Denmark to ban Quran burnings

The point of burning holy books is to incite a reaction. Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Chris Allen, an expert in hate studies at the U.K.‘s University of Leicester, said that many people who burn Qurans are hoping to see a reaction from Muslims who hold fringe, extreme views. “The hope that those who are much more on the fringe will actually respond, at which point this reinforces their argument that all Muslims, by default, are exactly the same as those responding in a particular way,” Allen said.• 1

Incidents of Quran burnings in Denmark and Sweden have ticked up since the beginning of this year, and follow a stunt by Rasmus Paludan, a far-right political leader. The book-burners represent a small group of people, but they’re having an outsized impact on Nordic countries: Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the country is facing “the most serious security situation since the Second World War” as a result of the protests.• 2

Danish politicians have hit back at concerns that such a ban would be a degradation of free speech. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she did not consider it a slippery slope, and added that she doesn’t “consider it a restriction on freedom of expression that you can’t burn other people’s books.”• 3 Critics disagree. In Time magazine, Jacob Mchangama, CEO of the Future of Free Speech Project, wrote that the book burners are “private individuals whose non-violent symbolic expressions are intended to convey a message, which however, offensive to those who disprove, is part and parcel of free expression.”• 4