Until now, in Sweden, those who burned the Muslim holy book did not appear in court, because the prosecutor’s office did not press charges, considering these actions as freedom of speech and expression.
The Koran is wrapped in bacon
This time, the Linköping District Court in the middle of the country has punished a 27-year-old man for “agitation against an ethnic group”, understanding it as targeting Muslims, not Islam as a religion, and “it can hardly be said that the aim was an objective and dispassionate discussion”.
In September 2020, this man filmed a video of himself burning a bacon-wrapped Koran with a note insulting the Prophet Muhammad attached to it outside Linköping Cathedral. The arsonist posted the video on Twitter and YouTube.
Wrong song choice
One of the main arguments against the defendant was the musical accompaniment – the song “Remove Kebab”, which has a rather dark history. It appeared during the Balkan wars in the 1990s, when Yugoslavia was divided into separate countries, and was directed against Bosnian Muslims. The original chant was “Karadžič, lead his Serbs”, dedicated to Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic, who was sentenced to life in prison by a UN court.
The chant is also chanted by far-right groups in other countries, targeting Muslims. The words “Get the kebab” were written on one of the rifles of Brenton Tarant, who shot and killed 51 people in New Zealand in 2019. This song played in his car when Tarrant recorded the video speech.
Therefore, the court did not believe the defendant’s claim that he only criticized Islam as a religion, and considered that the music used could not be interpreted otherwise “as a threat to Muslims with an allusion to their faith.”
With police permission
In order to publicly burn the Koran or the sacred writings of any other religion in Sweden, you must obtain the permission of the police, who only observe what is happening and protect the organizers of the action from angry believers.
In January, Danish citizen Rasmus Paludan, the founder of the anti-Islamic party Stram Kurs, burned a Koran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. The police had allowed the protest outside the embassy, but not the burning of the Koran. Paludan’s actions further damaged Stockholm’s relations with Ankara, which has been dragging its feet with support for Sweden’s admission to NATO.
Permissions have also been requested to burn a Bible and a Torah at the Israeli Embassy. The Swedish government condemns such actions, but states that they are not against the law. In 2020, 15 Muslim groups in Stockholm called for a ban on burning the Koran and other scriptures and mocking religion.
Currently, the Danish government has proposed a bill that would make it illegal to desecrate the Koran and other religious texts.
2023-10-22 02:13:00
#Koran #burner #convicted #Sweden
