By Hamed Chapman
London (The Muslim News): Rasmus Paludan, leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs, has been banned from entering the UK after threatening to burn a copy of the blessed Qur’an in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, to coincide with the start of Ramadan.
“I inform the house that Mr. Paludan has been added to the warnings index and therefore his travel to the United Kingdom would not be conducive with the public good and he will not be allowed access,” Home Office Minister for Security, Tom Tugendhat, told parliament Monday.
The Minister had been asked by local Wakefield Labor MP Simon Lightwood to offer assurances that the government is taking action to prevent the Danish-Swedish politician from travelling to carry out the act.
“Far-right Islamophobic Danish politician Rasmus Paludan said he’s going to travel from Denmark to Wakefield for the sole purpose of burning a Quran in a public place,” Lightwood warned.
“Paludan was previously jailed in Denmark for his hateful and racist statements. He’s a dangerous man that should not be allowed into this country,” he said.
The threat comes after Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, told Muslims that they have “no right not to be offended” following the desecration of a Qur’an at a high school in Wakefield earlier this month.
“Nobody can demand respect for their belief system, even if it is a religion,” Braverman said in an article for The Times newspaper entitled ‘We do not have blasphemy laws in Great Britain.’ She also announced that she would be ordering the police to prioritise freedom of speech over hatred incidents.
Paludan has reportedly held several events in which the Qur’an was burned, leading to counter-protests, some marked by violence and the burning of cars.
He burned a copy of the Qur’an outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm in January with police protection and permission from Swedish authorities.
The following week, he burned a copy of the holy book in front of a mosque in Denmark, prompting condemnation from many Muslim-majority countries.
[Photo: Rasmus Paludan burns the Qur’an outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, on 21 Jan 2023. Photographer: Tobias Hellsten/Creative Commons]
