Martyr: John Salvesen (Facebook ID)
Country: Denmark
Blasphemy charge: Burning his own Quran
Potential Punishment:
– Pubic humiliation
– Loss of livelihood
– Four months in prison

There is an urge out there, a need, a fear, that leaders in society feel compelled to display when it comes to Islam. This urge manifests itself in numerous ways: putting bags on female heads, introducing ‘Islamophobia‘ motions, or putting forth criminal charges for the most innocuous of crimes – along with deliberately ignoring and hiding brutal criminality. And here – not even bothering to correctly name the, well, ‘defendant’ I guess. What a strange world Europe is living in, and what a brave new world seems to be drifting to North America…

That it should come to this! [Hamlet, Act I Scene II]

New York Times, Kimiko de Freitas-Tamura; Danish Man Who Burned Quran Is Prosecuted for Blasphemy