The series of Quran burnings in recent days outside the embassies of Muslim countries in Copenhagen have raised the specter of the serious crisis of the Muhammad cartoons which had raised a storm of violent protests against Denmark in 1995.

Worried at the prospect of a new crisis with Muslim countries, Liberal Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen on Monday, July 31, brought together spokespersons from all parties in Parliament to find “a legal tool to ban” these acts of desecration of the sacred book of Muslims, without infringing the freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution of the kingdom.

“On Sunday there were five burnings in front of foreign embassies in Denmark and seven were reported on Monday. It has to stop,” he told DR television, condemning the incidents “perpetrated by a very small number of people who only serve to create division in a world that really needs unity.” .

This is why the three-party government coalition – social democrats, liberals and centrists – decided, he said, to “examine how to put an end to the outrages of other countries, in direct conflict with the interests and security of the Danes “.

Wanting to prevent a large-scale crisis that is looming, the head of Danish diplomacy called, on Sunday, the secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hussein Ibrahim Taha, to assure him that Denmark firmly condemned these offensive acts and that it was “desirous of maintaining good friendly relations” with the 57 OIC Member States.

The latter were to meet on Monday afternoon to take a common position against the numerous burnings of the Koran in Denmark and Sweden which are causing waves of indignation in the Muslim world.

Mr. Taha told Mr. Rasmussen of the “displeasure” of OIC members at the repeated instances of insults to the Quran “under the pretext of freedom of speech”, calling on the Danish authorities “to work to take the necessary measures needed” to prevent this from happening in the future.

But the task of the Danish government is not easy, because to prohibit these acts, even reprehensible ones, would compromise the freedom of expression to which the Danes are very attached. “We don’t have complete freedom of expression,” Mr. Rasmussen nevertheless recalled, as “there are limits to what you can say,” referring to a section of the anti-racism law that punishes insulting acts and incitement to hatred towards citizens because of their race and religion.

Certainly, there must “be room for criticism of religion, nor do we intend to reintroduce a blasphemy clause in the legislation”, he nuances. “But when you stand in front of a foreign embassy and burn a Quran or burn the Torah scroll, you are mocking other people’s beliefs and that is unacceptable,” he adds.

“There are not many Danes who equate burning pages of the Quran with freedom of speech […]. Freedom of expression must be respected but this is a balance to be struck and the right thing to do is to take responsibility for the safety of Danes,” he told the media.

Several right-wing parties criticized the government’s proposal, saying that “there is no need to limit freedom of expression”. So Conservative Party Chairman Soren Pape Poulsen fears that “this is only a first step, which will be followed by further demands” from leaders of the Muslim world.

“If we compromise on some things, I worry where it will end up,” he said, backed by Denmark Democrats (populist) chairwoman Inger Stojberg. “Certainly, it is for the safety of all of us. It is also about our safety to live in a free country in the future,” she adds.

Neighboring Sweden, confronted for some time with the burning of the Koran, which risks blocking its entry into NATO – the Turkish Parliament having not yet ratified the green light from the government of Ankara -, is considering a legal avenue to prohibit these anti-Muslim acts.

“We have already started the work of analyzing the legal situation […] to consider measures to strengthen our national security and the security of Swedes in Sweden and around the world,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote on Instagram, noting that he had “a close dialogue” with his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksenn about the Quran burnings.