“Light Up Until It’s Banned”
Sweden approves Koran burning again
7/31/2023 1:18 p.m
Denmark is considering a ban on burning the Koran out of concern for public safety, Sweden is taking a different approach: the Stockholm police have approved another protest action in which the holy book of Islam is to be burned. Because you don’t need a permit for that.
The Swedish police have authorized a demonstration in front of the parliament in Stockholm, where the organizers want to burn another Koran. “I’ll burn it until it’s banned,” organizer Salwan Najem announced in the Expressen newspaper. During similar protests of this kind, the Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika had already set fire to Korans in Stockholm. Najem had joined two of these actions. His own protest action is scheduled to take place in the early afternoon.
The Swedish police had previously stressed that they only issue permits for public gatherings, not for the content of those gatherings.
In Sweden and neighboring Denmark, there have recently been several demonstrations in which the Koran was set on fire or the Muslim holy book was desecrated with kicks. At the end of June, Momika set fire to some pages of the Koran in front of a mosque in Stockholm. In mid-July he trampled on a copy of the Koran in front of the Iraqi embassy.
Denmark is checking restrictions
The protest actions in Sweden and Denmark led to intense tensions between the two Nordic countries and Islamic countries. In the middle of the month, hundreds of Iraqis stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad and set it on fire. Several countries in the Middle East summoned the ambassadors of Sweden and Denmark. Saudi Arabia and Iraq convened a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also scheduled for Monday.
The Danish Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it was examining legal means to stop protests burning the Koran. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement of his own that a similar process is already underway in his country.