Relations between Sweden and several countries in the Middle East are unlikely to improve anytime soon. This Monday, July 31, the Swedish police announced that they had authorized a rally in front of Parliament in Stockholm, several media report. The rally in question was held in the early afternoon and the organizers carried out their threat: they burned several pages of the Koran, the Muslim holy book. The gathering had been authorized by the authorities. Swedish police had previously stressed that the permits granted were only for holding public gatherings and did not cover what happens there.
Two men burned a copy of the Koran during this rally, AFP noted. Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi refugee, and Salwan Najem trampled on a copy of the religious book before setting it on fire, as they had done in late June during a rally outside Stockholm’s main mosque.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq immediately called for an extraordinary meeting, expected Monday, of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to address what could be a new desecration of the Koran in Sweden and Denmark.
These diplomatic tensions arose after Salwan Momika set fire to pages of the Muslim holy book in late June in front of the Grand Mosque in Stockholm on the first day of Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world. His gesture was intended to alert Swedish society to the “danger of this book”, he claimed. On July 20, he stomped on and tore up a copy of the Quran outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm.
Condemned by Al-Azhar, one of the most prestigious institutions of Sunni Islam based in Egypt, these acts of desecration have raised a wave of indignation and protests as well as diplomatic tensions in the Middle East.
In prevention, Sweden ordered, on July 27, fifteen state bodies and administrations to “intensify their work” under the aegis of the security services.
The ostentatious destruction of Islam’s holy book “has heightened the risks for Sweden,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson noted in an Instagram post.
On Sunday, neighboring Denmark said it wanted to limit possible new protests planning Quran desecrations, citing the security concerns involved.
According to the Danish Foreign Ministry, the protests have “reached a level where Denmark, in many parts of the world, is seen as a country that facilitates the insulting and denigration of other countries’ cultures, religions and traditions.” .
In late July in Denmark, the far-right Danske Patrioter movement posted a video of a man desecrating and burning what appears to be a Koran and stomping on an Iraqi flag.
