2023 Quran burnings in Sweden

2023 Quran burnings in Sweden
In 2023, instances of Quran-burning occurred in Sweden, which were named collectively by Swedish media as the Korankrisen ("Quran crisis"; "Quran burning crisis" in some English-language media). The most notable of them occurred on 28 June 2023, when a 37-year-old Iraqi Assyrian refugee ripped out and set fire to pages of the Quran outside the Stockholm Mosque. This incident caused international protests and condemnation, particularly among the Muslim world. On 20 July, this person desecrated the Quran again in Stockholm, resulting in more protests and attacks, including arson, against the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad, starting a day before.
This resulted in several follow-up protests in Denmark, in which the Quran was burned outside the embassies of several Muslim-majority countries.
Incidents
In January 2023, the Danish-Swedish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the Quran outside of the Turkish embassy, leading the Turkish defence minister Hulusi Akar to suspend talks with Sweden over its NATO membership. Separate pro-Kurdish and anti-NATO demonstrations were also held outside the embassy.
Salwan Momika is a 37-year-old Aramean man who moved to Sweden in 2018 after having fled Iraq as a refugee. Of Christian heritage, he now identifies as an atheist and has called for a ban on the Quran in Sweden. On 28 June, he appeared behind a line of police officers outside the Stockholm Mosque, holding two Swedish flags while the Du gamla, du fria, the de facto national anthem of Sweden, played over loudspeakers. He tore apart the Quran and set it on fire, while also placing a strip of bacon on it. One protester attempted to throw something at him and was arrested. The event occurred during Eid al-Adha, a major holiday in Islam.
Following the incident, Stockholm police have said that they received further requests for Quran-burning permits, as well as requests to burn the Torah and Bible outside the Israeli embassy, but these were later called off.
Several follow-up protests occurred in Denmark in the following weeks. On 24 July, a Quran was burned outside the Iraqi embassy by Danske Patrioter. On 25 July, protestors burned a Quran outside the Egyptian embassy in Copenhagen, and on the same day, a Quran was burned outside the Turkish embassy. On 31 July a total of seven Quran-burnings were planned in Denmark.
On 3 September 2023, a violent riot broke out and Islamists threw stones at police, burning cars and setting an underground garage on fire, after Momika lit a copy of the Quran in the presence of 2,000 onlookers.
Protests and violence
After the burnings, there was a notable surge in anti-Swedish sentiments.
Two protests took place outside the Karachi Press Club on 2 July 2023, condemning the burning. In Islamabad, Pakistan, police officers prevented supporters of the religious group Jamaat-e-Islami from marching towards the Swedish Embassy during a rally.
On 29 June, protesters stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad after the Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called Sweden "hostile to Islam". The protesters briefly entered the building. On 19 July, after another planned Quran-burning, the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad was stormed and set aflame by protesters while Iraq asked the Swedish ambassador to leave Iraqi soil while severing diplomatic ties with Sweden and banning Swedish businesses in Iraq. The United States criticised the Iraqi security forces for not preventing protesters from storming the embassy grounds.
In response to the burnings, the Iranian militia Ashab al-Kahf, which is also active in Baghdad, issued threats on Telegram urging followers to target "every Swede" with violence.
On the evening of October 16, 2023, an Islamic State sympathiser killed two Swedish nationals attending a football match at Place Sainctelette in Molenbeek, Brussels, and injured another. Belgian authorities have said that a motive behind the killing was that the victims were Swedish, and that the crime was potentially carried out as revenge for the 2023 Quran burnings in Sweden. The victims were wearing Sweden men's national football team shirts when they were shot. In a video released after the attack, the perpetrator claimed to be directly targeting Swedes.
Reactions
Government reactions
The Swedish government condemned the burning, calling it "Islamophobic" and saying it did not reflect the government's view. The incidents caused a debate in Sweden over freedom of speech and the right to offend, versus what constitutes hate speech under Swedish law. Sweden has said that Russia-backed disinformation networks have been falsely claiming that the Swedish government supported the burnings to undermine Sweden's chances of joining NATO. Swedish police filed preliminary hate crime charges against a man who burned a Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm in June 2023, with Swedish state prosecutors to decide whether to formally indict him or not. If they do indict him, it will be up to a Swedish judge to decide on whether or not his actions constituted incitement under the current law. On 30 July, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that Sweden was in "the most serious security situation since the Second World War."
The Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said on 30 July that "the burnings are deeply offensive and reckless acts committed by [a] few individuals. These few individuals do not represent the values the Danish society is built on." The Danish government also said it would try to find legal means to prevent burnings of the Quran in front of other countries' embassies. On 4 August, the government said it was tightening border controls to prevent unwanted individuals from entering the country.
