Egypt summons Danish envoy because of Quran burning

By Abdel Salam Fayez

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said it summoned the Danish ambassador to Cairo on Thursday to protest repeated incidents of burning copies of the Quran.

According to the Egyptian statement, "Deputy Assistant Foreign Minister Yasser Hashem summoned the Danish ambassador to Cairo at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," said spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid. "The ambassador was informed of Egypt's strong dissatisfaction and condemnation of the incidents of burning the Holy Quran in front of the Egyptian Embassy in Copenhagen and the headquarters of other diplomatic missions.”

This move was in response to the Quran being burned Tuesday in front of the Egyptian Embassy in the Danish capital, Copenhagen, he said.

In recent days, there have been incidents of burning the Quran in front of diplomatic headquarters of Muslim countries in Sweden and Denmark. The incidents have been met with widespread condemnation from Turkey, the Arab world and the Islamic community.

Copenhagen was urged to take concrete action to prevent such incidents from happening.

Al-Azhar, the highest seat of Sunni Islamic learning, urged Muslims on Wednesday to boycott Swedish and Danish products in response to those countries allowing what it described as "terrorist criminals" burning copies of the Muslim holy book.