A right-wing politician who sparked riots in Sweden and delayed the country’s membership application to NATO by publicly burning the Quran has been banned from entering the UK after he announced plans to conduct a similar protest in the English city of Wakefield.
Rasmus Paludan, the Danish-born leader of the Danish-Swedish political party Stram Kurs (‘Strict Course’), had planned to burn a Quran in the Yorkshire city of Wakefield on Wednesday, March 22nd, in response to the controversial expulsion of four local schoolchildren. The expulsions came after an autistic pupil tore the Quran as a dare, which resulted in a police hate crime investigation and protests by the local Muslim community outside the school.
UK security minister Tom Tugendhat confirmed that Paludan had been placed on a no-entry watchlist at the House of Commons Monday, March 20th. Tugendhat added that Paludan’s arrival would “not be conducive with the public good.”
Paludan had announced his plans to visit the UK on social media to coincide with the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Muslim politicians in the city, which itself is 3% Muslim, took to Twitter to denounce the planned Quran burning.
Paludan, born in Denmark, applied for Swedish citizenship in 2020 to overcome a similar ban on entering Sweden.
Riots engulfed several Swedish cities in April 2022 after Paludan conducted a series of Quran burnings to highlight Swedish society’s inability to protect free speech against Islamic extremism. Swedish police were heavily criticised for their failure to manage the violence.
Paludan triggered an international incident when he burned copies of the Quran outside the Turkish embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen earlier this year. Turkey has cited the incidents as a reason to veto Sweden’s NATO application.
