Another incident involving the desecration of the Holy Quran has emerged, this time in Russia — two weeks after a similar vile act in Sweden shook the Muslim world. However, the response from the Russian authorities was vastly different. They have arrested the man involved in the sacrilege and opened a criminal case against him.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, the main federal investigating authority in the country, announced on Friday that it has opened a criminal case against a 28-year-old Egyptian national after he published a video, showing the desecration of the Quran, reported Russian and Turkish media outlets.

The man recorded himself as he desecrated the holy book in Ulyanovsk, a city in western Russia.

The Investigative Committee’s office in Ulyanovsk detained the man on charges of hooliganism and insulting religious feelings.

In a statement, the investigating agency said that the vile act was committed on July 1.

“The suspect, being on a pedestrian bridge over the Sviyaga River, connecting the streets of Abluukov and Vorobyov G. Ulyanovsk, committed public actions in order to insult the religious feelings of believers,” a Russian news website Silkyway News said quoting the investigating agency.

The statement provided more details that Aaj News is not reproducing here.

The man recorded his actions on the video, which he subsequently published in the public domain on the internet, the statement said.

A search is being conducted at the suspect’s place of residence to find out more vidence against him.

The Article 148 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation criminalizes “public actions expressing a clear disrespect for society and committed in order to insult the religious feelings of believers.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently said that the Holy Quran is sacred for Muslim and it should be sacred for everyone.

He underscored that insulting the Muslim holy book was a crime in Russia.

“We know that in other countries they treat it differently — they do not respect people’s religious feelings and then also have the audacity to say that it is not a crime,” Putin said after he was gifted a copy of the Quran during his visit to the Juma Mosque of Derbent in Dagestan.

The Juma Mosque is known as the oldest mosque in Russia. The visit came on the first day of Eid al Adha, on Thursday, June 29, 2023 – immediately after an Iraqi refugee desecrated the Holy Quran in Sweden with court’s permission.

However, the reaction from the Muslim world has promoted Swedish authorities to rethink their policies. Sweden’s Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said this week that the government might be willing to amend the law that allowed protesters to burn holy books.