SHAFAQNA- The far-right parties in Europe have managed to appeal to many voters by pushing its anti-Muslim and anti-immigration narrative. Aiming to drum up support ahead of Danish legislative elections in September, he leader of the anti-immigration and anti-Islam group Hard Line, Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan declared a “tour” of Sweden, planning to visit cities and towns with large Muslim populations with the intent of burning copies of the Quran during the holy Month of Ramadhan.
This is not the first time . In 2020 in Malmo, Sweden, Paludan was at the centre of protests over similar efforts. He was prohibited from returning to Sweden for two years.Paludan and his Hard Line party were banned from Belgium for a year in 2020 over plans to burn holy Quran in an area of Brussels . He was also deported from France after suggesting the same in Paris.
Controversy began with plans by the Swedish-Danish politician to hold a anti Muslim rally
The protests started after the leader of the anti-immigration and anti-Islam group Stram Kurs, the Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan announced his plans of burning the Quran. Paludan’s plans had initially received the nod from the Swedish police but the cops had kept it on hold, hoping that the protests may die down.
Violent riots broke out in several areas of Sweden over the plan. Protesters clashed with police leading to dozens of arrests. Paludan ended up canceling the rally, saying police could not protect him. The agitations had taken place in cities where Paludan had announced to hold his demonstrations — Stockholm, Landskrona, Orebro, Malmo, Linkoping and Norrkoping.
The party has, on frequent occasions, carried out anti-Islam activities that have offended many Muslims living in the country. Other than public demonstrations of burning the Quran, the party uses social media to further its agenda.
Who is Rasmus Paludan?
Paludan – whose father is a Swedish national – first came to public attention in 2017 when he started making anti-Muslim YouTube videos. He justified his stunts in Denmark – such as burning the Muslim holy book, sometimes wrapped in bacon – as a tribute to free speech.
“The enemy is Islam and Muslims. The best thing would be if there were not a single Muslim left on this Earth, then we would have reached our final goal,” he said in a December 2018 video.
Paludan was sentenced to 14 days in jail in 2019 for racist speech in Denmark. A year later, he faced one month of imprisonment with two additional months of a suspended sentence after being found guilty of 14 different charges of racism, defamation and hazardous driving.
Hard Line, or Stram Kurs in Swedish, failed to win a single seat in the last Danish national elections in 2019. Now Paludan plans to run again in the June 2023 vote, but he reportedly does not have the necessary number of signatures to secure his candidature.
How did Swedish Officials react?
Swedish police insisted they had to grant permits for Paludan’s incendiary events because of the country’s liberal freedom of speech laws.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said that she did not condone Paludan’s views or activities but also said that it was “unacceptable, irresponsible and illegal” to respond to it with violence.
justice minister Morgan Johansson stressed the importance of protecting the country’s freedoms.
“We are living in a democracy with far-reaching freedoms of speech and the press and we should be very proud of that,” he said.
But he admitted that those freedoms were being used by a “Danish extremist” to foster “hate, division and violence,” which he deplored.
Azra Muranovic, deputy chair of the Municipal Council of Vernamo and Social Democratic Party politician, said the Quran burning was a planned campaign.
“I think that the burning of the Quran was not an accident. Rather, a planned and distasteful campaign to provoke riots by using freedom of speech. I’m very sorry that he succeeded.”
How did worlds react?
Officials in several Muslim countries condemned the move that sparked the protests. Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said that Iran strongly condemns the burning of the Holy Qur’an in the Swedish city of Linkoping, which took place under the pretext of freedom of expression and under the auspices of the Danish police.
He said the deliberate repetition of the insulting act during the holy month of Ramadan hurt the feelings of Muslims in Sweden and around the world, adding, “This blasphemous act is a clear example of hate mongering and contrary to freedom of expression, and should be condemned by all those who believe in coexistence and dialog among religions.” Moreover, a demonstration was held outside the Swedish Embassy in Iran’s capital, Tehran.
Iraq’s foreign ministry said on Sunday it summoned the Swedish charge d’affaires in the capital, Baghdad.It warned the incident could have “serious repercussions” on “relations between Sweden and Muslims in general, Muslim and Arab countries, and Muslim communities in Europe”. Saudi Arabia’s official news agency said the kingdom has “condemned the agitations of certain extremists in Sweden and their provocations against Muslims”.
Turkey’s foreign ministry denounced “hesitation to prevent provocative and Islamophobic acts … under the cover of freedom of expression”.
In a tweet, the United Arab Emirates’ adviser to the president, Anwar Gargash, rejected the “hatred” and “intolerance” against Islam.
Egypt “condemned the intentional abuse of the holy Quran”, adding it is “among the extreme right-wing practices that incite against immigrants in general and Muslims in particular”.
Kuwait “expressed its utter condemnation and disgust towards the acts of desecration perpetrated by Swedish extremists against the holy Quran”, state news agency KUNA said.
And Jordan’s foreign affairs ministry said the actions of Hard Line “contradicts all religious values and principles, human rights principles and basic freedoms, and fuels feelings of hatred and violence and threatens peaceful coexistence”.
How did international organization react?
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) strongly condemned the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book Quran in Sweden.
In a statement, OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha denounced “the provocative actions of burning copies of the Holy Quran during anti-Muslim demonstrations, which have been taking place in Linkoping, Norrkoping, and other cities in Sweden.”
OIC said the burning has raised Muslim concerns of “the alarming trend of Islamophobia perpetuated by extreme right supporters.”
The OIC chief, however, said the burning of Quran “does not reflect the views of the majority of Swedish and European citizens.”
The High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), Miguel Moratinos expresses his unequivocal condemnation of plans to burn the holy Quran declared by the leader of the far-right extremist group Straus Kurs.
The High Representative notes that such vile acts perpetrated by hate-mongers including by far-right extremists and other radical groups that aim at offending Muslims or adherents to any other faith contradicts the United Nations General Assembly resolution on “Combatting intolerance, negative stereotyping, stigmatization, discrimination, incitement to violence against persons based on religion or belief” and are an affront to the commitment made by all States under the Charter of the United Nations to promote and encourage universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms without distinction based on religion or belief.
The High Representative reiterates that the desecration of sacred books and places of worship as well as religious symbols should be vehemently repudiated by all faith actors. He calls on religious leaders across the faith spectrum to renew their denunciation of all forms of violence based on religion or belief.
In this context, the High Representative recalls the United Nations Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites developed by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, which provides an overarching framework and a set of recommendations including strengthening religious pluralism and promoting mutual respect and human dignity.
The Muslim World League also responded to Paludan’s act saying: “The Muslim World League condemns the absurd and shameful act carried out by some extremists in Sweden – who abused a copy of the Noble Quran and inciting Muslims during the Holy Month of Ramadhan. Spreading such religious hatred only encourages hostility and division in societies, harms common humanitarian values of decency and mutual respect, and ultimately only serves the agendas of extremism and counter-extremism… These acts are designed to divide. However, we have complete confidence in the strength of Sweden’s values of unity and moderation to overcome such divisiveness and hate.”
The European Organization of Islamic Centers condemned the recent burning of Islam’s Holy Book in Sweden. In a statement, the organization called for respect for Muslims’ sanctities, following the recent events in Sweden that included the burning of the Quran by Rasmus Paludan, the Leader of a far-right group in the city of Linkoping. The statement voiced concerns over the incidents and called them provocative acts that hurt the feelings of all Muslims. It said the extremist group does nothing but spreading fear and creating divisions in societies.
Source: indianexpress ,aljazeera , aa , unaoc , france24 ,
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