Danish Government Charges Man With Blasphemy for Burning Quran

Most Americans assume that they’re not the only nation in the world that guarantees the right to free speech. They think that most European countries also treasure that right. The truth however, is that most Western nations don’t recognize free speech the same way we do. Certain expressions are verboten, especially if it involves criticizing any minority belief system. In countries where the mainstream culture cherishes multiculturalism over individual rights, you can find yourself in hot water for saying the wrong thing.

That’s what happened to one Danish man, who filmed himself burning a quran before posting it to an anti-Islam Facebook group. He titled the video “Consider your neighbour: it stinks when it burns.” As a result, a prosecutor charged him with blasphemy, based on a law that hasn’t been enforced for 46 years. The last time it was enforced was in 1971, when two radio producers got in trouble for airing a song that made fun of Christianity. The maximum penalty for blasphemy is four months in prison, but the man in question will likely face a fine.

So think about this for a moment. This is a law that was made when Denmark was a deeply conservative and Christian nation. As the nation drifted to the left, and atheism became the norm, that law was forgotten. It became one of those laws that everyone views as absurd, no one expects it to be enforced, but the government hasn’t gotten around to repealing it.

And then someone burns a quran, and all of a sudden this law is relevant again? Clearly there’s a bias at work here. There’s no doubt that in modern Denmark, if you burned a bible, nothing would happen to you. But because this is one of those hard left nations that treasures political correctness, offending Islam is illegal.