A small far-right group has set fire to copies of the Qur’an in front of the Egyptian and Turkish embassies in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, in another blasphemous act against the holy Muslim book.
The ultra-nationalist “Danish Patriots” group committed the sacrilegious act on Tuesday, a day after two members of the group desecrated a copy of the Holy Qur’an in front of the Iraqi embassy in Copenhagen, live streaming the action on Facebook.
The extremist Danish perpetrated a similar act of desecration last week, which was met with strong condemnation from the Iraqi nation and the Muslim community.
Egypt summoned Sweden's charge d'affaires to condemn the desecration of the copies of the Qur’an, describing it as “an unfortunate abuse” of the holy Muslim book.
Egypt informed the chargé d'affaires of its "strong condemnation and complete rejection ... of the unfortunate and repeated incidents of burning and abuse of copies of the Holy Qur’an," the foreign ministry's spokesperson said in a statement.
Turkey has also strongly denounced the “despicable attack” on the Qur’an, urging Denmark to prevent hate crimes against Islam.
Denmark has condemned the Qur’an burnings as "provocative and shameful acts." However, it says it does not have the power to block non-violent demonstrators.
Meanwhile, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has noted that he had "had a constructive phone call" with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Husseein on the two countries' bilateral relations and the Qur’an burnings.
"Repeated DK's condemnation of these shameful acts carried out by few individuals. Emphasized that all protests must remain peaceful," he wrote on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter.
Over the past month, the Holy Qur’an has been subject to acts of desecration by extremist elements in separate incidents in Sweden and Denmark, which were perpetrated under the aegis of the respected governments.
The sacrilegious moves have drawn the ire of the whole Muslim community, prompting the summoning or expulsion of Swedish and Danish envoys from several Muslim-majority countries.