Koran burnings and Kurdish protests have angered Turkey, which refuses to ratify Stockholm’s entry into the Atlantic Alliance. The global outrage over the burning of the Koran a week ago in front of a central Stockholm mosque could not have come at a worse time for Sweden, which is trying to get Turkey to finally approve its application to join NATO ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11 and 12. Far-right activist Rasmus Paludan, leader of the Danish Stram Kurs party, visits several Swedish cities to burn copies of the Koran, sparking a series of violent riots and dozens of arrests. Sweden and Finland formally applied to join NATO, breaking decades of non-alignment after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. The two Nordic countries signed a memorandum with Turkey at the NATO summit in Madrid to get their request approved, agreeing, among other things, to resume arms sales to Turkey and process extradition requests for people Turkey considers terrorists. A group of pro-Kurdish activists hangs an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Stockholm to protest Sweden’s acceptance of Turkey’s bid to join NATO. Turkey summons Sweden’s ambassador to deliver an angry protest, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson attacks the group, calling their move “dangerous to Sweden’s security” and accusing them of deliberately trying to sabotage Sweden’s bid to join NATO. In late January, Paludan organized another Koran-burning demonstration in Sweden, this time in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, causing Turkey to withdraw from Sweden’s NATO membership talks.

The Swedish police have rejected several requests for permission to demonstrate by people who want to burn the Koran, citing the risk of provoking terrorist attacks. The Swedish Security Police (SAPO) says Paludan’s act in January has made the country a higher priority target for terrorist attacks against Sweden. However, a court later ruled that the police were wrong to refuse permission, saying that law enforcement had not shown that the security threat was sufficiently concrete and linked to the specific demonstrations. In April, Finland joins NATO, with Sweden still on the sidelines. In late June, Salwan Momika, an Iraqi critic of Islam, burned a copy of the Koran in front of Stockholm’s main mosque after police abandoned previous opposition to his planned protest. However, the Security Forces are launching an investigation on two grounds: agitation against an ethnic or national group as well as violation of a temporary fire ban due to dry weather in Stockholm. This is the first Koran burning since the Swedish court overturned the police ban. At the national level, it does not generate riots like when Paludan carried out the burning of the Koran during Easter 2022, but it provokes a massive global reaction, especially from Muslim countries. Turkey’s foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, calls the fire “despicable”. Global reactions continue. Saudi Arabia summons Sweden’s ambassador; protesters storm the Swedish embassy in Iraq; Pope Francis condemns Koran burning; and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation calls for collective action to prevent future burnings of the holy book. In Sweden, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a rare statement condemning the burning of the Koran and calling it an “Islamophobic gesture”. The Swedish Christian Council also strongly condemns the act. Freedom of expression expert Nils Funcke criticizes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for stepping in as “a kind of judicial power”. There is a heated debate about whether the Police should be able to prevent demonstrations involving the burning of religious books and whether or not it should be considered a hate crime. Three other requests to burn religious books have been submitted to the Police, public broadcaster SVT reports, including from a woman who wants to burn the Koran in front of a mosque in Stockholm “as soon as possible”, a man who wants to burn the Torah and a Bible in front of the Israeli embassy on July 15, and a third person who wants to set fire to religious texts in Helsingborg on July 12. On Thursday, Sweden will meet in Brussels with Turkey, Finland, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to discuss the accession of Sweden, which is already resigned to having to wait further to fulfill its wish to join the military organization. Turkey’s veto is joined by Hungary, whose Parliament ends its sessions on Friday before starting its summer break without having given the green light to Sweden’s accession to the Atlantic Alliance.

By Cora Sulleyman