Banning the burning of the Quran in front of embassies: These are the views of the Red and Blue parties, and no concrete outcomes were reached after today's meeting.

According to TV2, the government will intervene with legislation to prevent the burning of copies of the Quran in front of foreign embassies, as stated by Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen last night. However, the mechanism of action or implementation is still unknown, as the government did not have concrete proposals when it convened a meeting this morning with the foreign affairs rapporteurs from all parties in the Danish parliament to discuss the government's proposals. Following the meeting, the Foreign Minister confirmed that the government deliberately chose to involve the international community in some of its early actions: "When we cannot answer this, it is because the government has chosen to try to solve the problem before it overwhelms us. This means that we cannot present the final solution (now), and the fact that we inform the world that we are working on a solution will only exacerbate the problems," the source reported.

The government's proposal came after a number of Islamic countries protested the burning of the Holy Quran in front of the embassies of several Islamic countries. Meanwhile, at the time of preparing this article, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is holding an extraordinary meeting on the burning of the Quran in Denmark and Sweden. The organization includes 57 Islamic countries and represents more than 1.5 billion people in the world.

The Foreign Minister affirms that the proposal stems from political will, not external pressure.

According to Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, as reported by TV2, the government maintains that the basis for seriously addressing the issue is political will. He emphasized that the proposed ban is not due to government pressure: “Because we conducted a political analysis, and this is in all our best interests with regard to safeguarding Danish interests globally and the security of Danes, and to a certain extent in this geopolitical situation we find ourselves in with the war in Ukraine and with certain countries.” Rasmussen also stated after the meeting that Russia is helping to fuel the conflict.

The government has tasked lawyers in the Ministry of Justice with working to determine what the ban might look like, but there is still no time horizon on when concrete proposals will be ready. For the government, at least some corrections must be made. Lars Løkke Rasmussen stated: “We have assessed the situation in such a way that we can now begin to work towards correcting the significant expansion of freedom of expression that occurred in 2017, when the blasphemy clause was abolished.”.

The position of the right-wing parties (the blue parties)

The government's proposal did not receive much support from Parliament, and last night the right-wing bourgeois parties (Blue) criticized this restriction on freedom of expression as they see it from their point of view. Some of them said that history will not forget the steadfastness of Danish politicians in the crisis of the offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, in 2005 and 2006, when Denmark insisted on its position and refused to apologize despite the overwhelming anger at the time in Islamic countries; and that history will also not forget the politicians “kneeling down” and yielding to the anger of the Islamic world and “restricting freedom of expression” in the current crisis of burning the Qur’an in Denmark.

The position of the left-wing (red) parties

In addition to the strong criticism from right-wing parties, left-wing parties have also joined in rejecting the government's approach. May Wildessen of the Unity List (Enhedslisten) wrote on social media that "we shouldn't change our legislation just because authoritarian regimes threaten Danish export interests." It's worth noting that this is the same party that proposed the repeal of the blasphemy law, a proposal that received widespread support and was voted on by all parliamentary parties except the Social Democratic Party. This occurred during the government of Lars Løkke Rasmussen, then leader of the Liberal Party (Venstre). Pia Olsen Dær, leader of the SF party, stated that she "doesn't believe we in Denmark should restrict our freedoms." Meanwhile, Christian Friis Bach, the foreign affairs spokesperson for the Radical Party (Venstre), announced after a meeting that he "criticizes the proposal, but at the same time acknowledges the seriousness of the current situation," according to TV2.

The dilemma of freedom of expression

Today, the government stated that restricting freedom of expression is a complex issue. On the one hand, there is a threat to Denmark's chances of forming partnerships or alliances with other countries, and on the other hand, there is freedom of expression: "It's always a dilemma between people's right to express themselves as they wish to act and speak, and, on the other hand, striking a balance between Denmark's interests and security. We have a high threat level in Denmark. We are at level 4 out of 5, and these repeated mockery contribute to drawing a lot of negative and dangerous attention to Denmark," according to Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard, as reported by TV2.