In retaliation for the Quran, the Swedish police permit the burning of the Bible and Torah. According to a report by Sweden’s national radio network on Friday, Swedish authorities have given their consent for a demonstration to take place outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm that involves the burning of Torahs and Bibles.
The person who requested permission to hold this public gathering has been given the authorization according to Sveriges Radio. The man said he wanted to burn the Torah and the Bible outside the Israeli Embassy in response to a Quran burning outside a Stockholm mosque last month by an Iraqi immigrant.
The European Jewish Congress (EJC) responded to this development by issuing a press release on Friday in which they strongly denounced the Swedish government’s decision to allow the burning of Torah and Bible.
“Provocative, racist, antisemitic and sickening acts such as these have no place in any civilized society,” EJC president Ariel Muzicant’s statement was quoted by CNN as saying.
Additionally, Muzicant underlined that these behaviors, which gravely offend religious and cultural sensibilities, send a strong message of hostility and disrespect to minorities. He continued by saying that these actions, which are justified by erroneous claims about free speech, bring shame upon Sweden and that any democratic administration worthy of the term should put an end to them.
Isaac Herzog, the president of Israel, also criticized the Swedish government’s choice. “I unequivocally condemn the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books. As the President of Israel, I condemned the burning of the Quran, sacred to Muslims all over the world, and I am now heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people,” Herzog tweeted.
After a man torched a Quran outside a mosque in the Swedish capital in late June, there were tense demonstrations at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. The decision to allow the rally was made based on the right to free expression, according to Swedish authorities at the time.
The “security risks and consequences associated with burning the Quran” did not meet the criteria to deny the request for a public assembly, according to a police permit acquired by CNN last month. The June demonstration’s authorization stated that Quran burnings raise the possibility of a terrorist attack and may have diplomatic repercussions.
It was made clear, nonetheless, that there must be an obvious relationship between the intended gathering and the security concerns in order for them to be used as justification for rejecting a public assembly.