Afghanistan suspended all Swedish activities, which included Swedish aid worker groups, and said that the ban would remain active until Sweden apologized for their actions.
In Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps deputy director said it is Iran's duty to punish the violator individual, that the individual should not have security. The Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for the death penalty for the perpetrator, saying that Sweden had "gone into battle-array for war on the Muslim world". An Iranian Ministry of Intelligence report alleged that Momika was affiliated with Mossad since 2019. Extraterritorial operations Ali Mohammadi-Sirat of said the man who disrespected the Quran should fear for his life. General Salami said you should live in fear even if takes decades. Tehran announced they will build Quran Gate in relation.
Iraq summoned the Swedish ambassador to the country, calling the Quran-burning "racist" and "irresponsible". Iraq severed all diplomatic and business ties and connections with Sweden in response. Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on Sweden to strip Momika of his citizenship and repatriate him for prosecution; failing this, al-Sadr said he would be tried in absentia. On 20 July, Iraq expelled the Swedish ambassador in response to another planned Quran burning in Stockholm.
Jordan described the incident as "a racist act of serious hate".
Morocco recalled its ambassador to Sweden for an indefinite period.
Muslims in Pakistan held a "Quran Sanctity Day" on 7 July after the prime minister Shehbaz Sharif called for protests. Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council on 11 July, Pakistan's foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari described the burning of the Quran as an "incitement to religious hatred, discrimination and attempts to provoke violence", done under "government sanction and with the sense of impunity".
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan strongly criticized Sweden for allowing the incident to occur, stating that Turkey would not tolerate any policy of provocation or threat. "We will teach the arrogant Western people that it is not freedom of expression to insult the sacred values of Muslims," he said. This condemnation took place at a strained time between the two countries, as Turkey was delaying Sweden joining NATO, saying that it was not taking enough action against the pro-Kurdish activists and the Gülen movement (designed as a terrorist group by Turkey). In late July 2023, Turkey issued an official arrest order against Rasmus Paludan and nine others for having been part Quran-burnings in Sweden that year.
The Indonesian government, via its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, condemned the burning. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi, summoned Sweden's and Denmark's ambassadors to Indonesia on 1 August 2023.
Egypt's Al-Azhar Al-Sharif called on boycotting all the Swedish and dutch products and called the acts of burning an "offense" to Islam and Muslims around the world, and said that boycott would be an appropriate reaction to governments that protect "barbaric crimes under the inhuman and immoral banner they call freedom of expression." The Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry strongly condemned it and said that it's a "disgraceful act provokes the feelings of hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world". The Swedish Chargé d'affaires was summoned by the Assistant Minister on European Affairs, Ihab Nasr, who condemned the act of burning during their meeting.
The United States expressed its disapproval of the burning but also stated that granting permission for the demonstration supported freedom of expression. The US also called for Turkey to allow Sweden to join NATO.
Pope Francis condemned the act, telling Al-Ittihad that "any book considered holy should be respected to respect those who believe in it", and that he felt "angry and disgusted" at the Quran-burnings.
Israeli president Isaac Herzog has condemned Sweden for allowing Quran burnings, calling it an "act of pure hate".
International organisations
On 2 July, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation said that international law and other collective measures were needed to prevent future incidents involving the desecration of the Quran.
On 12 July, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a motion "countering religious hatred constituting incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence" in response to the Quran-burning incident. As with all of the council's decisions, this is not legally binding.
Swedish authorities
In February 2023, the Swedish Police Authority refused permission for "an association and a private person" to burn the Quran outside the Turkish and Iraqi embassies in Stockholm. In June 2023, this refusal was overturned by the . A judge found that the police's fear of security problems was not obvious enough to override the constitutional right of those who planned to burn the Quran to hold what they claimed to be a political demonstration. There is no longer a law against blasphemy in Sweden or Denmark.
On 12 July, the Supreme Administrative Court of Sweden announced that they would hear a case related to a denial of a protest permit from April.
See also
List of book-burning incidents
Islam and blasphemy
Quran desecration#2020–present Sweden
References
2023 in Sweden
2023 in Denmark
2023 protests
Anti-Islam sentiment in Sweden
Book burnings
Controversies in Sweden
Events relating to freedom of expression
Freedom of expression in Europe
Islam in Sweden
Islam-related controversies in Europe
June 2023 events in Europe
July 2023 events in Europe
Protests in Iraq
Protests in Pakistan
Protests in Sweden
Quran-related controversies