Activists of the unconventional anti-blasphemy occasion Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan protest towards the burning of the Quran in Sweden, in Karachi, on January 27, 2023. File | Picture credit score: AFP
Swedish prosecutors on Wednesday (28 August 2024) charged two males with inciting ethnic hatred throughout a number of protests associated to the burning of Quran copies in 2023, sparking widespread outrage in Muslim nations.
Salwan Momika, an Iraqi Christian who burned copies of the Koran at a collection of protests, and fellow protester Salwan Najem have been charged with “incitement towards an ethnic group” on 4 events in the course of the summer season of 2023.
“Each males are prosecuted for having made on these 4 events statements and having handled the Koran in a approach that was meant to precise contempt for Muslims due to their religion,” stated lead prosecutor Anna Hankkio in an announcement.
In keeping with the prosecution, the duo desecrated the Koran, even burning it, whereas making derogatory remarks about Muslims, in a single case outdoors a Stockholm mosque.
“In my view, the boys’s statements and actions fall below the provisions on agitation towards an ethnic or nationwide group and it’s important that this matter be tried in court docket,” the prosecutor added.
Relations between Sweden and several other Center Jap nations have been strained by protests from either side.
Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, setting fires contained in the compound on the second event.
In August final 12 months, Sweden’s Sapo intelligence service raised its risk degree to 4 on a scale of 5 after the Koran burnings made the nation a “precedence goal.”
The Swedish authorities condemned the desecrations and highlighted the nation’s constitutionally protected freedom of expression and meeting legal guidelines.
Earlier this month, prosecutors charged Danish-Swedish right-wing activist Rasmus Paludan with the identical offence over a 2022 protest within the southern metropolis of Malmo that additionally included the burning of the Koran.
In October 2023, a Swedish court docket convicted a person of inciting ethnic hatred with the burning of a Quran in 2020, the primary time the nation’s judicial system had tried the cost of desecrating Islam’s holy guide.
Prosecutors have beforehand stated that below Swedish regulation, burning the Koran could be thought of criticism of the guide and faith and due to this fact protected by freedom of speech.
Nevertheless, relying on the context and the statements made on the time, it might even be thought of “agitation towards an ethnic group.”
