2023-07-15 13:57:10
Sweden
The man who wanted to burn the Torah and the Bible gives up his project and explains
“I want to show that we have to respect each other, we live in the same society,” the 32-year-old Muslim said Saturday outside the Israeli embassy.
PostedJuly 15, 2023, 3:57 PM
“It’s a response to people who burn the Koran,” says Ahmad A., explaining his project.
A 32-year-old Muslim who claimed to want to burn a Torah and a Bible on Saturday in Stockholm backed out of the plan, saying his intention was actually to expose those who burn holy books like the Koran in the Nordic country.
“Freedom of expression has limits”
The Swedish police granted him Friday the authorization to organize its demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy, a decision that had been condemned by the Jewish state and various religious organizations. Ahmad A., the organizer of the protest, told reporters that his intention was to criticize people who have burned Qurans in Sweden in recent months, which Swedish law does not prohibit.
“It is a response to people who burn the Koran. I want to show that freedom of expression has limits that we must take into account,” explained the 32-year-old Swedish resident of Syrian origin. “I want to show that we have to respect each other, we live in the same society. If I burn the Torah, another the Bible, one last the Koran, there will be war here… What I wanted to show is that it is not good to do so”, he added. .
Anger of the Muslim world
“It is against the Koran to burn (a holy book) and I will not burn. Nobody should do it,” said the 30-year-old with a finely trimmed beard. The small demonstration dispersed peacefully, about fifty meters from the Israeli embassy on an opulent avenue in central Stockholm.
And first Quran burning took place in January, committed by the Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan, to denounce Swedish membership of NATO and negotiations with Turkey to let Sweden into the alliance. On June 28, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden had burned a few pages of a copy of the Quran in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque during the day of Eid al-Adha, a holiday celebrated by Muslims around the world. Both events triggered a series of convictions in the Muslim world.
Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan.
No law against blasphemy
Even if the Swedish police recalled that the authorization to demonstrate granted was not a formal authorization to burn a sacred book, there is no law against blasphemy prohibiting the burning of a Koran, a Torah or a Bible. The Swedish government had denounced in January and June “insulting” and “Islamophobic” actions, but has no plans to change Swedish legislation, which is more liberal than elsewhere. On the other hand, the police can refuse the demonstration if it undermines the security of the kingdom, or if it gives rise to acts or words inciting racial hatred.
(AFP)Show comments
1689430563
#Sweden #man #wanted #burn #Torah #Bible #project