COPENHAGEN: Two Danish men on Monday desecrated the Holy Quran by burning a copy of it in front of the Iraqi embassy in Denmark.

The act may further dent the bilateral relations between the countries. Mass protests erupted in Iran and Iraq after Denmark and Sweden allowed the desecration of the Holy Quran under rules protecting free speech. Protesters in Iraq set alight the Swedish embassy in Baghdad Thursday.

The two protesters were from a group that calls itself “Danish Patriots”, which held a similar demonstration last week and live-streamed the events on Facebook. Several thousand Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad Saturday over the burnings in the two Nordic countries, in a gathering called by ruling Iraqi parties and armed groups, many close to Iran.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Saturday that people who desecrate the Holy Quran should face the “most severe punishment”

Weeks earlier, Pope Francis also condemned the burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden, in June saying that the vile act had “angered and disgusted” him.

His comments came after the incident of Holy Quran desecration took place in Sweden when a man set a copy of the sacred book ablaze outside a mosque in the country’s capital city last week.

“Any book considered holy should be respected to respect those who believe in it,” the pope said in an interview in the United Arab Emirates newspaper Al Ittihad, published Monday. “I feel angry and disgusted at these actions.