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TIMELINE: The July Quran burnings in Denmark

The latest series of Quran burnings in Denmark and Sweden have caused 57 Muslim countries to arrange an emergency meeting and the Danish government is now considering restricting the demonstrations for the first time. Here's a timeline of how the events have unfolded.

Published: 31 July 2023 09:47 CEST
TIMELINE: The July Quran burnings in Denmark
The group "Danske Patrioter" descrates the Quran in a demonstration in Copenhagen on July 29th. Photo: Thomas Sjørup/Ritzau Scanpix

What’s been happening?

Recent weeks have seen repeated burnings of the Quran in front of embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen, provoking anger in Muslim majority countries.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: Why are demonstrators in Denmark burning the Quran again?

Wednesday July 19th: During the night, demonstrators stormed the Swedish embassy in Iraq, setting the building on fire and forcing security measures to protect the staff in the building. 

The protests were launched after police in Sweden granted permission to The Iraqi activist Salwan Momika to burn a copy of the Quran outside Iraq’s embassy in Stockholm. 

Thursday July 20th: Momika carried out his protest in Stockholm, kicking and stamping on a copy of the Quran, but not, in the end, burning it. 

Iraqi authorities condemned the burning of the embassy but expelled the Swedish ambassador, in retaliation of Sweden allowing a protest in which the Quran was desecrated.

Friday July 21st: Members of the Danish extreme right group Danske Patrioter posted a video on its Facebook page of a man burning what seemed to be a Quran and trampling an Iraqi flag.

Saturday July 22nd: Around 1,000 protestors marched towards the Danish embassy in Baghdad. These people were supporters of influential Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr, who has a following of millions in Iraq.  Iraqi security forces dispersed the protestors before they reached the Danish embassy.

It was Sadr’s supporters who had on Wednesday night set alight the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. 

Sunday July 23rd: Denmark’s Foreign Ministry released a statement in which is said Denmark “condemns the burning of the Quran.”

“It is a provocative act that hurts many people and creates division between different religions and cultures. Denmark has freedom of religion and many Danish citizens are Muslims. They are a valued part of the Danish population,” the foreign ministry said.

“Denmark underlines that freedom of expression and freedom of assembly must be respected,” it also said, adding “Denmark supports the right to protest but emphasises it must remain peaceful”.

Monday July 24th: A second video posted by the extreme right group Danske Patrioter, again of a man burning what seemed to be a Quran and trampling an Iraqi flag.

Iraq’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying it “strongly condemns, again, the repetition of the burning of a copy of the holy Quran in front of the Iraqi embassy in Denmark.”

Algeria meanwhile said it had summoned the Danish and Swedish envoys to condemn the recent desecrations of the Quran in Copenhagen and Stockholm. 

Tuesday July 25th: Danske Patrioter set fire to the Islamic holy book outside the Egyptian and Turkish embassies.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s ambassador to Iran summoned by Tehran in protest at the desecration of the Quran in Copenhagen, the Iranian foreign ministry said on Twitter. 

Thursday July 27th: Iran and Iraq set up an emergency meeting with all 57 member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) over the Quran burnings in Denmark and Sweden. A spokesperson from the Iranian foreign ministry said the meeting will take place virtually on July 31st.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia summoned a Danish diplomat to protest the desecration of the Quran.

Sweden’s government ordered 15 government agencies to strengthen the country’s ability to prevent terrorism, with the Swedish PM saying he was “extremely worried”.

Sunday July 30th: 

The Danish government says it will explore legal means of stopping protests involving the burning of holy texts in certain circumstances, citing security concerns following backlash over the recent incidents.

Noting that such protests played into the hands of extremists, the government said it wants to “explore” intervening in situations where “other countries, cultures, and religions are being insulted, and where this could have significant negative consequences for Denmark, not least with regard to security,” it said in a statement from the foreign ministry.

“This must of course be done within the framework of the constitutionally protected freedom of expression and in a manner that does not change the fact
that freedom of expression in Denmark has very broad scope,” it added, stressing it is one of the country’s most important values.

Monday July 31st:

Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen speaks to the general secretary of the OIC, Hissein Brahim Taha, in a telephone call ahead of the meeting of the 57 Muslim member states.

The minister stated that his country’s government condemned the insult to the Holy Quran and that the government is investigating this issue with great interest, and stressed that his country is eager to maintain friendly relations and cooperation with the member states of the Islamic Cooperation Organisation,” the IOC said in a statement according to broadcaster DR.

