On 25 August 2023, the Danish government declared through the Ministry of Justice’s official website that it has drawn up a bill to ban Quran burnings. This is in stark contrast to the fact that Denmark has, for many years, laid the groundwork for Quran burnings, which it has justified with “freedom of expression”. What is the cause of this reversal and what can we learn from it?

Comment:
For five years, the Danish state has escorted and protected the blasphemer, Rasmus Paludan, so that he can uninhibitedly defame Islam with, among other things, Quran burnings. The state has spent tens of millions of dollars to support him in this primitive project.

In residential areas with a high concentration of Muslims, he has for several years with the protection of the police, in addition to burning the Quran, cursed at the Prophet Muhammad (saas) and shouted insults like “prostitute” at Muslim women. There are even videos showing the Danish police supplying him with lighter fluid so he can burn the Quran, and showing a police officer describing the Muslim inhabitants as “rats”.

The Danish state justified this obvious violation of Muslims by saying that freedom of expression applies in Denmark. The same pretext was used by the Danish state to legitimize the hateful caricatures of the Messenger (saaws) in 2005.

With this sudden decision to ban Quran burnings, the Danish state has proven that freedom of speech is a lie. The desecration of Islam’s symbols is due to nothing more than pure hatred of Islam, which is justified with slogans such as “freedom of speech”.

The Danish government’s sudden reversal is due to the fear of a boycott of Danish products in the Muslim world, after Paludan and others started burning the Quran in front of the embassies of several Muslim countries. This forced the treacherous regimes of the Muslim countries to respond by bringing up the issue at the meeting of the OIC, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, on July 31, 2023. The treacherous regimes were silent as the grave when the Quran was burned in Denmark for several years, but responded only because it happened in front of their embassies.

Denmark suffered massive economic losses when a boycott of Danish goods was initiated in January 2006 in a number of Muslim countries. If this happened again, it would be a real nightmare for the Danish business community. The real rulers in Denmark are the economic elite, as is the case in all liberal democracies. They sent clear signals to the politicians that they would not accept a new boycott.

Therefore, the Danish foreign minister called the chairman of the OIC and promised him that Denmark would ban Quran burnings, which made the treacherous regimes, stick to “condemnations” of the burning of the Holy Quran. The Danish Prime Minister then declared – suddenly full of wisdom – that “books should be read, not burned”.

Denmark’s sudden reversal on the Quran burning issue proves that sanctions are the only thing that works against states that are enemies to Islam, proving once again that the Islamic Ummah is in urgent need of a sincere Islamic leadership to represent it and deter any enemy of Islam from defiling the sanctuaries of Islam.

Taimullah Abu-Laban