Another Koran burning in Denmark infuriates the Muslim world.

 

Protesters in Saana, Yemen reacting to the Koran burning. Reuters. 

Another Koran burning in Denmark has infuriated much of the Muslim world and increased tensions between Europe and the Middle East. Reuters. A group called Danish Patriots have carried out the burnings in Denmark, often in front of embassies, with the most recent one occurring near the embassies of Turkey and Egypt. They follow similar incidents in Sweden. The European governments say they cannot do anything about the protests due to freedom of speech and demonstration while governments in the Muslim world say the protests should not be allowed. 

My Comment:

Looks like this is continuing and I fear that there is going to be a reprisal for these incidents. It's pretty clear that the Muslim world is absolutely angry about these burnings of the Koran and I think there is a very good chance that they may retaliate with a terror attack. 

I, of course, support the right of these protesters to burn the Koran. No religion should be free from criticism and all speech should be protected, even if there are likely to be consequences for the speech. Indeed, my biggest criticism of Islam is the fact that they often react this way to people criticizing their religion. I myself had a picture of Mohamad as my profile picture on social media for a very long time. 

Still, it feels weird that this is happening now. Islamic terrorism has essentially evaporated since the peak in 2016. So why are these people protesting? My guess is because they are sick of Muslim immigrants, which I kind of understand. Still, there are ways to protest that which won't result in Muslims getting angered. Indeed, I assume that angering Muslims is probably the main purpose of these protests. 

Indeed, I mentioned in the last post on this topic that the Koran burnings remind me a lot of the Westboro Baptist Church, a group that famously protested funerals largely to anger people. Burning the Koran has the same effect and I think there is a good chance that this is just a major trolling attempt and the people behind it just want to see the chaos erupt. 

I do wonder if the European governments here will continue to stand for freedom of speech. Indeed, I am surprised that they haven't backed down already and further cracked down on the remaining freedoms in Europe. Given the stakes I worry that they will eventually back down. 

After all, it's not just the threat of a retaliatory terror attack that Europe is worried about. That is a huge deal though and it's not a minor concern, the memories of the war with ISIS are fairly fresh. But these burnings are hurting relations between Europe and the Muslim world and, most notably, could result in Turkey blocking the application of Sweden into NATO. That's a fairly huge deal and if it comes to pass it would be a major consequence. It remains to be seen if Europe will continue to stick up for their supposed values or back down for practical considerations...