Published: 12:30, August 15, 2023 | Updated: 12:36, August 15, 2023
Danish foreign minister apologies for Quran burning
By Xinhua

A demonstrator holds a copy of the Koran, Islam's holy book, during a rally after the weekly Friday prayers denouncing the burning of the Koran in Sweden in Iraq's central shrine city of Kufa east of nearby Najaf on July 21, 2023. (PHOTO / AFP)

ALGIERS - Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen on Monday called his Algerian counterpart Ahmed Attaf, and expressed his "regrets and apologies" for the burning of the Islamic holy book of Quran in the Danish capital Copenhagen.

The Danish diplomat said these acts were "intolerable and unacceptable," and had run contrary to Denmark's traditions of hospitality, openness and tolerance, the Algerian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Rasmussen told Attaf that the Danish government was about to finalize the text of a bill that would put an end to such practices, adding it will be submitted to the Danish parliament for deliberation in four weeks.

READ MORE: Denmark considers enacting laws to prevent Quran burning

Denmark and Sweden have seen a string of protests over the past weeks in their capitals, in which copies of the Quran were burned or otherwise damaged in front of the embassies of Muslim countries, sparking outrage in the Muslim world.