Brendan O'Neill

It might soon be illegal in Denmark to make fun of Islam. Seriously. In response to a spate of Koran burnings – in both Denmark and its neighbour, Sweden – the Danish foreign ministry has issued an extraordinary statement. A statement that should chill the blood of all who believe in free speech. The state might soon have to start intervening, it said, in situations where ‘other countries, cultures and religions are being insulted’. In short, a Dane’s right to mock all nations, gods, prophets and ideas might have to be sacrificed at the altar of protecting people’s feelings. This represents a deadly blow to freedom of expression.

The foreign ministry’s statement comes in the wake of numerous acts of Koran desecration in the Nordic countries. Both right-wing agitators and ex-Muslims have been setting copies of the Koran aflame. The most recent ‘blasphemous’ strike took place outside the Swedish parliament in Stockholm on Monday, in the pouring rain, where an Iraqi refugee and his friend trampled on a copy of the Koran and then ripped out some pages and set them on fire. They did the same outside Stockholm’s largest mosque in June. In Denmark last week, two far-right activists destroyed copies of the Koran outside the Turkish and Egyptian embassies in Copenhagen. Putting a match to Islam’s holy book has become quite the fad in certain Nordic circles.

And the leaders of Sweden and Denmark are panicking. They’ve received a wave of hate from Muslim countries. Turkey is threatening to stall Sweden’s entry into NATO until it shows ‘respect to [Muslims’] religious beliefs’. Muslim leaders have damned the Swedes and Danes for their profanity. Their embassies have been stormed in Iraq. Feeling the heat – no pun intended – Denmark is essentially offering to appease this Islamist fury by making it a crime to insult Islam’s sacred text. It is hard to think of anything more craven than a democratic nation restricting the rights of its own citizens to placate the wrath of foreign tyrants.

Strikingly, the Danes are not only looking into how to ‘stop protests involving the burning of holy texts’. No, it is ridicule of ‘countries, cultures and religions’ more broadly that they’re promising to police. Especially if the ridicule could have ‘negative consequences for Denmark, not least with regard to security’. Think about what is being said here. If an individual threatens to make an extreme or fiery comment about a nation or a faith that could prove awkward for the Danish government, then that individual might have to be silenced. Sweden says it shares ‘the same analysis’.

Denmark and Sweden are allowing themselves to be held hostage by Islamist leaders. Indeed, the Swedish PM’s comments about the ‘dangerous situation’ created by Koran burnings followed hot on the heels of a furious statement from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The OIC, which represents 48 Muslim-majority countries, slammed the recent Koran burnings as ‘despicable acts of aggression’ and demanded that the UN intervene. Sanctions against Sweden, perhaps? A peacekeeping force deployed to Copenhagen to protect the Koran from Danes’ grubby hands?