Koran burning in Sweden angers Muslim world. The man who did it plans to do it again

Several Muslim-majority countries condemned the burning of a Koran outside a mosque in Stockholm and castigated Swedish diplomats, saying the act incites hatred and should not count as free speech.

The protests came after an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden, Salwan Momika, 37, stomped on the Islamic holy book and set several pages alight in front of the Swedish capital’s largest mosque on Wednesday, the first day of Muslims’ Eid al-Adha holiday.

“Within 10 days I will burn the Iraqi flag and the Koran in front of Iraq’s embassy in Stockholm,” Momika told a Swedish newspaper late Thursday.

Swedish police had granted him a permit in line with free-speech protections, but authorities later said they had opened an investigation over “agitation” against an ethnic or national group.

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called the burning “legal but not appropriate”.

The incident could pose a serious problem for Sweden’s Nato membership application, which they submitted more than a year ago and has been held up partly because of similar incidents in the past.

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Saudi Arabia, Islam’s birthplace, said it strongly condemned the burning of the Koran.

“These hateful and repeated acts cannot be accepted under any justifications. They explicitly incite hatred, exclusion and racism,” the monarchy’s foreign ministry added in a statement on Thursday.

Iran summoned the Swedish chargé d’affaires to express its outrage.

The burning of Islam’s holy book was particularly offensive because it came at the time of the haj pilgrimage, the foreign ministry added.

“The Muslim world categorically condemns insult to holy scriptures & Quran,” the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian tweeted.

“Allowing sacrilege & insult to Quran under any justification by Sweden is unacceptable,” he added.

“Misusing democracy & freedom for such behaviour would just only incite terrorism & extremism. The West only burns its fingers.”

Lebanon’s pro-Iran Hezbollah movement, in a statement, called on Islamic governments to take all steps to prompt other countries to “prevent the recurrence of these follies on their soil and to stop spreading the culture of hatred and rancour”.

The Arab League, a regional organisation, said its chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit strongly condemned Swedish authorities’ permission for the act.

Egypt called the Koran burning “a disgraceful act provoking Muslims’ feelings around the world”.

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In Iraq, protesters gathered outside the Swedish embassy in Baghdad on Thursday, the official Iraqi news agency INA reported.

At the rally, some protesters raised copies of the holy Muslim book in a show of reverence, the agency added.

Influential Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is said to have called for the protest.

Local media reported that the demonstrators demanded the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador.

Iraq’s independent website Alsumaria News reported that the protesters briefly stormed the embassy before retreating. They are said to have managed to break through the gate to the premises.

The Swedish foreign ministry said the embassy employees reported that they are safe. The ministry is in constant contact with them, it said.

Jordan’s foreign ministry said it had summoned the Swedish ambassador in Amman in a protest against the “Swedish government’s permission for extremists” to burn the Koran.

The ministry condemned it as an act of “racism and hate”.

Similarly, the United Arab Emirates said it had summoned the Swedish ambassador in the Gulf country and handed her a protest note.

The Moroccan foreign ministry also summoned Sweden’s charge d’affaires in Rabat and told the diplomat how appalled Morocco was at “this unacceptable deed”.

Sweden’s Nato bid, spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine despite long-held Swedish neutrality, is still being blocked by Turkey, a largely Muslim country, and Hungary. New members must be approved unanimously by all existing Nato members.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned Sweden for allowing someone to burn a Koran.

“Those who allow these under the pretext of freedom of expression and turn a blind eye to this viciousness, as well as those who have committed this crime, will not reach their goals,” Erdogan said in video message marking the Muslim Eid holiday, without specifying which goals he meant.

However on Wednesday Erdogan stressed in a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that Sweden should not expect a green light from Turkey for its Nato accession any time soon.

According to a statement from the Turkish communications office, Erdogan said to Scholz that although Stockholm had been taking steps in the right direction, there were still “unacceptable” circumstances.

These, he said, included the authorisation of demonstrations at which “terror propaganda” was being spread.

Anti-Islam protests in Sweden have caused considerable tensions between Stockholm and Ankara in recent months. Swedish police authorised the latest protest at the mosque after similar actions had been banned in February.

dpa, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Bloomberg