A Danish man who posted a video of himself burning the Quran on Facebook will not stand trial after politicians abolished a centuries-old blasphemy law. The 42-year-old, who has not been named, was seen setting a large leather-bound copy of the holy book alight in a four-minute clip called “Consider your neighbour: it stinks when it burns”. He faced up to four months in prison after prosecutors were alerted to the footage, which was posted to a Facebook group called “Yes to freedom – no to Islam” in December 2015. They brought blasphemy charges under clause 140 of Denmark’s penal code, which bars people from publicly insulting or degrading religious doctrines or worship. But the case has been dropped after Danish MPs revoked the 334-year-old legislation, and declared they “do not believe that there should be special rules protecting religions against expressions”.
MP Bruno Jerup, who opposed the law, told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper: “Religion should not dictate what is allowed and what is forbidden to say publicly. “It gives religion a totally unfair priority in society.” Threatening or degrading behaviour based on people’s religious beliefs will still be punishable under other Danish laws.
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/quran-burner-denmark-face…
