Elham Asaad Buaras

Sweden’s government has condemned last month’s burning of a Qur’an outside Stockholm’s main mosque on Eid al-Adha, calling it an “Islamophobic” act, after an international Islamic body called for measures to avoid future burnings.

The inflammatory act took place outside Stockholm’s central mosque, where under a heavy police presence, Iraqi refugee Salwan Sabah Matti Momika, 37, with a permit to protest from the Swedish police, stomped on the Qur’an, placed bacon on it before setting several pages alight. Another unidentified man with him spoke to the crowd through a megaphone.

“The Swedish government fully understands that the Islamophobic acts committed by individuals at demonstrations in Sweden can be offensive to Muslims,” the foreign ministry said in a statement released on July 2. “We strongly condemn these acts, which in no way reflect the views of the Swedish government,” it added.
The condemnation came in response to a call for collective measures to avoid future Qur’an burnings from the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The 57-member body met at its Jeddah headquarters and urged member states to “take unified and collective measures to prevent the recurrence of incidents of desecration of copies of the Qur’an”, according to a statement released after the extraordinary meeting.

“The burning of the Qur’an, or any other holy text, is an offensive and disrespectful act and a clear provocation. Expressions of racism, xenophobia, and related intolerance have no place in Sweden or in Europe,” the Swedish foreign ministry said.

The ministry added that Sweden had a “constitutionally protected right to freedom of assembly, expression, and demonstration”.

Substantial diplomatic consequence

Sweden suffered substantial diplomatic consequences because of the episode, notably in its relations with Muslim-majority countries. Countries including Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco have summoned Swedish ambassadors in protest at the Qur’an burning incident.

The incident also prompted demands for a boycott of Swedish goods and slowed Sweden’s ambitions for NATO membership, which Ankara opposes.

“It is unacceptable to allow these anti-Islamic actions to take place under the guise of free expression. To turn a blind eye to such heinous acts is to be complicit in them,” said Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in a statement.Earlier in the year, Rasmus Paludan, a far-right politician, burned a Qur’an in Stockholm near the Turkish embassy, exacerbating tensions between the two nations.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Sweden’s leaders at the time: “If you do not show respect to the religious beliefs of the Republic of Turkey or Muslims, you will not receive any support for NATO from us.”

In its permit for the stunt, the police wrote that while it ‘may have foreign policy consequences’, the security risks and consequences linked to a Qur’an burning were not of such a nature that the application should be rejected.

Swedish police had granted Momika a permit in line with free speech protections, but authorities later said they had opened an investigation over “agitation against an ethnic group”, noting that Momika had burned pages from the Islamic holy book very close to the mosque.

However, representatives of the mosque were disappointed by the police decision to grant permission for the protest during the Muslim holiday, Stockholm Central Mosque Director and Imam Mahmoud Khalfi, said.
Khalfi told Anadolu Agency that he “personally witnessed the Qur’an burning in Stockholm” last December, “and I remember how hurtful it was.”

“The Qur’an is sacred in Islam; it is the word of God. Burning the Qur’an, therefore, becomes enormously hurtful for us Muslims,” he said.