Since last January, the Koran has been “on fire” in Sweden and Denmark. Turkey and other Muslim countries, and their citizens, are reacting. At the same time, Stockholm and Helsinki are struggling to convince Ankara to say the long-awaited “yes” to joining NATO. The repeated burnings of Islam’s holy book pose obstacles.
The two Scandinavian governments, of Stockholm and Copenhagen, are trying – at least in the context of political rhetoric – to prove that they not only consider this practice of burning holy books unacceptable – putting forward as an explanation that it is likely to inflame terrorist passions of Muslims in their countries –, but also that they may not be willing to reform their constitutional laws, revising almost absolute freedom of speech, but are considering activating legal provisions for insulting religious sentiment. Ankara is convinced and says “yes” for Sweden.
The reactions of the Muslim world
Copies of the Koran, however, are still burning – and Islamic countries are reacting strongly on many levels. Over the weekend, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke by phone with his Danish and Swedish counterparts on the issue, urging them to take action on the “Islamophobic sentiment” of some of their people – it’s worth noting that, in the majority of the cases, the security forces are… outnumbered by the numerous protesters. Last Monday, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), made up of 57 Muslim states, in its emergency session “condemned” Sweden and Denmark for allowing the protests to continue “under the guise of freedom of expression”.
At the same time, an emergency meeting of the UN Human Rights Council has requested “Pakistan on behalf of many members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation”, as Pascal Sim, the representative of the Council, has stated a month ago, adding that “the alarming increase in premeditated and public actions will be discussed of religious hatred, manifested by the desecration of the Koran in some European countries and elsewhere”, without providing the exact date of the meeting. However, whatever the decision is, it will only have a political basis, as the body’s decisions do not automatically carry legal force.
At the same time, Muslims in third countries, such as Turkey, Pakistan and Iraq, protest strongly and with angry slogans outside the embassies of the two countries, while Morocco, as reported by Al Jazeera, recalled its ambassador to Sweden on indefinitely. The country’s foreign ministry also summoned Sweden’s charge d’affaires in Rabat and expressed its “strong condemnation of this attack and rejection of this unacceptable act.” Iraq did the same, telling the Swedish ambassador to the country that these actions were “racist and irresponsible”.
But what can the two countries do, so that they stop accepting the “fires” of the Muslim world inside and outside their borders, which are increasing and multiplying also from the spread of false news in their countries?
In fact, the Swedish Prime Minister has also made a special mention of disinformation, when a week ago he wrote on Instagram that his country has become the target of a disinformation campaign by “factors supported by Russia” and who are trying to damage the image of the candidate country in the NATO, implying that the Swedish government supports the recent Koran burnings, which the country’s Minister of Public Security, Karl-Oscar Bolin, has also advocated.
Sweden: Inviolable freedom of speech and legal maneuvers
The Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristerson, after the recent events, said that he is already in intensive talks with his Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, and that both governments share the same view: “The situation is dangerous and measures are needed to strengthen it our resilience,” he said, referring to fears of terrorist reprisals, adding that the Stockholm government is considering “police measures” as it rules out reforming freedom of expression laws.
In fact, Ulf Kristerson, initially condemning the burning of the Koran as an “Islamophobic” move, said at a press conference last Tuesday that “we defend Swedish freedom of speech”, adding that “we intend to consider measures to strengthen our national security and of the safety of Swedes both at home and around the world.”
In Sweden, as in most countries, holding a protest requires permission from the Police, who may refuse the request of citizens or organizations for security reasons. However, the Police is expected to find obstacles in the Swedish Justice.
As was the case with Salwan Momika, the 37-year-old Iraqi refugee who arrived in Sweden in 2018. On June 28, he reportedly burned the Koran outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm. The Police had initially banned him from protesting, but a court in the Swedish capital overturned the decision, creating a res judicata.
Of course, when his name became known, information began to surface, as French media say, that he belongs to an extreme nationalist party in Sweden, while it is reported that a few months earlier the Swedish authorities had refused his naturalization.
