bigger creative manufacturing, aren’t lined by the ban.
During the greater than four-hour debate, left-leaning and far-right events united towards the center-right authorities, repeatedly demanding that the three-party coalition that introduced the draft on Aug. 25, participate within the dialogue. The authorities did not say something and have been referred to as “cowards” by the opposition.
“Does Iran change its legislation because Denmark feels offended by something an Iranian could do? Does Pakistan? Does Saudi Arabia? The answer is no,” Karina Lorentzen of the Socialist People’s Party asked rhetorically. Inger Stojberg of the anti-immigration Denmark Democrats said that the new law was a capitulation to Islam and a bowing down to countries that “don’t share (our) set of values.”
“A restriction of freedom of expression is flawed in a contemporary and enlightened society just like the Danish one,” Stojberg stated.
This yr alone, activists have staged greater than 500 protests, together with burnings of the Quran, in entrance of embassies of Muslim nations, locations of worship and in immigrant neighborhoods.
Denmark has repeatedly distanced itself from the desecrations, however has claimed that freedom of expression is without doubt one of the most essential values in Danish society. The authorities has stated there should “be room for spiritual criticism” and that there have been no plans to reintroduce a blasphemy clause that was repealed in 2017.
Oussama Elsaadi, an imam with a mosque in Denmark’s second-largest metropolis Aarhus, instructed the B.T. newspaper that it is “a superb message to all Muslims.”
“Burning of the Quran is an offense to others,” he said, according to B.T. “You might categorical your self as you would like, however not in such a means that you just destroy different folks’s lives.”
In 2006, Denmark was on the heart of widespread anger within the Muslim world after a Danish newspaper posted 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, together with one sporting a bomb as a turban.
Muslims contemplate photographs of the prophet to be sacrilegious and inspiring of idolatry. The photographs escalated into violent anti-Denmark protests by Muslims worldwide.
Those who violate the brand new regulation face fines or as much as two years in jail. Before it takes impact, Denmark’s figurehead monarch Queen Margrethe must formally signal it. That is predicted to occur later this month.
In neighboring Sweden, which additionally has seen a string of Quran burnings and requests to stage protests involving the destruction of holy books, a government-appointed investigation will set up whether or not to assessment the police ordinance, the Swedish news company TT wrote.
Swedish police ought to be capable to weigh threats to the nation’s safety through the examination of an utility for a public meeting the place the desecration of a holy guide is included, and is about to be accomplished by July 1 subsequent yr, TT stated.
There is not any regulation in Sweden particularly prohibiting the burning or desecration of the Quran or different spiritual texts. Like many Western nations, Sweden doesn’t have any blasphemy legal guidelines.
The conflict of basic rules has sophisticated Sweden’s want to affix NATO, an enlargement that gained urgency after Russia invaded Ukraine however wants the approval of all present members.
Türkiye has blocked Swedish accession since final yr, accusing it of supporting terrorist organizations, together with the PKK, its Syrian affiliate YPG, and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). It additionally cited anti-Islamic protests in Stockholm.
Source: www.dailysabah.com