An “unacceptable” act. On Wednesday June 28, a man burned several pages of the Koran outside the largest mosque in Stockholm, Sweden. Facts committed on the sidelines of a “gathering” authorized by local authorities. Turkey immediately reacted by castigating an “unacceptable” act. This new incident could darken Swedish prospects for NATO membership, which Turkey is blocking. The event, which coincides with Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world, brought together around 100 onlookers and journalists.
Dressed in beige chinos and a light shirt, Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi who fled his country for Sweden, repeatedly trampled on the Koran, before slipping slices of bacon and burn a few pages, according to journalists from Agence France-Presse on the spot. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan immediately condemned the incident on Twitter: “It is unacceptable to allow these anti-Islamic actions under the pretext of freedom of expression. »
The subject is sensitive in the Nordic country. A demonstration in January during which a Koran was burned in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm had already angered Ankara and the Muslim world, leading to demonstrations and calls for a boycott of Swedish products.
“It’s crazy, it’s absolutely insane, it’s just hatred behind the concepts of democracy and freedom,” reacted Noa Omran, a 32-year-old artist who came to witness the scene.
Earlier in the day, the police had announced that they would authorize “the assembly”, saying that “the security risks” associated with burning the Quran were “not such as to prohibit it”. At the end of the day, she announced that she was filing a complaint against the organizer, in particular for incitement to hatred. In his request for prior authorization, the organizer of the book burning, Salwan Momika, said he wanted to “express [his] opinion about the Koran”. “I will tear up the Quran and burn it,” he wrote. He had made a similar request in February, which was denied by the police.
According to an article in the Swedish daily Aftonbladet dated April 5, Salwan Momika assured that his intention was not to complicate Swedish membership of the Atlantic Alliance. “I don’t want to harm this country that welcomed me and preserved my dignity,” he told the newspaper, adding that he wanted to see the Koran banned in Sweden.
Stockholm police had refused two gatherings in February where copies of Islam’s holy book were scheduled to be burned, citing risks of public disorder. In the process, the demonstrators had appealed the decision, believing that their constitutional right to demonstrate had been violated. An administrative court had given them reason at the beginning of April.
In mid-June, the Administrative Court of Appeal upheld the first instance judgment, stating that the security risks put forward by the police “did not have a sufficiently clear link” with the gatherings in question. It is on this basis that the Swedish police made their decision on Wednesday, just a few days before the Vilnius summit, on July 11 and 12, where Stockholm hopes for progress for its entry into NATO.
Ankara is blocking Sweden’s NATO bid, which requires a unanimous green light from Alliance members, over what it sees as Stockholm’s inability to crack down on Kurdish groups based in Sweden. she considers “terrorists”. Talks will bring together representatives of the two countries in Brussels on July 6, Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Wednesday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also reacted by criticizing Sweden. “We will teach arrogant Westerners that insulting Muslims is not a matter of free speech,” Erdogan said in a televised address, strongly condemning the incident.
