2023-06-29 16:21:05
by Foreign Editor
The harsh reaction of the Turkish president after an Iraqi burned a copy of the sacred text in front of a mosque in Stockholm: “Insulting Muslims is not freedom of thought”
“Eventually we will teach arrogant Westerners that insulting Muslims is not freedom of thought.” The words of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are very harsh, because they comment on the images of the man who yesterday, June 28, burned a copy of the Koran in front of a Stockholm mosque.
The fact that the permission to make that defiant gesture was given by an appeals court, which upheld the appeal filed against the police – who had initially banned the demonstration for “security reasons” – filed by Salwan Sabah Matti Momika . Momika, of Iraqi nationality but residing in the capital of the country (where he has the status of asylum seeker), made that gesture because the Koran “is a danger to democratic laws and Swedish and human values”.
In addition, yesterday was the first day of the Eid al Adha festival, an important Muslim holiday; and Momika, before setting the volume on fire, kicked it and stuffed bacon between the pages. All in front of cameras, so that the videos soon ended up on the web. The president of Turkey therefore replied: “Those who allow this crime under the pretext of freedom of thought and those who turn a blind eye to this insolence will not achieve their goals”.
It is not the first episode of this type. In January, another copy of Islam’s holy book was burned by right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. With a consequent increase in tension between the two countries and Ankara’s decision to postpone the “yes” to Sweden’s entry into NATO, justified, according to the Turks, by the fact that Sweden would guarantee refugee status to “terrorist organisations”.
Turkey’s position, continued Erdogan, will not change “until a decisive fight is waged against terrorist organizations and the enemies of Islam”.
It is therefore difficult to think that Sweden could soon become a member of the Atlantic Alliance, whose countries – including Turkey – will meet in Vilnius on 11 and 12 July.
June 29, 2023 (change June 29, 2023 | 16:20)
© Time.News
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