On Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Sweden’s ambassador to the country due to Wednesday’s Koran burning in Stockholm, reports the Saudi state news agency.
– You see this as an Islamophobic act – you cannot see that it is part of freedom of expression, says Sofia Bard, head of analysis at the Swedish Institute.
To the ambassador, the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a call to Sweden to stop actions that “contradict international efforts to spread values of tolerance, sanity and rejection of extremism”, writes the state news agency.
The outside world, including many countries in the Middle East, has condemned Wednesday’s Koran burning outside Stockholm’s mosque on Södermalm on Wednesday.
– You see this as an Islamophobic act, you wonder if you are really allowed to do that in Sweden. You cannot see that it is part of freedom of expression, says Sofia Bard, head of analysis at the Swedish Institute.
In addition, the incident has resulted in an extensive disinformation campaign against Sweden – again.
– We see that there are actors who have a disinformation aim, including actors who were active in the information influence campaign against the social services and Sweden in February.
Is Russia part of the activity?
– We can see that there is activity from Russia. Both in state media but also ordinary people who have opinions in social media.
Called for measures against Sweden
On Sunday, the Muslim cooperation organization Islamic Conference Organization (IKO) gathered for a specially called meeting due to Wednesday’s Koran burning in Stockholm.
The IKO, which is based in Saudi Arabia and has 57 member countries, called on member states for “unified and collective action” to prevent “further desecrations” of the Koran.
“We must send constant reminders to the international community of the important need to comply with international law, which clearly prohibits all incitement to religiously motivated hate crimes,” read a statement from the organization’s secretary-general, Hissein Brahim Taha.
It is something that can affect Sweden negatively on several levels.
– It can have economic and diplomatic consequences. We are not looking at the security effects, but we have seen what happened outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad as well, says Sofia Bard.
On Sunday, Iran also announced that the country will not send its new ambassador, Hojatullah Faghani, to Sweden.
Several countries have summoned Sweden’s ambassador due to the Koran burning, including Kuwait, Morocco, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates.