Authorities in Sweden selected Wednesday to not permit a deliberate Quran burning.
Swedish police denied permission to a protest deliberate for Thursday that may have included a burning of the Quran. The protest was in opposition to Sweden’s bid to hitch NATO, Deutsche Welle reported.
The ban adopted far-right politician Rasmus Paludan burning a Quran outdoors the Turkish embassy in Stockholm final month. Swedish authorities beforehand stated that the incident was inflicting safety issues for Swedish residents overseas.
Why it issues: The Quran burning in Stockholm created a diplomatic firestorm, significantly with Turkey. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly got here out in opposition to Sweden’s bid to hitch NATO after the incident. Turkey was already important of Sweden and Finland’s quests to hitch NATO because of the presence of Kurdish teams within the Scandinavian nations.
The refusal to permit this week’s protest may very well be associated to the nation’s quest to hitch NATO. Sweden Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stated Tuesday that he’s able to restart talks with Turkey on the difficulty, Reuters reported.
The controversy is hardly the primary of its sort. There had been additionally riots in Sweden in 2022 in response to Paludan’s plans to burn a Quran on the time. In 2020, a French trainer named Samuel Paty was beheaded by an indignant pupil after displaying a picture of the prophet Muhammed at school.
These incidents have led to rigidity between leaders within the Middle East, significantly Turkey, and their European counterparts. Erdogan criticized French President Emmanuel Macron’s protection of freedom of expression after Paty’s homicide, for instance.
Religious and political officers from the Gulf, Iran and different Muslim-majority nations additionally condemned the Quran burning in Stockholm in January.
Know extra: French creator Gilles Kepel wrote for Al-Monitor in January that the Quran burning incident in Sweden might result in renewed tensions between the West and Muslim world.
This week, Sweden has prolonged its condolences to Ankara over the earthquake that has killed not less than 12,000 individuals in Turkey and Syria. Stockholm has additionally dispatched a crew of rescuers to japanese Turkey, to assist with the reduction efforts.
