The Swedish Consulate-General in Istanbul on Sunday denounced a far-right politician’s burning a copy of the Quran as outrage over the incident continued in Türkiye for a second day.
Nigh a day after Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of Islam’s holy book in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm with permission from Swedish authorities and under police protection, some 250 people gathered outside the consulate to decry what has been broadly dubbed as an “Islamophobic hate crime.”
The protestors set on fire a photo of Paludan and carried green flags featuring an Islamic proclamation of faith and a banner that said, “We condemn Sweden’s state-supported Islamophobia.”
In response, officials at the Swedish Consulate taped a sign on one of their windows, declaring, “We do not share that book-burning idiot’s view.”
Paludan’s hateful act spurred backlash not only in Türkiye, where protests continue countrywide but also around the world, with countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan and many others “strongly condemning and rejecting” the extremist act.
Swedish officials’ allowing Paludan to carry out his blatantly anti-Islam and anti-Türkiye act also puts more strain on bilateral ties between the two countries, especially in the midst of the Nordic country’s bid to join NATO, which is likely to hit a dead-end following this turbulent weekend.
Stockholm has been courting Ankara to secure a green light for its application since last year when it, alongside Finland, threw away its military nonalignment in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war. Ankara, however, has been relentless in its demands that its security concerns about the terrorists it’s accusing Sweden of harboring and tolerating be addressed.
As per a tripartite memorandum the sides inked in June last year, Stockholm has vowed to meet said demands, including extraditing and increasing its crackdown on terrorists from organizations like the PKK terrorist group, its Syrian affiliate YPG and the Gülenist Terrorist Group (FETÖ).
For the last month, however, public support in Sweden for the terrorist groups from their sympathizers has been raising the tensions between the two countries, which Ankara has repeatedly warned would jeopardize Stockholm’s NATO membership process.
A scandalous protest in Stockholm in mid-January in which an effigy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was hanged from its feet in front of the city hall has particularly impaired negotiations but the boiling point became Saturday’s Quran burning session.
Türkiye summoned the Swedish ambassador and canceled a visit by Swedish Parliamentary Speaker Andreas Norlen, as well as Defense Minister Pal Jonson to Ankara. Dozens of officials, including defense and foreign ministers as well as opposition party leaders, slammed Sweden for enabling Paludan.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson tweeted late Saturday that freedom of expression was crucial to democracy but added that “what is legal is not necessarily appropriate."
"Burning books that are holy to many is a deeply disrespectful act. I want to express my sympathy for all Muslims who are offended by what has happened in Stockholm today,” Kristersson said.
However, Türkiye remains incensed about the incident and the permission granted for it to be carried out.
