Danish lawmakers in the first week of June 2017 repealed a 334-year-old blasphemy law that forbids public insults of a religion, such as the burning of holy books.
Denmark was the only Scandinavian country with a blasphemy law, which called for up to four months in prison upon conviction, although most people were fined instead.
Only a handful of blasphemy trials have taken place in the past 80 years in the country, and several high-profile cases have been dropped, including one involving a caricature of the prophet Muhammad published in the Jyllands-Posten newspaper in 2005.
The Danish Parliament stated that politicians, who wanted to repeal the law introduced in 1683 “do not believe that there should be special rules protecting religions against expressions.”
