Territories of Nordic countries observed an upsurge in cases of the Muslim holy book Quran being burned. In a series of continuous and constant events showcasing this repulsive attitude towards the book, the government is in an international viewpoint and is expected to adopt “legal tool” to pacify the situation.Â
The recent days have shown a multitude of examples where the government in Sweden and Denmark had to face the violent move of seeing copies of the Quran being burned or otherwise damaged.
It exploded when an Iraqi refugee burned a Quran outside a mosque in Copenhagen and followed it by placing a strip of bacon on it during a Muslim holiday called Eid al-Adha. Before that, anti Muslim protesters had been burning the holy copy since January in intervals of time but this was gasoline to the spark.Â
Before that Danish-Swedish far-right provocateur Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the book outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm while not failing to repeat it again the next week outside the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen.
The act had led to another series of protests in the middle eastern countries where the masses follow Islamic beliefs ultimately resulting in dissolving of diplomatic ties of several Islamic nations such as Iran and in parts Afghanistan. This solidifies the seriousness of the matter, eliciting a strong need for the Nordic governments to take actions to curb the outrage towards the religion.
The OCI too has urged the rest of nations to follow a similar pathway.
Even though Denmark has given a statement siding with the seriousness and agreeing into modifying arrangements which halts the promotion of such activities and ideas, there have still been cases of repetition of the case.
It is said that as on Sunday Denmark introduced the idea of working out a system which makes the intervention of the authorities in such protests simpler and more effective, clearly prohibiting the idea of hampering the nation’s security and prosperity, following the reductant actions.
Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen of Denmark, on Monday, had a meeting with foreign policy speakers of parliament on Monday. He gave his assurance to not just the nation’s involved but the world, that it won’t sit silent on the emergence as the Swedish minister also called it the most serious it has been “since World War 2”.
According to him, it is not in the least of interests to allow such an action. The minister expressed that it is not the political pressure that’s pushing them into, but political morality that comes to the surface after proper and thorough analysis.
While protestants burned the copies in front of the Iranian embassy last week, even after the government’s statement, both Denmark and Sweden have witnessed the holy book being damaged and/or burned. In volatile times as such, this may prove to be against the benefits of the nation’s, disrupting the peace of not just those directly present at the same place but also those living internationally, creating another series of geopolitical affairs.
The Nordic nations have given promises building up their support to the class of people associated with Islam, but haven’t been able to prevent any of the uprisings under the name of freedom of speech in their democratic constitution.
Acting upon the same, the countries have said that they will consider options to modify the law in order to not hurt sentiments of a certain section of the public. For this, Foreign Minister of Sweden has reportedly written letters to all 57 countries under the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to assist in explaining Sweden’s right to assembly as many argue that freedom of speech is a human right and can’t be compromised with.
