People gathered outside the parliament in Arbil to voice their anger at the article published in the city's monthly Chrpa magazine. In the article entitled God and Me, Norwegian Kurdish expatriate Halmat Goran complained about what he called God's treatment towards Muslims. Security forces were deployed to control the demonstrators as the events turned ugly. Security forces reacted with tear gas and several people are believed to have been injured in the events. The writer of the article was seen a week ago in a YouTube video tearing out pages of two suras from the Holy Qur'an. Goran is currently still in Norway, but demonstrators want him to return to the Kurdistan Region to face his punishment. On Monday, the Kurdish authorities closed down the magazine and arrested its editor. But demonstrators called on the government to include a clause in Kurdistan's constitution to prevent such stories appearing in the press in the future. Those who committed violations during the pro! tests will be "severely" punished, warned the Governor of Erbil in a press conference. It has emerged that Goran wrote the magazine article three years ago, which raises questions as to why it appeared in Chrpa magazine last week. The Kurdistan Region's Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani has assured Arbil's Imams and clerics that such insults against Islam will not be tolerated. But it remains to be seen whether such stories will appear in the Kurdish press in the future.
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