Organization of Islamic Cooperation Demands Stop Burning Quran in Scandinavia

An extraordinary meeting of the countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), dedicated to the incidents with the burning of the Koran in Denmark and Sweden, was held in Saudi Jeddah on July 31. Earlier, on July 30, representatives of the governments of Denmark and Sweden said they were looking for ways to ban such actions. The Danish Foreign Ministry said that protests with the burning of the Koran “play into the hands of extremists” and could lead to negative consequences for the country. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has confirmed that the government is working to ban the burning of sacred texts.

Actions with the burning of the Koran are not new for the Scandinavian countries. Previously, their legality in Sweden led to difficulties on the country’s path to NATO. In response to the action with the burning of the Koran by Danish right-wing politician Rasmus Paludan on January 21, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan advised Sweden not to wait for Ankara to ratify its membership in NATO (although after the bloc’s summit in Vilnius in mid-July, he agreed to the approval of the corresponding protocol in the Turkish parliament in the fall) . On July 12, the UN Human Rights Council even adopted a resolution condemning the actions with the burning of sacred books. 28 countries voted for it, 12 voted against and seven abstained. The burning of the Quran was repeated on June 28 in Stockholm, when 37-year-old Iraqi immigrant Salvan Momika tore out the pages from the Quran and set them on fire. This action coincided with the celebration of Kurban Bayram by Muslims and led to protests of believers at the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. Those gathered at the diplomatic mission demanded that the emigrant who burned the Koran be sent back to Iraq. Then the demonstrators broke into the territory of the embassy, ​​no damage was reported.

On July 25, the Koran was burned twice: at the diplomatic mission of Egypt and at the Turkish embassy in the Danish capital.

According to Kirill Semyonov, an expert with the Russian International Affairs Council, the burning of the Koran is obviously of great importance in shaping the opinion about Europe in the Islamic world: “Politicians are also susceptible to these signals.” The complicated wording used by the governments of the Scandinavian countries will not be accepted by ordinary Muslims, the expert continues, they believe that the authorities of Sweden and Denmark should ban such actions. Otherwise, this will mean that Stockholm and Copenhagen support them, and the position of the Scandinavian countries that “they do not support, but there is freedom of speech” will not meet with understanding in the Islamic world, Semyonov concludes.

After the repeal of the law on insulting religious symbols, the Swedish legislation does not consider the burning of sacred texts as inciting hatred, notes Nikita Belukhin, junior researcher at IMEMO RAS. Such a law in Stockholm was considered redundant due to the presence of hate crime laws. Formally, when the police consider such actions, the documents do not mention the intention to incite hatred on religious grounds, which leads to their approval by law enforcement officers. It is difficult for the Swedish police to attribute such actions to hate crimes. According to the expert, the police in the future will be able to delay the consideration of such applications, look for pretexts to delay their approval or not approve at all, citing difficulties in organizing the event. At the same time, it should be understood that the Swedish government, in fact, has nothing to do with it – the issue of such actions is under the jurisdiction of the police, and even the reports of the Swedish special services about the danger of such actions do not have a decisive influence on the issue of their ban, says Belukhin.

In Denmark, according to him, “the same dilemma”, the country’s authorities for the sake of “freedom of speech” also canceled the ban on insulting religious symbols (Article 140 of their criminal code), considering it unnecessary, leaving only a ban on inciting various kinds of hatred, despite to the warning of special services about the possibility of negative scenarios for national security, the expert continues. At the same time, Belukhin notes, desecration of the Koran is not considered incitement to hatred under Danish law, since they “declare their political position and use freedom of speech.” “It is difficult to say what measures the Danish authorities can take: so far there is no consensus among the country’s politicians. The exact wording can only be given by the ministries of justice of Sweden and Denmark, which have not yet given any explanations for the politicians’ statements. It is possible that the police will still find excuses to drag out such demonstrations or refer to the lack of resources to ensure the safety of such actions,” Belukhin concluded.