Denmark to Tighten Border Controls after Quran Burnings
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Danish police are tightening border controls following recent burnings of the Quran that have affected the security situation, the justice ministry said, following a similar decision by Sweden earlier in the week.
“Authorities have today concluded that it is necessary at this time to increase the focus on who is entering Denmark, in order to respond to the specific and current threats,” the Danish ministry said in a statement late on Thursday.
Tighter border controls will initially be in place until August 10, it said.
Far-right activists in Denmark and Sweden have burned and damaged several copies of the Muslim holy book in recent months, inciting outrage in the Muslim world and demands that governments ban such acts.
“The burnings are deeply offensive and reckless acts committed by few individuals. These few individuals do not represent the values the Danish society is built on,” Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in a statement last week, Al Jazeera reported.
The decision to tighten border controls with more checks of travelers arriving in Denmark follows a similar move by Sweden.
Both governments have condemned the burnings and said they are considering new laws that could stop them. But domestic critics say any such decisions would undermine freedom of speech that is protected in their constitutions.
The public burnings in front of the Iraqi, Egyptian and Turkish embassies in the Scandinavian countries have sparked widespread outrage across Muslim countries, with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Morocco, Qatar and Yemen lodging protests in response.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) last month approved a resolution on religious hatred and bigotry following several burnings.