Denmark Prepares Bill To Stop Burning Quran (Image:pixabay.com/photos/quran)

On Friday, Denmark has presented a bill to put ban on burning the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, in public.

The government”s decision is an “important political signal” to the rest of the world, said Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Denmark’s Foreign Minister, to the Danish Radio.

The Danish government is planning to introduce fines or up to two years imprisonment for charges on burning Quran.

“The proposed law is intended to be written into the same regulation that currently bans the desecration of other countries’ flags”, Al Jazeera quotes Peter Hummelgaard, the Danish Justice minister.

The bill would make it a criminal offence to burn the Muslim holy book, the Bible or the Torah publicly.

The law would prohibit the “improper treatment of objects of significant religious significance to a religious community”, Mr Hummelgaard said while addressing a press conference.

He mentioned the recent occurrences of Quran burning in the country. In recent months, several copies of the Quran have been burned by far-right protesters and Islamophobic agitators in Denmark and nearby Sweden, Al Jazeera reports.

They were “senseless taunts” aimed to incite “discord and hatred”, said Mr Hummelgaard.

“National security is the primary motivation for the ban”, he added.

The United States and United Kingdom governments recently announced that authorities in Denmark had disrupted a number of planned “terror” attacks and made arrests following the Quran burnings.

“We can’t continue to stand by with our arms crossed while several individuals do everything they can to provoke violent reactions”, Mr Hummelgaard said.

It remains unclear when the proposal will be presented to the Parliament.