A planned burning of the Bible by a Muslim activist outside Israel’s embassy in Stockholm which had drawn widespread protests was cancelled on Saturday after he had changed his mind.
The person had received permission from the Swedish police authority to burn the Bible, holy for both Jews and Christians. In his application, he had called the burning “a symbolic gathering for the sake of freedom of speech”. By his act, he wanted to draw attention to the recent burning of the Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm.
According to Swedish court decisions the burning of books is an expression of freedom of expression and assembly and cannot be banned by the police even for the sake of public order and safety.
“I want to show that we have to respect each other, we live in the same society,” the person was quoted as saying outside the embassy. “If I burn the Torah, another the Bible, another the Quran, there will be war here. What I wanted to show is that it’s not right to do it.”
According to Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter, he criticized Sweden’s legislation which allows burnings of books that are sacred to religious communities. “There is a fine line between freedom of expression and hate crime. I can criticize the Quran but it's not freedom of expression to burn it".
In Israel, the news of the planned burning of the Torah/Bible sparked condemnations and appeals to the Swedish authorities to stop it. “I condemned the burning of the Quran, sacred to Muslims world over, and I am now heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people,” Israel's President Isaac Herzog wrote.
“Permitting the defacement of sacred texts is not an exercise in freedom of expression, it is blatant incitement and an act of pure hate. The whole world must join together in clearly condemning this repulsive act.”
One of Israel’s chief rabbis event sent a personal letter to the Swedish king, Carl Gustav XVI, and implored him to intervene. While condemning the burning of the Quran in front of the mosque, he wrote that “by preventing this event from occurring you would send a powerful message to the world that Sweden stands firmly against religious intolerance and that such acts have no place in a civilized society".
The EU also reacted. Katharina von Schnurbein, its Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life in the EU, twitted on Friday that she was appalled by the burning of holy books in Sweden. “For what purpose? Such actions divide society and offend the members of the religious communities concerned. I hope the incident announced for tomorrow will be avoided."
After the burning had been called off, she wrote that not everything that may be legally permitted is helpful for living together.
The previous burnings of the Quran in Sweden have angered the Muslim world and delayed Sweden’s application for joining NATO. When asked about the burning of the Quran at a press conference after the European Council meeting in June, Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson fell short of condemning it. “Not everything that is legal is appropriate,” he said and declined to “grade” it.
The issue was not mentioned by Turkey’s President Erdogan at the NATO summit in Vilnius last week. In the joint press statement after the meeting, Turkey promised to transmit the Accession Protocol for Sweden to the Grand National Assembly (Parliament), and work closely with the Assembly to ensure ratification.
In return Sweden committed to step up its trade and counter-terrorism cooperation with Turkey and “actively support efforts to reinvigorate Turkey’s EU accession process, including modernisation of the EU-Türkiye Customs Union and visa liberalisation.”
Sweden has already amended its constitution and anti-terrorism legislation despite criticism by its own Legal Council. The amendments were adopted by a large majority in the parliament (Riksdagen) and supported by the main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party, which had initiated Sweden’s bid for NATO membership.
The same consensus is lacking when it comes to legislation on banning the burning of religious books although it incites to hatred. In Sweden it is seen as an exercise in freedom of expression but it can also be seen as the opposite of it and a form of censorship as it was in the past.
According to media reports, the Swedish government is considering legislation against the burning of religious texts but any such change would take time to implement. If Turkey will insist on the legislation, it will further delay Sweden’s NATO bid. For the time being, Turkey is not hurrying with ratifying it in its parliament.
M. Apelblat
The Brussels Times
