Turkey summons Danish envoy over Quran-burning protest

By JAN M. OLSEN and SUZAN FRASER
Associated Press

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Turkey has summoned the Danish ambassador and accused Denmark of endorsing a “hate crime” after an anti-Islam activist burned two copies of Islam’s holy book, the Quran, in a one-man protest in Copenhagen. Far-right activist Rasmus Paludan, who holds both Danish and Swedish citizenship, had already infuriated Turkey by staging a Quran-burning protest in Sweden on Jan. 21. On Friday, he replicated the stunt in front of a mosque and the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen. He vowed to repeat his action every Friday until Sweden is admitted into NATO. The Danish ambassador was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry where Turkish officials “strongly condemned the permission given to this provocative act which clearly constitutes a hate crime.”