Can Qur'an be Insulted?

Verse 41 and 42 of Surah Fussilat explains that Qur'an is Aziz and Hameed. Falsehood cannot touch it from any angle and it's Worthy of All Praise.

Tafsir of Qur'an Surah 97 - The Night of Glory (Al-Qadr) by Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan

The Quran: Learn it, Don't Burn It - Abdur Raheem Green

Israeli Settlers Burnt the Quran and Library in West Bank Mosque

Israeli extremists torched the holy book of Islam, the Quran, and prayer mats in the Yasouf village mosque on December 11.

Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian West Bank have vandalised a mosque, torching its library and spraying hate messages in Hebrew on the building.

The attack blamed on hardline Jews on Friday may be linked to plans that seek to curb their illegal settlement activity on land taken from Palestinians.

Clashes erupted as villagers hurled stones at Israeli troops sent to investigate the incident at the mosque in the northern West Bank's Yasuf village. The security forces responded with teargas.

One of the Hebrew language slogans sprayed on a wall read: "Get ready to pay the price." Another read: "We will burn you all."

Village councillors and Palestinian security officials blamed Israelis from a nearby settlement for the attack.

The area is home to some of the most hardline settlers who advocate a "price tag" policy under which they target Palestinians in retaliation for any Israeli government measure they see as threatening Jewish settlements.

The Israeli military said "it appears that the suspects wrote hate-filled messages in Hebrew in addition to burning bookshelves and a carpet."

It assured the Palestinian Authority that it "views the incident gravely" and that security forces are working to locate the perpetrators, the statement said.

Last week, a house and three vehicles were set on fire in another village, also near the West Bank city of Nablus. The owner of the house told police he saw three Jewish settlers start the fires.

Settlers have expressed outrage over the government's decision to impose a 10-month moratorium on new building permits for Israeli homes in the occupied West Bank, outside annexed Arab east Jerusalem.

Many settlers consider they have a God-given right to live in the biblical Land of Israel, which includes the West Bank

Turkey condemned the attack by Israeli settlers on a Muslim mosque in northern West Bank last week.

Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed in a statement its "deep concern" over the attack, saying it wanted perpetrators to be brought to justice soon.

Israel should prevent such attacks from reoccurring as they might further add tensions, the ministry said.

Israeli newspaperHaaretz reported that one of the two most senior religious leaders of Israel’s Jewish community paid a visit on Monday to the West Bank village of Yasuf, where a mosque was set on fire and covered with Hebrew graffiti last week. Israeli and Palestinian officials have blamed the attack on Israeli settlers.

According to Haaretz, Yona Metzger, Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi, told residents, “I came here to expression my revulsion at this wretched act of burning a place holy to the Muslim people.” Agence France-Presse reportedthat that he drew an explicit comparison to Kristallnacht, the November 1938 attacks on Jewish synagogues and businesses in Nazi Germany. “Seventy years ago,” Rabbi Metzger said, “the Holocaust, the biggest tragedy of our history, began with the torchings of synagogues during Kristallnacht.”

The Associated Press reported that the rabbi continued: “There were hundreds of synagogues. They took all of the holy books out onto the street and burned them.” He added, “We are still living this trauma. And in the state of Israel we will not allow a Jew to do something like this to Muslims.”

Greek Muslims punished for asking justice

As protests continued unabated over the desecration of the Noble Qur'an by a Greek policeman, Muslim immigrants are calling for bringing the officer to justice for insulting the Muslim holy book.

"We want to live here in peace," an Egyptian immigrant, who identified himself as Said told Reuters.

"We don't want trouble but we want the policeman to be punished."

Hundreds of Muslim immigrants took to the streets of the capital Athens for the second consecutive day to protest the destruction of the Qur'an by a policeman.

Chanting "Allah is great", the protestors carried banners reading "Hands off immigrants" and holding up copies of the Noble Qur'an.

Clashes erupted between the angry protestors and police, injuring seven immigrants and seven policemen. Police said 46 protesters were arrested.

The protestors were outraged by reports that during police checks at a Syrian-owned coffee shop on Wednesday, an officer took a customer's Qur'an, tore it up, threw it on the floor and stomped on it.

"Immigrants are outraged," Vasso Akrivou, a member of the group Expel Racism, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The incident on Wednesday was the straw that broke the camel's back."

Clashes have erupted between police and predominantly Muslim protesters in Athens, the Greek capital.

About 1,000 protesters took to the streets on Friday following reports that a police officer tore up a Quran, the Muslim holy book, belonging to an Iraqi immigrant while checking his identity papers.

Greek riot police fired tear gas after scores of the protesters began pelting officers with sticks and stones outside parliament.

"They started throwing rocks and sticks at police guarding parliament and the officers responded with tear gas and percussion bombs," a police official said.

The protest was the second since the alleged incident.

Police said unknown assailants smashed the shop's windows and poured gasoline inside before igniting it.

The attack came a day after clashes between more than 1,000 Muslim protesters and Greek police in central Athens, after the police allegedly desecrated a copy of the Koran.

The Greek police has opened an investigation into the allegations.

Police also used tear gas to disperse protesters who were throwing dustbins and stones on Thursday while a car was damaged during the clashes.

Greece is faced with a daily influx of immigrants from Asia via Turkey, many of whom are trying to reach Western Europe. Rights groups have complained of cases of police brutality against immigrants.

Interior ministry figures for 2008 show that more than 146,000 illegal immigrants were arrested in Greece, of whom 57,000 had arrived from Turkey.

The total number of illegal immigrants living in Greece is estimated to be 250,000, most of them Albanian nationals.

Many Muslims in Athens use abandoned factories and converted coffee shops as makeshift prayer houses. Some Muslim groups have complained of police brutality and poor treatment by officials in the past.

Athens is the only European capital which does not have a proper mosque or cemetery to serve its Muslim population. There are more than 300,000 Muslims living in Athens, mainly from various parts of northern Africa and Pakistan.

At present, the only operating mosques in Greece are in the north-eastern region of Thrace, home to some 100,000 Muslims.