2023-07-28 03:35:40
The Koran has been repeatedly burned outside embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen in recent weeks, sparking anger in Muslim-majority countries, which are scheduled to hold a summit on Monday to condemn the incidents.
The anger culminated when the Swedish embassy in Baghdad was burned down by protesters last week and the staff of the diplomatic legation were evacuated. Attempts were also reportedly made to gain access to the Green Zone of the Iraqi capital, where the Danish Embassy is located.
The other representative of the EU, Josep Borrell, described on Wednesday the burning of the Koran as “a clear provocation”. “The desecration of the Koran, or any other book considered sacred, is offensive, disrespectful and a clear provocation. Expressions of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance have no place in the European Union,” he said in a statement.
A far-right fringe group calling itself “Danish Patriotics” burned the Quran outside the Copenhagen embassies of two Muslim-majority countries on Tuesday in the latest of ongoing Quran burnings. People from the group also held a banner with the words “Fuck Islam” at the events.
In a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs published on Sunday, the Danish government declared that it “condemns the burning of the Koran.” “The burning of sacred texts and other religious symbols is a shameful act that does not respect the religion of others,” he said.
“It is a provocative act that hurts a lot of people and creates division between different religions and cultures. Denmark has freedom of religion and many Danish citizens are Muslim. They are a valuable part of the Danish population,” insisted the Foreign Ministry.
“Denmark underlines that freedom of expression and freedom of assembly must be respected,” he also said, adding that “Denmark supports the right to protest, but emphasizes that it must remain in peace.”
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry summoned the Danish ambassador in Cairo, Anne Dorte Riggelsen, on Thursday to express the African country’s “total rejection” of the various burnings of the Koran that have been carried out in Copenhagen in recent days. .
The ambassador “was informed of the discontent, the strong condemnation and the total rejection of Egypt (…) to the recent incidents of the burning of the holy Koran in front of the headquarters of foreign diplomatic missions in Denmark,” Foreign Affairs said in a statement. .
He recalled that, precisely, the last burning of the Koran was carried out by two Danish ultranationalist protesters in front of the Egyptian embassy in Copenhagen on the 25th.
Foreign Affairs asked the Danish authorities, as well as the rest of the countries in which similar episodes have occurred, to “take concrete measures to stop such unfortunate incidents once and for all.”
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