Two men burned a copy of the Koran on Monday July 31 during a rally in front of Parliament in Stockholm, AFP noted, at a time when relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries have deteriorated. deteriorated after several desecrations of the holy book of Islam. Salwan Momika and Salwan Najem trampled on a copy of the Koran before setting it on fire, as they had done at the end of June during a rally in front of Stockholm’s main mosque.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq have called for the organization of an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Monday to discuss this subject. Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said he had been in contact before the meeting with several of his counterparts among the organization’s 57 member countries.
The acts of desecration of the Koran were condemned by Al-Azhar, one of the most prestigious institutions of Sunni Islam based in Egypt, and raised a wave of indignation and protests as well as diplomatic tensions in the Middle East. . On July 20, in Baghdad, hundreds of Iraqis invaded and set fire to the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. The Swedish ambassador was expelled from Iraq and Iran and indicated that he would not accept a new ambassador from the Scandinavian country on its territory.
“Playing into the game of extremists”
On the diplomatic scene, Stockholm is trying to make Muslim countries understand that the opinions expressed during these burnings (or other public meetings) are those of “individuals who in no way represent the Swedish government”, says Svenska Dagbladet, a Swedish daily newspaper. In a press release, Tobias Billstrom explained that he had informed them of the way in which authorizations to demonstrate were granted in Sweden and of the fact that the Swedish police took this type of decision completely independently. “I have also repeated that the government is very clear in its rejection of any Islamophobic acts carried out by individuals during demonstrations in Sweden,” added Tobias Billstrom.
In Denmark as in Sweden, the two countries are therefore looking for solutions and are looking for a legal tool. “The situation is dangerous […] for our national security,” Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson wrote Sunday evening after a noticeable silence. In a statement on Monday, the leader said the Justice Ministry was “analyzing the legal situation” – including the Public Order Act – with the aim of exploring the scope of measures that would strengthen the “national security” of the country.
Sweden on July 27 ordered five state bodies and administrations to “intensify their work” under the aegis of the security services. An additional difficulty for Sweden, the head of government must however deal with his far-right parliamentary ally, the Sweden Democrats party, some of whose deputies have made statements deemed to be Islamophobic in recent days.
For his part, the Danish Foreign Minister recalled that these desecrations are perpetrated by a “handful of individuals”, whose main goal is to “provoke, sow division, play into the hands of extremists”. In the Nordic country, this series of burnings of the Koran has raised the specter of the crisis of the cartoons of Muhammad which had led to a storm of violent protests against Denmark in 1995. Thus the government wants to show that it is acting firmly. On Sunday evening, the executive announced that it wanted to limit possible new demonstrations planning desecrations of the Koran, highlighting the security problems they involve.
The Danish government intends to “explore” the possibility of intervening in situations “where, for example, other countries, cultures and religions are insulted, and which can have significant negative consequences for Denmark, in particular in terms of security” , the Foreign Office wrote in a statement. “This must of course be done within the framework of freedom of expression protected by the Constitution,” he added, stressing that this is one of Denmark’s most important values. In late July, the far-right Danske Patrioter movement posted a video of a man desecrating and burning what appears to be a Quran and trampling on an Iraqi flag.