Protests involving the desecration, vandalism, or burning of the Islamic holy book, the Quran, have been going on for years in Scandinavia, with Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan and his group Stram Kurs (Hard Line) being behind many of the demonstrations in Denmark, Sweden, and elsewhere.
Earlier this year, Paludan burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, provoking fierce condemnation from the Turkish government and from Islamist president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
This week, Ankara 8th Criminal Court of Peace issued an arrest warrant for Paludan over this burning of the Quran in Stockholm on January 21st, the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reports.
Paludan reacted to the issuing of the warrant on Friday, July 21st, saying he laughed about it when he found out and noted that he had no plans ever to visit Turkey but if he did, he would follow local Turkish laws.
“I would follow the law that applies in Turkey. If you are in Denmark and Sweden then I follow the law that applies there. That’s how it works. I don’t have to follow Turkish law in Sweden,” he said.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, meanwhile, has launched an ongoing investigation into Paludan, for charges of “publicly insulting religious values” and called for Paludan’s arrest to interrogate him regarding the January demonstration.
The January demonstration by Paludan also caused further tensions between Turkey and Sweden, as Turkey blamed the Swedish government for allowing the Quran burning to take place, rather than banning the practice.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book … Permitting this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, under the guise of freedom of expression is completely unacceptable,” the Turkish government stated shortly after the burning.
Paludan has a long history of desecrating and setting fire to copies of the Quran in Sweden, and his demonstrations over Easter in 2022 sparked massive widespread riots among Muslims in several Swedish cities.
Over a hundred police officers were reportedly injured in the riots as rioters threw rocks and stones at officers, causing various injuries from fractures to brain damage. Some officers testified they thought the rioters were trying to kill them.
Some in Sweden have attempted to report Paludan for hate crimes but Swedish prosecutors have never pushed for charges against the Danish-Swedish anti-Islam activist.
In 2020, Malmö District attorney Sofia Syrén explained why Paludan would not be charged with a hate crime following a Quran burning that year saying, “It is not possible to prove that crimes have been committed, burning a Quran itself is not illegal.”
For several years, Muslim groups have called on the Swedish government to ban the desecration and burning of the Quran. In 2020, a group of fifteen Muslim congregations demanded the government act against Quran burning following a demonstration by Paludan.
Hussein Farah Warsame, imam of the mosque in the Stockholm suburb of Rinkeby explained, “We do not want it to be legal in Sweden to burn holy scriptures such as the Quran, the Bible, and the Jewish scriptures and at the same time for it to be forbidden to mock the different religions.”
Following the 2022 Easter Riots, a petition was signed by over 38,000 people calling for Quran burning to be considered a hate crime and called into question why Paludan was given permission to hold his demonstrations in the first place.
The call to make Quran burnings illegal was again voiced earlier this year by Faraj Semmo, CEO of the Gothenburg Mosque, who stated that Quran burnings create hate against Muslims and said, “It’s perceived to be an act of hate, many people feel threatened.”
Earlier this year Sweden did seem to push back against Paludan’s antics, with the Stockholm police briefly refusing to give permission for Quran-burning demonstrations, but a Stockholm court ruled that police had no authority to restrict free expression and freedom of demonstration despite their arguments that such protests harmed Swedish security.
Paludan is not the only activist to burn or otherwise damage copies of the Quran. Iraqi migrant Salwan Momika held his demonstration earlier this week on Thursday, July 20th, outside of the Iraqi embassy in Sweden, trampling on the Quran.
Just hours before, supporters of Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, setting fire to it over their opposition to Momika’s demonstration.
Since the desecration of the Quran, the Iraqi government has cut diplomatic ties with Sweden and withdrawn work permits for the Swedish telecom giant Ericsson.
