Danish anti-Islam party Stram Kurs (Tight Course) faced off against Islamists from the Hizb ut-Tahrir group in front of the Danish parliament, and burned a Quran.
The event began as a Friday prayer by the controversial Islamist group which regularly campaigns for a global caliphate, during a memorial to the victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, Jyllands Posten reports.
The leader of Stram Kurs Rasmus Paludan was also present at the counter-protest to the 100 or so Islamists and promised to burn a copy of the Quran wrapped in bacon.
The group later did set the Islamic holy book on fire at around 1:20 in the afternoon to “modest reactions”, according to a journalist on the scene.
Speakers at the Hizb ut-Tahrir event said that the Danish parliament was complicit in the terror attack due to Danish politicians’ views on Muslims and Islam.
Denmark is well-known as having a harder policy against radical Islam and mass migration than many other western countries, passing a ban on the full face Islamic veil in May last year.
The country also passed a law requiring migrants to shake hands with local officials in order to gain citizenship, something sometimes refused by Muslims if the recipient is of the opposite sex.
Several Danish MPs were also present for the two protests, which were kept separated by police. Social Democrat Lars Aslan Andersen observed the two protests and said of the Islamists, “They are hypocrites.”
Andersen noted that the way the group talked about Jews negated their point when it came to remembering victims of terror attacks.
Hizb ut-Tahrir became well-known in the UK over the last decade and held a similar rally in London in 2017, directed against the state of Israel.
The pro-Sharia group is, however, banned in several other countries including Germany, China, Russia, Turkey, and many countries in the Middle East.