`Denmark to ban Quran burnings’

Deutsche Welle :
Denmark’s justice minister said on Friday that the Scandinavian country would ban the burning of Islam’s holy book, the Quran.

The government has rejected objections put forward by some Danish opposition parties saying such a prohibition would infringe on free speech.

A bill that is to be presented would “prohibit the inappropriate treatment of objects of significant religious importance to a religious community,” Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard told reporters.

He added that the legislation principally concerned burnings and other desecrations carried out in public places.

“The proposal will thus make it punishable to, for example, in public burn a Quran, bible or Torah,” he said, adding: “I fundamentally believe there are more civilized ways to express one’s views than burning things.”

The move follows numerous incidents in recent months during which people have publicly burned or damaged copies of the Quran in both Denmark and Sweden in apparent hostility to the Islamic faith.