diff --git a/scripts/xdg-open.in b/scripts/xdg-open.in
index 00b6f9a..d657d96 100644
--- a/scripts/xdg-open.in
+++ b/scripts/xdg-open.in
@@ -124,7 +124,8 @@ DEBUG 3 "$xdg_user_dir:$xdg_system_dirs"
                 command="`grep -E "^Exec(\[[^]=]*])?=" "$file" | cut -d= -f 2- | first_word`"
                 command_exec=`which $command 2>/dev/null`
                 arguments="`grep -E "^Exec(\[[^]=]*])?=" "$file" | cut -d= -f 2- | last_word`"
-                arguments_exec="`echo $arguments | sed -e 's*%[fFuU]*"'"$1"'"*g'`"
+                arg_one="`echo $1 | sed 's/&/\\\\&/g'`"
+                arguments_exec="`echo $arguments | sed -e 's*%[fFuU]*"'"$arg_one"'"*g'`"
                 if [ -x "$command_exec" ] ; then
                     if echo $arguments | grep -iq '%[fFuU]' ; then
                         eval $command_exec $arguments_exec