Salouan Momika, a former Islamist officer in the Iraqi army, with criminal records on his back, according to France24, now an “atheist and enlightened politician, thinker and writer” according to his statements, except for the incident of June 28, which was also the first day of the Muslim “Feast of Sacrifice”, burned the Koran twice in July – on the 20th and 24th.
However, a key figure in the burning of the Koran in Sweden – but also in Denmark – is Rasmus Paludan, whose story we have highlighted in an earlier report. Paludan is head of Denmark’s far-right Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party. He was born in 1982 in Denmark to a Swedish father. He is a lawyer, while, according to information, he is a freshman at the Theological School of the University of Copenhagen.
He himself, according to Swedish media, had said that he had been invited by “Swedes who wanted me to burn the Koran outside the Turkish embassy” in Stockholm. Besides, he has from time to time submitted corresponding… credentials, since he has participated in most of the – peaceful and not – demonstrations against Islam and immigrants who do not come from Western countries. In many of them he has burned copies of the Koran, while many publications link him to Russia.
“Sweden’s protection under the Swedish constitution for freedom of expression is the strongest protection in the world — even more so than the first amendment in the United States,” Maarten Suttls, a law professor at Stockholm University, told CNN. “Freedom of speech is almost always the first priority in all conflicts of interest or values.”
At the same time, as Bloomberg writes, Swedish judges have ruled that, regardless of the political message conveyed, protests must be allowed and protected unless they pose an immediate threat to public safety.
Apparently even inside Sweden – which has abolished blasphemy laws since 1970 – the public debate is heating up. According to an article in Expressen by Simon Sørgenfrey, Professor of Theological Studies at Södertörn University, “Sweden is unique. Our neutrality kept us out of World War II and, in the decades that followed, Sweden developed into one of the richest, safest and most powerful democracies in the world. We have freedom of religion, freedom of speech and a number of other freedoms that are far from obvious in all countries. This has made Sweden an attractive immigration country. In Sweden, one can profess any religion one wishes, but also explicitly distance oneself from religion. He can read and at the same time burn holy books.”
“The fact that we are sending the message both in Denmark and abroad that we are working on this will hopefully help de-escalate the problems we are facing,” Danish Foreign Minister Lars Loke Rasmussen said on July 31. “It’s not because we feel pressured to do it, but it’s our political analysis that this is in the best interest of all of us. We shouldn’t just sit back and wait for the situation to go away.” As he said, criticism against religions is allowed, “but if one stands in front of a foreign embassy and burns the Koran or in front of the Israeli embassy a Torah scroll, it serves no purpose other than ridicule.”
A major public debate has also opened in Copenhagen, following the government’s statements that it is considering measures to “ensure public safety” and “respect other religions, countries and cultures”. However, the Danish Foreign Minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, and the Minister of Justice, Peter Hummelsgaard, expressly stated that any scenario of reintroducing the blasphemy law, which was abolished in Denmark late – in 2017, was ruled out.
Last Wednesday August 2, however, seven opposition parties in Denmark objected to the government’s efforts to make it illegal to burn copies of the Koran, arguing that such legislation would constitute an unacceptable restriction on freedom of expression.
The statements came after the reactions of Muslim countries, but also after the condemnation of the European Union, when, on July 25, far-right demonstrators, members of the Danish Patriots party, set fire to the Koran outside the embassies of Egypt and Turkey in Copenhagen. In fact, as Politico writes, the group orchestrated the same act last Friday outside the Iraqi embassy in the Danish capital, which they broadcast live on Facebook.
However, Frederik Vaage, a professor of law at the University of Southern Denmark, told DR, the Danish public broadcaster, that “freedom of expression is curtailed in the country to a degree. We compromise freedom of expression every day. The strange example is that you shouldn’t shout “fire” in a theater, that you shouldn’t say disrespectful things about other people, that you shouldn’t say anything inappropriate. We also backed down on freedom of expression when Paludan was banned from attending Folkemødet (ie the Danish festival of democracy) in Bornholm in June. We have restrictions in all possible ways on freedom of expression.”
