This Friday, many eyes will be on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, for a historic trial: Two men are accused of “improper treatment of a religious scripture.” They are accused of having burned a copy of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, in front of an audience at a folk festival in June 2024, as well as livestreaming this on the social platform Facebook. The Danish public prosecutors have so far not released any details about the identity of the two defendants, nor the exact course of events. They have, however, said that a verdict is expected on the same day.
The trial, which will take place in Bornholm’s largest town Ronne, is the first of its kind since a new law that criminalizes the “inappropriate treatment” of religious scripture, including the Bible, the Quran, and the Torah among others, came into force on December 7, 2023.
“Inappropriate treatment” includes defiling, tearing and trampling religious texts, as well as burning them. Penalties range from fines to two years’ imprisonment depending on the severity of the charges.
International tension caused by Quran burnings
The law was introduced amid international tension caused by a series of Quran burnings in Denmark. In July 2023, in Copenhagen, several members of the nationalist and right-wing populist group called “Danish Patriots” set fire to the holy book outside the embassies of countries with Muslim majorities, such as Iraq. There were many other cases of individuals burning Qurans to be provocative. Between July and October 2023 alone, the Danish police counted more than 480 cases in which religious books or national flags, such as the Iraqi flag, were burned.
The provocative acts triggered outrage amid many in the Muslim world and led to diplomatic incidents. There were angry protests outside the Danish embassy in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, and a Danish aid organization in Iraq was attacked. The militant Islamist network al-Qaida called for revenge and threatened attacks in Denmark, and in Sweden, where there had also been incidents of the Quran being burned. The Swedish embassy in Iraq was stormed and set on fire. Both Denmark and Sweden raised their terror alert levels.
New Danish law was not uncontroversial
The new law in Denmark was supposed to prevent people from burning religious texts as a provocation, and to strengthen national security. Peter Hummelgaard, who served as justice minister at the time, said that the Quran burnings did cause “harm to Denmark and its interests.”
But the law was not uncontroversial, and its introduction was preceded by a four-hour debate in parliament. Critics, which included certain Danish intellectuals and members of the opposition, feared that it would curtail freedom of expression. Others claimed that the government had ulterior motives and wanted to secure Muslim votes for Denmark’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the period 2025 to 2026.
It was only in 2017 that Denmark had repealed a blasphemy article that dated back to 1683. Some believed it was meant to send a clear signal to countries such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which impose harsh penalties for blasphemy. But even before, there had been an ongoing debate in Denmark about freedom of expression and its limits. In 2005, the publication of 12 caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten had triggered weeks of protest in parts of the Muslim world.
Similar cases in Sweden
There have been similar debates in Sweden, where it is still not illegal to burn the Quran. Some Swedish courts have yet to decide whether such an act constitutes the crime of incitement to hatred, or is a permissible form of criticizing religion.
However, in the case of the right-wing Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan, the founder of the Danish far-right, anti-Islam party Stram Kurs, a court found him guilty of incitement to hatred and handed him a four-month prison sentence after he repeatedly burned a Quran in both Denmark and Sweden.
Tension between Denmark and Sweden and the Muslim world was also exacerbated in summer 2023 by the case of Salwan Momika, an refugee who had fled to Sweden from Iraq. He, too, repeatedly staged public desecrations and burnings of the Quran, triggering protests in Sweden and around the world. He was also charged with “incitement to hatred” and was due to stand trial in February 2025.
However, just one day before the case was to be heard he was shot dead by unknown assailants on the balcony of his apartment in Sodertalje.
This article was originally published in German.
