STOCKHOLM, June 28. /TASS/. A 30-minute-long Quran-burning rally took place on Wednesday in Medborgarplatsen Square in central Stockholm, a TASS correspondent reported.
Its organizer, Iraqi migrant Salwan Momika, 37, who had been prevented from holding a similar rally earlier, started the demonstration with a speech in Arabic. He tore some pages from the Muslim holy book and set it on fire. There were representatives from Swedish and international media present at the site, as well as 200 spectators. They stayed for the entire rally and then dispersed. The police detained a man who tried to throw stones at the organizer.
Before the demonstration, Momika gave an interview to the TT news agency. His interpreter quoted him as saying: "We will burn the Quran, we will say: rise, Sweden. This is democracy and it is dangerous if they say that we’re not allowed to do it."
Momika earlier told the Swedish media in an interview that his demonstration is not aimed against the country’s membership in NATO; he would just like to ban the Quran in the kingdom. However, some experts do believe that such rallies may stall the country's NATO membership. "Next week, another meeting between Sweden, Turkey and Finland will take place in Brussels," a TV4 host said, "But the Quran, burned to ash, may extinguish the last little spark of hope for NATO membership this summer."
As Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said at a press conference on Wednesday, there can be no speculation about how this fully sanctioned Quran burning demonstration could affect Sweden's potential NATO membership. "It's legal but not appropriate," he explained.
The Stockholm police approved the rally. It said in a statement that it had not issued "a direct permit to burn" the Muslim holy book but knew that the "demonstration is about the Quran." The statement also pointed out that at the moment there is a ban on starting a fire in the central district due to dry and hot weather, and any violation of this ban could lead to a fine.
Proceedings over Quran-burning rallies
In early February, the police were approached by the organizers of two rallies planning to burn the Quran in front of the Turkish and Iranian embassies in Stockholm. However, following the recommendations of the Swedish Security Service, the police did not allow the protesters to hold such rallies, saying that such actions led to threats being made against the country and new demonstrations would raise the risk of terrorist acts. This decision was criticized by lawyers who said that the law does not give the police the right to take such actions.
In early June, a Swedish administrative court of appeals, after reviewing these rulings, said that law enforcement had no legal grounds for not allowing such rallies. According to the public order law, the police can only ban such events for security reasons.
Earlier, a major scandal erupted between Turkey and Sweden over the burning of the Quran near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. On January 21, Danish politician Rasmus Paludan, who leads the anti-Islamic far-right extremist Stram Kurs party, publicly burned the Quran in front of the Turkish diplomatic mission. In his speech, he criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and displayed a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad. In April 2022, the police did not allow Paludan to hold a Quran-burning rally in Norrkoping. The Court of Appeal which considered this case also ruled that the police’s decision was erroneous because a law on public order does not give them authority to cancel meetings simply because some disturbances took place earlier or there is a possibility of them breaking out if a rally is held.