The incident of burning Koran has been continuing ever since the first incident came to light in Sweden last month. On Tuesday, activists, appeared to be anti-Muslims, burned Korans outside the Egyptian and Turkish embassies in the Danish capital, Copenhagen.
Denmark and Sweden have condemned such incidents but said that they could not prevent it as this comes under protection of freedom of speech. In one of the incidents, protesters in Iraq set fire to the Swedish embassy in Baghdad as retaliation.
Tuesday’s Koran burning incident by “Danish Patriots” group came a day after Islam’s holy book was burned by the same group on Monday in front of the Iraqi embassy. In Sweden such incidents have taken place twice in June.
Turkey’s rage turned into warning as it condemned the “continuing attacks” on the holy book and said that Danish government’s permission to such acts indicates their ignorance towards the “severity” of the implications that might follow later. Turkey, which has called such actions as “hate crime”, called on Denmark to come into action to prevent such incidents.
Bahrain and Egyptian foreign ministry summoned Sweden’s chargé d’affaires. The former gave an official protest letter against Koran burning in the country’s capital Stockholm, stated the state news agency via the foreign ministry on Tuesday, while, the latter urged for condemning the destruction of Koran. On the other hand, Iraq’s foreign ministry on Monday urged nations of the European Union to “quickly reconsider so-called freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate” in the context of burning of Koran.
Denmark, though, denounced the destruction of Koran as “provocative and shameful acts” but has cited its vulnerability in acting on their prevention by saying that it cannot stop the non-violent demonstrators. According to Danish foreign minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, he had “had a constructive phone call” with Iraqi foreign minister Fuad Husseein on Tuesday regarding their relations and the incidents of Koran burnings.
Rasmussen posted on X, previously twitter, “”Repeated DK’s condemnation of these shameful acts carried out by few individuals. Emphasized that all protests must remain peaceful.”
