[Pierre]

As I see it, it's not inciting racial hatred, as per the thread title, as muslims are not a racial group.

Is it inciting religious hatred? I'm not even sure if there is a law for that.

I think there is a law for inciting violence against religious groups, and I don't believe this act transgresses that.

If he was encouraging people to burn the koran and go out and smack a muslim, then that would be different, but all he/they are doing is buring a book.

Now that may be offensive to muslims but not illegal, and he's done it with the sole intention of offending muslims and causing trouble but as far as I know it's not illegal to "offend" anyone.

If the police saw somebody burning the Koran, and could see that it was about to cause civil unrest by provoking nearby muslims then I think they could probably come up with some reason to arrest them just in order to keep the peace. As you point out they would probably be later released without charge.

It would take less manpower for that course of action rather then try to defend the book burner from potential violent actions of nearby offended muslims, although it would be the muslims that were on the wrong side of the law.