Malaysia Hopes Denmark Takes Action Against Quran Burning Incident

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 (Bernama) -- Malaysia hopes Denmark will take action against Danish anti-Islam and ultranationalist groups that stepped up their attacks on the Quran on Monday, despite widespread condemnation.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Dr Mohd Na'im Mokhtar who reiterated the government's stance strongly condemning such actions said Malaysia will continue efforts to explain the purity of Islam to the world.

"Some of them use the excuse of the right to freedom of speech, but in that freedom, there should be limits. We expect appropriate action to be taken against those who committed this atrocious act," he told reporters after the pre-launch of the 63rd International Al-Quran Recitation and Memorisation Assembly (MTHQA) here Tuesday.

He was commenting on media reports regarding the actions of members of Danske Patrioter (Danish Patriots) burning copies of the Muslim holy book in front of the Turkish, Algerian, Pakistani, Iranian and Indonesian embassies in Copenhagen.

Mohd Na'im said his office together with the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) and Yayasan Dakwah Islam Malaysia (Yadim) have taken steps to respond to that through the publication of one million copies of the Quran to be distributed to people around the world including in Swedish and Danish.

According to him, as many as 2,000 copies of the Quran were handed over to the Cambodian government during Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's working visit to the country in March.

"At the same time, as much as US$392,944 (RM1.8 million) was successfully collected from public donations to publish the Quran in various languages which will be distributed around the world," he said.

Commenting on the 63rd MTHQA, Mohd Na'im said 76 participants from 52 countries will participate in the competition which will be held for six days starting Aug 19 at World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur.

He said 36 participants comprising 24 males and 12 females from 27 countries participated in the recitation while the memorisation participants totaled 40 people (27 males and 13 females) from 30 countries.

-- BERNAMA