The burning of Islam’s holy book by Danish politician, Rasmus Paludan, outside Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm in January angered the Muslim world, sparking weeks of protests and calls for a boycott of Swedish goods. Swedish politicians have criticized the Quran burnings but defended the people’s right to freedom of expression.
VOA News Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court overturned a police decision to ban two subsequent Quran burning demonstrations in February, saying security risk concerns were not enough to limit the right to demonstrate. The “police authority did not have sufficient support for its decisions,” judge Eva-Lotta Hedin said in a statement.
Swedish police had refused to authorize the Quran burnings outside the Turkish and Iraqi embassies in Stockholm in February saying that the January protest had made Sweden “a higher priority target for attacks.”
This decision is justified by the fact that meetings and demonstrations are constitutional rights. The Court held that the measure alone was not sufficient to impose such restrictions. Thereupon, the court overturned the police’s prohibition of burning demonstrations.
Turkey took particular offence that police had authorized the demonstration. Ankara has blocked Sweden’s NATO bid because of what it perceives as Stockholm’s failure to crack down on Kurdish groups it views as “terrorists.”
Sweden’s Security Service meanwhile said five suspects were arrested early Tuesday in coordinated raids in the central towns of Eskilstuna, Linkoping and Strangnas. “The current case is one of several that the Swedish Security Service has been working on… in connection with the high-profile Quran burning,” said Susanna Trehorning, deputy head of the security service’s counterterrorism unit. She said the suspects were linked to international “Islamic extremism.”
The Security Service said however that it did not believe that an attack had been imminent. “The Security Service often needs to act early in order to avert a threat. We can’t wait until a crime has been committed before we act,” it said in a statement.
Bert says
Islam.is a barbaric sadistic murderous cult itnis filled with peados,terroroists,groomers,rapists,and murderers itnis not and never will be a religion it isna cult a cancerous tumour on humanity,and either removal or death from every country it dwells in is the only time any country will know peace.the cancer needs a cure and humanity will prevail.
Anthony Guastel says
Send every Godless Islamist back to the countries they have come from. They have ruined Sweden with their evil ways. Caused untold misery, making Sweden the rpe capital of Europe. Causing murder and assaults, etc. If the Bible was burned this way, Christians would not be this way nor Jewish for that matter. If Turkey causes a hold then ask Turkey to withdraw from Nato. Enough pandering to these evil cults and ideology masquerading as a religion. It is Satanic and Demonic to its core.
BareNakedIslam says
Sweden has only itself to blame. The leaders invited them in.
Reader says
On an unrelated matter, folklore has it that a bloodsucking vampire may not enter your home unless you invite them in first.
BareNakedIslam says
True.