Swedish police handed three more applications to burn religious texts

Three new applications to burn religious books have been handed to police in Sweden as the on-going row over the country’s freedom of speech laws risks causing more fury among religious groups.

The applications come after the burning of a Koran late last month sparked massive outrage across the Muslim world, and even prompted a UN meeting.

One of the three new applications would involve the burning of the Islamic holy text outside a mosque in Stockholm, as was the case with the burning on June 28.

The organiser, a woman in her 50s, has said in her application she wants to be given permission to carry out the protest ‘as soon as possible.’

Another application concerns the burning of the Torah and the Bible outside Stockholm’s Israeli, with the organiser requesting June 15 as the date.

The 30-year-old behind the application has written in his request that is in response to last week’s Koran burning, and called it ‘a symbolic gathering for the sake of freedom of expression.’

The third application to burn ‘religious texts’ on July 12 has been made in Helsingborg by someone the police called a ‘private person’.

JANUARY 21: Leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs Rasmus Paludan burns a copy of the Koran during a protest outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm

Activists of right-wing religious Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party burn Sweden’s flag during a demonstration in Multan on July 3 in response to last week’s Koran burning

News of the three applications came after the United Nations expressed its concern over the burning of a Koran outside the Swedish capital’s main mosque on June 28 , triggering a diplomatic backlash and resulted in the Swedish embassy in Baghdad being stormed by furious Iraqi protesters.

An urgent session will be held by the UN’s Human Rights Council to address the incident, a spokesman said on Tuesday. 

Anger was also expressed by other Muslim majority nations, including Turkey, which is currently holding up Sweden’s bid to join the NATO military alliance.

Ankara warned Tuesday it will not be pressured into backing Sweden’s bid to join NATO – which it lodged after Russia invaded Ukraine – and said it was still assessing whether the Nordic country’s entry would help or hurt the bloc.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and other nations called for a discussion of ‘the alarming rise in premeditated and public acts of religious hatred as manifested by recurrent desecration of the Holy Koran in some European and other countries.’

The 50-year-old woman who has made the application to burn a Koran outside a mosque in Stockholm said protests around the world are unfair on Sweden, Swedish news broadcaster SVT Nyheter reported on Wednesday.

Salwan Momika, 37, who fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago, stomped on the Muslim holy book after placing bacon between its pages, and set several pages alight in Stockholm – all in the face of angry counter-protesters.

His actions came as Muslims around the world began marking the Eid al-Adha holiday and as the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia was drawing to a close – making Momika’s stunt even more controversial. 

He said his protest was done in the name of freedom of speech.

Swedish police had granted Momika a permit in line with free speech protections, but authorities later said they had opened an investigation over ‘agitation’. 

It was not the first time a Koran has been burned in a public protest this year. In January, far-right Danish political party politician Stram Kurs Rasmus Paludan burned the religious book outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in The Netherlands on Tuesday said a Dutch man will appear in court on insult charges after tearing up a Koran outside parliament and likening Islam’s holy book to Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’.

Edwin Wagensveld, 54, who heads the Netherlands’s chapter of the German anti-Islam group Pegida, carried out the protest in The Hague in January.

Prosecutors had said in April that they opened a criminal investigation into a 54-year-old Dutch citizen living in Germany over the incident. 

People march with Palestinian flags during a demonstration in Yemen’s Huthi-held capital Sanaa on July 4, in protest against the Koran burning and raids in Israel

People hold copies of the Koran as they attend a protest against the burning of a copy of the Koran in Sweden, in Hyderabad, Pakistan, July 4

Such protests have sparked anger across the Muslim world, with protesters seen taking to the streets and burning Swedish flags.

In response, the UN Human Rights Council is set to hold an urgent session.

The Geneva-based Human Rights Council meets for three regular sessions per year. The UN’s top rights body is currently in the second session, which runs until July 14.

The 47-member council will change its agenda to stage an urgent debate, following a request from Pakistan.

‘The urgent debate will most likely be convened this week at a date and time to be determined by the bureau of the Human Rights Council that is meeting today,’ council spokesman Pascal Sim told reporters.

Khalil Hashmi, Pakistan’s ambassador in Geneva, wrote to the council president on Monday on behalf of the 19 members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation who are also on the council, plus other OIC countries, to request an urgent debate.

Hashmi said the ‘provocative acts’ on June 28 had been widely condemned and strongly rejected worldwide.

‘These unabated incidents demand immediate action by the Human Rights Council,’ he said.

While recognising the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the OIC group wants action to prevent recurrences and the development of legal deterrence measures.

The group also intends to present a draft resolution for adoption by the council members as an outcome of the debate, and promised to circulate the draft text shortly.

Algeria, Malaysia, Qatar, Sudan, Somalia and the United Arab Emirates are among the 19 OIC countries on the 47-member Human Rights Council.

At an extraordinary meeting on Sunday at its Jeddah headquarters in Saudi Arabia, the OIC called for collective measures to avoid future Koran burnings.

The Swedish government on Sunday condemned last week’s Koran burning as ‘Islamophobic’.

But it added in a foreign ministry statement that Sweden had a ‘constitutionally-protected right to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration’.

Countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco have summoned Swedish ambassadors in protest.

And on Tuesday, turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan warned his country would not be pressured into allowing Sweden to join NATO.

His comments came two days before he was due to meet his Swedish counterpart in Brussels to discuss Stockholm’s attempt to become the 32nd member of the US-led defence alliance. 

NATO hopes to welcome Sweden by the time alliance leaders hold a summit in Lithuania on July 11-12.

But Turkey and fellow NATO member Hungary are holding up ratification over a range of individual disputes with both Stockholm and Brussels.

Unanimous approval from current members is required for new countries to join the world’s most powerful defence organisation.

In addition to the Koran burning, Ankara has been angered by a series of protests in Sweden by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The PKK has waged a 38-year insurgency against Turkey that has left tens of thousands dead. It is designated a terrorist organisation by the US and EU.

‘We never approve of the use of time pressure as a method,’ Fidan told a televised press conference.

Fidan referred to the incident in Stockholm last week as an example of Sweden failing to live up to commitments it made when it won Turkey’s initial backing for its application in Madrid one year ago.

‘Sweden’s security system is not able to stop provocations. This is not bringing more strength but more problems to NATO,’ he said.

‘In terms of strategy and security, when we are discussing Sweden’s membership of NATO, it’s a question of whether it will be a benefit or a burden.’

Hungary has indicated that it will follow Turkey’s lead in the dispute.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Tuesday he had been holding regular consultations with Fidan about Sweden.

Pakistani traders shout slogans and hold placards reading in Urdu ‘Death to Sweden’ as they attend a protest against the burning of a copy of the Koran in Sweden, in Peshawar, July 3

‘In the coming days as well communication will continue to be close and continuous with the Turkish foreign minister,’ Szijjarto said.

‘And if there is a shift, we will of course keep our promise that Hungary will not delay any country in terms of membership.’

Sweden and its neighbour Finland dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied to join NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Finland formally joined the bloc in April.