Rally near Stockholm mosque in Ankara called 'heinous'
Turkey's fury over Swedish authorities' permission to burn Koran threatens to further delay Stockholm's NATO bid. The Turkish foreign minister condemned a «vile» protest outside a Stockholm mosque ahead of a meeting in Brussels to discuss the Swedish membership announcement.
Turkey's foreign minister criticized the burning of a Quran outside a Stockholm mosque in a demonstration that could further complicate Ankara's long-delayed approval of Sweden's NATO bid.
As The Guardian notes, the protest came after the president Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan told German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday that Sweden has made some progress, but not enough. NATO has said that senior diplomats from both countries will meet in Brussels next week.
“I condemn the despicable protest in Sweden against our holy book on the first day of the blessed Eid al-Adha,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan tweeted on Wednesday, adding that “anti-Islamic protests in the name of freedom of expression are unacceptable.”< /p>
Swedish police allowed a protest of about 200 people on Wednesday at the start of the three-day Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, saying the security risks “were not of a nature to justify, under current laws, decision to deny the request.”
Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported that the event was «peaceful», saying that the person responsible for the demonstration tore pages from the Quran, wiped some of them off his shoes, burned others, and then put a slice of bacon in the book.
Police said the organizer is being investigated for inciting and violating Sweden's seasonal fire ban. It is reported that one man was suspected of attempting to attack, while the other, who was carrying a stone, was taken away by the police.
Media reports named Salvan Momika, 37, who reportedly fled to Sweden from Iraq as the organizer of the protest and denied that his intention was to sabotage the NATO bid, saying he considered postponing the protest until then. until Sweden joins the Alliance.
“I don't want to harm this country that accepted me and kept my dignity,” Momika said in April. However, in his statement of protest, he said he wanted to “protest in front of a mosque in Stockholm and… express his opinion about the Koran.”
A series of protests in Sweden against Islam and in support of the rights of the Kurds offended Turkey, which delayed the Scandinavian country's accession to the EU by accusing Sweden of harboring people it considers terrorists and demanding their extradition.
NATO is pushing Turkey to give Sweden the green light ahead of the alliance's July 11-12 summit in Lithuania. “Now is the time to welcome Sweden as a full member of NATO,” said Alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, Stoltenberg said that in the talks in Brussels, which will take place in Nato City Headquarters next Thursday, foreign ministers and intelligence advisers from Turkey, Sweden and Finland will attend.
In January, Ankara suspended talks with Sweden about its accession to NATO after Rasmus Paludan, a Swedish-Danish activist convicted of racist slurs, burned a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, recalls The Guardian.
Paludan, leader of the far-right Danish Hard Line Party, did not attend Wednesday's demonstration. He sparked riots in Sweden last year when he went on a tour of the country publicly burning copies of Islam's holy book.
Swedish police have denied at least two more recent requests to protest against Koran, but their decisions were overturned by the courts on the grounds that they violated the right to freedom of speech.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson declined to comment on the possible consequences of the protest. “It's legal, but inappropriate,” he said. “We are living in a time when one should remain calm and think about what is best for Sweden's long-term interests.”
Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait, also condemned the January burning of the Koran.< /p>