Danish man charged with blasphemy for burning Quran

By Davut Colak

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AA) - A Danish man was charged with blasphemy for burning a Quran in his backyard on Dec. 2015 and posting footage of the incident on his social media account, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Prosecutor Jan Reckendorff said in a statement the incident violated a blasphemy law that says ''public mockery or scorn against religion'' is illegal.

The 42-old-man shared the video on a Facebook group called ''Yes to Freedom, No to Islam'', said Reckendorff.

The penalty for blasphemy in Denmark is up to four months’ imprisonment, but Reckendorff said the penalty would be a fine in this case.

There is no date set for the first hearing which will be in Aalborg court.

This is the fourth time in Danish history that anyone has been prosecuted under blasphemy clause, the most recent case was in 1971.

Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb in his turban in 2005 without facing blasphemy charges.