The image and corresponding reports have been known for months: right-wing and anti-Muslim extremists have taken advantage of liberal legislation in countries like Denmark and Sweden to publicly desecrate Qurans by burning or tearing up the Muslim holy book. Once again, the extremists from the Islamist scene responded with attacks and threats. MENA Research Center reported extensively on the situation in the Scandinavian countries. The government in Denmark has now changed the relevant legislation, Sweden is sticking to its course.
Freedom of expression applies in Denmark and Sweden more than in almost any other country in the world. This also means that desecration of religious writings was not explicitly forbidden. A circumstance that activists from different political sides have used for their provocations.
After what felt like endless debates, the parliament in Copenhagen has now decided to ban the burning of the Quran. In the end, the argument prevailed that the risk of terrorist attacks had to be prevented. Like its neighboring country Sweden, Denmark was shaken throughout the past year by repeated desecrations of the holy book in front of mosques and embassies of Muslim countries. Among other things, Iraqi activists burned a Quran in front of parliament and a mosque in Stockholm. On the right-wing extremist side, it was above all the Dane Rasmus Paludan who repeatedly set fire to the Muslim holy scripture in public in both Stockholm and Copenhagen.
The protests began in spring 2022 when the Dane Rasmus Paludan burned Qurans in several Swedish cities. The conflict flared up again in January 2023 when the Danish right-wing extremist burned a Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. The action did not help to improve relations with Türkiye, which were already strained due to the failure of NATO negotiations. Ankara had blocked Sweden from joining the defense alliance.
The desecrations spread to Denmark, where Paludan supporters and other actors took the initiative. In the summer of 2023, the situation in both countries escalated further. As a result, the Swedish embassy in Baghdad was stormed, ambassadors from several Muslim countries were recalled from Stockholm and Copenhagen, and foreign ministers from 57 countries met at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to call for a ban on desecration of the Quran.
The right-wing populist Denmark Democrats criticize the parliament’s decision. “Now it’s 1-0 for the Islamists,” said their leader after the amended law passed the chamber. According to critics of this reform, Sweden is more determined to stand up for freedom rights – while the Danish government largely bows to the veto of the violent criminals. Instead of considering a ban, the Swedish government is now examining whether the country’s security should be given greater consideration when approving demonstrations and announced actions such as Koran burnings.
The Danish proposal was presented in August. At this point, the security situation had deteriorated significantly due to a series of Koran desecrations and the terrorist organization al-Qaeda had even officially declared war on Denmark and Sweden. Sweden’s terrorist threat level was raised from three to four on a five-level scale, while Denmark was already at threat level four.
The Danish government – made up of Social Democrats and two liberal parties – has defended the law, saying it has become dangerous to be Danish. Reference was made to the murder of two Swedes in a terrorist attack in Belgium last October, which was believed to have been motivated by the burning of the Quran. Swedish and Danish security services emphasize that the threat situation has worsened further due to the Gaza war, and that the conflict in the Middle East is polarizing and activating violent extremists.
Shortly after the vote in Copenhagen, the Swedish justice minister announced that his government did not want to follow the same path as Denmark. “We will strive for our freedom of expression,” he said. Legal experts point out that the different legal opinions in Denmark and Sweden also have formal legal reasons. Freedom of expression in Sweden is even more deeply rooted than that in Denmark. “You don’t want to shake the constitution,” says a Danish political scientist and terrorism researcher. The hurdle for this is very high. A change would require two identical parliamentary votes with elections in between. Adapting the regulatory law, on the other hand, is much easier. Among other things, it regulates the approval of demonstrations and the public burning of the Quran.
Another reason for the different paths taken by Sweden and Denmark is that the countries have different traditions of tolerance towards criticism of religion. Denmark had a blasphemy law for 334 years that prohibited the desecration of religious texts. However, it was abolished in 2017. The Danes are no stranger to the idea of a renewed ban on the burning of the Koran, while in Sweden there has been no such law since 1970.
Experts are now warning that Sweden will be more exposed in the future because of its tolerance of such actions if the possibility of desecrating religious writings in Denmark is no longer possible. The recent wave of Quran burnings has subsided, but it is believed it could flare up again. Sweden could become a vulnerable target for terrorists.
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