Pakistan

Quran desecration: Frenchman to go on trial today

Frenchman to go on trial for inciting racial hatred after posting internet video of himself burning the Holy Quran.

Afp April 11, 2011 Less than a minute read

STRASBOURG: A Frenchman was due to go on trial on Monday for inciting racial hatred after posting an Internet video of himself burning a copy of the Holy Quran “in the name of freedom.”

He was arrested last October after posting the video of himself wearing a devil mask and tearing pages from the book before setting it on fire.

Police made the arrest after local Muslim leaders in Strasbourg reacted with outrage at the video which identifies the maker as a 30-year-old from a suburb of the eastern city.

The director of Strasbourg’s main mosque, Abdelaziz Choukri, said he alerted authorities and had spoken to the author of the video who told him he acted “in the name of freedom.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 11^th, 2011.