Meanwhile, the government is scheduled to present its further details of how it envisages inteveningin the protests to the other parliamentary parties later on Monday.

Conservative parties have already raised concern about the potential move. Conservative Party leader Søren Pape Poulsen told DR “we are compromising on things that I’m concerned about where they’ll end”.

The protests have continued during the weekend with five burnings at embassies in Copenhagen. Seven more are planned on Monday according to DR.

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POLITICS

EXPLAINED: How AI deep fakes are bringing new tensions to Danish politics

Denmark's culture minister said on Monday he hoped to use copyright law to bring an end to the controversial new trend of using deep fake videos in politics. Here's the background.

Published: 13 May 2024 15:13 CEST
EXPLAINED: How AI deep fakes are bringing new tensions to Danish politics

Jakob Engel-Schmidt, who represents the Moderate Party, warned that the technique, used in recent videos by the far-right Danish People’s Party and libertarian Liberal Alliance were the “top level of  a slippery slope that could end up undermining our trust in one another and making every political message, newspaper article and artistic publication a potential battleground for whether it is true or false”. 

Which parties have used deepfake video in campaigning? 

The Danish People’s Party at the end of last month issued an AI-generated deepfake video showing a spoof speech in which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen appeared to announce that Ascension Day, Easter and Christmas would no longer be public holidays, and that they would all be replaced by the Muslim festival of Eid as the country’s only holiday. 

This was a satirical reference to the government’s unpopular decision to abolish Store bededag, or “Great Prayer Day” as a public holiday. 

The video was clearly labelled as AI-generated, and ends with the Danish People’s Party’s leader, Morten Messeschmidt, awakening from a nightmare. 

The Liberal Alliance also released a video for Great Prayer Day, in which it used AI to turn Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S), Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen (V) and Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M) into eccentric-looking characters similar to those in the film’s of the US director Wes Anderson.

What kind of a stir have the videos caused in Denmark? 

Denmark’s Minister for Digitization, Marie Bjerre, who represents the centre-right Liberal Party, was sharply critical of the Danish People’s Party’s move. 

“I think it is way over the line for the Danish People’s Party to make a deepfake of a political opponent. I don’t think it’s proper either, and they shouldn’t do it,” she said. “It is also a problem for our democracy and society. Because with deepfakes, you can create material that looks extremely credible, which means that you can really spread misinformation. That is why it is also very serious that the Danish People’s Party is using deepfake for this kind of thing.” 

She said that such videos should only be allowed if the organisation making or distributing them have received consent from the person depicted. 

“If you want to make deepfakes of people, you must ask for permission. That will be the proper way to do it,” she said. 

Messerschmidt defended the video as light-hearted satire that at the same time educated Danish people about the new technology. 

“What we can do is show Danes how to use the new technologies and how to use them in a good way, like here in an entertaining and satirical way,” he said. 

Although Engel-Schmidt said he was concerned about the use of deepfake videos in politics, he acknowledged that the light-hearted videos released by the two parties were in themselves unlikely to deceive anyone.  

How does Engel-Schmidt hope to regulate such deepfake videos? 

He said he aimed to see whether copyright law could be used to regulate such videos.

Presumably this would mean seeing whether, under law, people have a right to the use of the own image, personality or voice, and can therefore forbid them from being used without permission. 

What do the experts say? 

Christiane Vejlø, one of Denmark’s leading experts on the relationship between people and technology, welcomed the government’s moves towards regulating deepfake videos, pointing to the impact they were already having on politics in other countries such as India and the US.

“There is no doubt that we will have to deal with this phenomenon. It has an impact on something that is most important to us in a democracy – namely trust and faith in other people,” she told Denmark’s public broadcaster DR.

In the current Indian election campaign, she said that deepfakes of popular Bollywood actors had been used to criticise the current government and encourage voters to vote for the opposition.

“In India and the USA we see politicians saying things they could never think of saying. We are getting an erosion of the truth,” she said. 

She said that even if the videos were clearly labelled as AI-generated, it did not necessarily make them unproblematic. 

“Even if you can see that it is a deepfake, it can still influence voters to think that there is something wrong with them [the politician] or that they look stupid,” she said. “We have a situation where another person is used as a digital hand puppet.” 

 
 

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