Protests across Lebanon, Middle East against Quran burning

W460

Protests were held on Friday in several predominantly Muslim countries to denounce the recent desecration of Islam's holy book by far-right activists in Sweden and the Netherlands.

The protest in Lebanon ended with people dispersing peacefully.

In Beirut, about 200 angry protesters burned the flags of Sweden and the Netherlands outside the blue-domed Mohammed Al-Amin mosque at Beirut's central Martyrs Square.

Earlier this month, a far-right activist from Denmark received permission from police to stage a protest outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm where he burned the Quran, Islam's holy book. Days later, Edwin Wagensveld, Dutch leader of the far-right Pegida movement in the Netherlands, tore pages out of a copy of the Quran near the Dutch Parliament and stomped on them.

The moves angered millions of Muslims around the world and triggered protests.

Swedish officials have stressed that freedom of expression is guaranteed by the Swedish Constitution and gives people extensive rights to express their views publicly, though incitement to violence or hate speech isn't allowed.

Demonstrators must apply to police for a permit for a public gathering. Police can deny such permits only on exceptional grounds, such as risks to public safety.

Iraq's powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr asked in comments released Friday whether freedom of speech means offending other people's beliefs. He asked why "doesn't the burning of the gays' rainbow flag represent freedom of expression."

The cleric added that burning the Quran "will bring divine anger." Hundreds of his supporters gathered outside a mosque in Baghdad waving copies of the Quran.

Comments 1
Missing Cheesecake 28 January 2023, 13:37

What sect approves of burning the bible? Neither sunnis nor shia do that. And who actually burned the bible? If someone did then he is acting out of his own mind and not according to Islamic teachings. Islam allows christians to have churches and to practice their religion freely in an Islamic state and commands good treatment between us so why would burning the bible be allowed? Traditionally speaking, burning the bible has never been a thing amongst Muslims nor is the Quran burning taking place in Europe done by christians. Unlike what happened during the civil war in lebanon when the phalanges seized qurans sent by saudi arabia and burned them.