2023-07-14 18:07:55
AA / Ankara / Ahmed Asmar
Israeli President Isaac Herzog strongly condemned Swedish authorities on Friday for allowing a public burning of a copy of the Jewish holy book, the Torah. The Ashkenazi chief rabbi also wrote to the Swedish prime minister urging him to drop the desecration planned for Saturday.
Earlier on Friday, Swedish police authorized a public gathering to burn Judaism’s holy book, the Torah, along with a Bible, outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.
According to Israeli news site i24, Israeli President Isaac Herzog strongly condemned the Swedish authorities for authorizing the burning.
“I unequivocally condemn the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books. As President of the State of Israel, I have condemned the burning of the Quran, which is sacred to Muslims around the world, and I am now heartbroken to see that the same fate awaits the Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people,” the president said.
Israel’s Ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, also said he was shocked and horrified by the proliferation of permissions to burn holy books in public.
“I totally condemn the burning of holy books belonging to any religion, as it is an act of hatred and disrespect that has nothing to do with freedom of expression,” he said. wrote Kulman on Twitter.
Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, David Lau, meanwhile wrote to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson urging him to prevent the desecration.
“I ask you to do everything in your power to prevent this act. Freedom of expression does not mean allowing everything,” reports The Times of Israel, citing Rabbi Lau’s letter.
“Any desecration of sacred Jewish symbols is not freedom, but anti-Semitism,” the chief rabbi said.
Last month, an extremist identified as Salwan Momika burned a copy of the Koran under police protection outside a mosque in Stockholm, Sweden.
This provocative act coincided with Eid al-Adha, one of the main Islamic religious holidays celebrated by Muslims around the world.
It has aroused many condemnations in the Islamic world, including those of Türkiye, Jordan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Senegal, from Morocco and Mauritania.
*Translated from English by Mourad Belhaj
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