Less than two weeks before the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11 and 12, Sweden could not imagine a worse scenario. While the Scandinavian kingdom has long hoped to participate as a full member of the Transatlantic Alliance, the events of recent days seem to have destroyed all its chances of seeing its candidacy ratified in time.
On Thursday June 29, in Ankara, the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who continues to oppose Swedish membership, expressed his indignation following the burning of the Koran, perpetrated the day before, in front of the largest Stockholm mosque, on the first day of Eid-el-Kébir, by an Iraqi refugee. “We will eventually teach arrogant Westerners that insulting Muslims is not free speech”protested the Turkish president, during a televised speech.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, demonstrators forced the entrance to the Swedish Embassy. The assault only lasted about 15 minutes before Iraqi government forces dispersed the demonstrators. But it raises fears of a conflagration in the Middle East, while several countries, such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, have summoned the Swedish ambassadors stationed in their capital to express their anger. Morocco, for its part, recalled its ambassador to Stockholm, condemning an act “offensive and irresponsible”.
“Inappropriate” gesture
On Wednesday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that if burning the Koran was “legal” in his country, the gesture was ” inappropriate “. On January 21, Swedish police authorized a rally outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, during which a Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist set fire to a copy of the Muslims’ holy book, sparking a first diplomatic crisis with Ankara. . Law enforcement subsequently rejected all new requests, citing the risk of making Sweden “a priority target for attacks”.
The demonstrators had appealed this decision. In early April, the Stockholm Administrative Court ruled in their favor. This judgment was confirmed on June 12 by the administrative court of appeal, which considered that the risks of an attack were not sufficient to justify the ban. It is on this basis that the Stockholm police approved the request of Salwan Momika, the author of the second book burning, a 37-year-old Iraqi, refugee in Sweden, who is now the subject of a complaint for incitement to hatred. racial.
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