Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

RELIGION

Copenhagen cemetery gets Buddhist section

A Copenhagen cemetery has introduced Denmark’s first-ever section of a Christian burial place to be dedicated to Buddhism.

Published: 18 October 2018 18:35 CEST
Copenhagen cemetery gets Buddhist section
A file photo of Bispebjerg Cemetery. Photo: Simon Skipper/Ritzau Scanpix

On Friday last week, a 108-square-metre area of Bispebjerg Cemetery in Copenhagen was opened and blessed by three lama priests from a Tibetan monastery, providing Danish Buddhists with the option of being buried together with coreligionists, newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad reports.

The newly-formed Buddhistisk Bisættelses Forening (Society for Buddhist Burials) applied to be given the dedicated area.

Buddhists in Denmark have up to now had the option of having burial urns placed in a columbarium.

“People liked having the columbarium, where you can come and meditate. But some have wished to be buried outside, closer to nature. We’re pleased that’s now possible,” Ole Nordstrøm of Buddhistisk Bisættelses Forening told Ritzau.

Permission has also been given for a stupa, a structure containing relics that is used as a place of meditation, to be built in the burial area.

Copenhagen Municipality said that Bispebjerg Cemetery is “apparently” the first Christian burial place in Denmark to include such a structure.

The Buddhist area will add to the cultural and religious diversity of the cemetery, which already includes designated areas for Catholics, Muslims, atheists, Russians and Swedes.

READ ALSO: Inuit hunting grounds in Greenland get Unesco heritage status

RELIGION

Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

The Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious educational institution, Al-Azhar in Egypt, has called for the boycott of Swedish and Dutch products after far-right activists destroyed Korans in those countries.

Published: 26 January 2023 15:10 CET
Al-Azhar university calls for Sweden boycott over Koran burning

Al-Azhar, in a statement issued on Wednesday, called on “Muslims to boycott Dutch and Swedish products”.

It also urged “an appropriate response from the governments of these two countries” which it charged were “protecting despicable and barbaric crimes in the name of ‘freedom of expression'”.

Swedish-Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan on Saturday set fire to a copy of the Muslim holy book in front of Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm, raising tensions as Sweden courts Ankara over its bid to join Nato.

EXPLAINED:

The following day, Edwin Wagensveld, who heads the Dutch chapter of the German anti-Islam group Pegida, tore pages out of the Koran during a one-man protest outside parliament.

Images on social media also showed him walking on the torn pages of the holy book.

The desecration of the Koran sparked strong protests from Ankara and furious demonstrations in several capitals of the Muslim world including in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Yemen.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the Koran burning, expressing “deep concern at the recurrence of such events and the recent Islamophobic escalation in a certain number of European countries”.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned Paludan’s actions as “deeply disrespectful”, while the United States called it “repugnant”.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the burning was the work of “a provocateur” who “may have deliberately sought to put distance between two close partners of ours – Turkey and Sweden”.

On Tuesday, Turkey postponed Nato accession talks with Sweden and Finland, after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Stockholm for allowing weekend protests that included the burning of the Koran.

SHOW COMMENTS