2023-08-22 18:00:29
This Friday, August 18, the atmosphere is not quite the same at the end of the midday prayer. Armed police guard the area around the Great Mosque in Stockholm. Become a “priority target” of the terrorist group Al-Qaida, following the various book burnings and desecrations of the Koran, Sweden has significantly raised its level of terrorist alert.
Humiliation, fear, anger, sadness: “It’s hard to find the right word to define how we feel,” says Kasim. “How can we do this? Why is this allowed? is beyond me ! », the 34-year-old Pakistani is indignant. On June 28, the date of Eid-El-Adha, an Iraqi refugee, Salwan Momika, burned a Koran in front of the Grand Mosque, as the law authorizes.
That day, Rahim, a young educator in a high school, had accompanied his students to prayer: “They all wanted to go see the scene and protest when our line was clear: we must not pay attention or respond to these provocations because that is what he expects. But it’s super-hard not to react, it hurts us to see that. »
Imam and director of the Grand Mosque, Mahmoud El Khalfi observed the scene from a small room on the second floor of the establishment. “A dozen of us were sitting there and we saw this criminal doing his show: trampling on the Koran, jumping on it with both feet, putting slices of bacon inside and then burning it. An hour like that…” remembers the imam. For me, it’s not free speech, it’s a hate crime and it should be banned. »
Diplomatic crisis and terrorist threats
It is not the first time that such an action has been authorized, in the name of the sacrosanct freedom of expression, but the fact that it coincides with one of the most important holidays for Muslims, has particularly shocked the community in Sweden, but also in the Middle East.
On July 20, the new authorization granted to Salwan Momika to burn a Koran in Stockholm was seen as one too many and sparked the anger of Muslim countries. In Iraq, hundreds of supporters of religious leader Moqtada Al Sadr stormed and burned down the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. The Iraqi prime minister has ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador.
In the aftermath, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Algeria and Egypt summoned Swedish diplomats to express their outrage. In Lebanon, the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, demanded the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador, forcing the army to secure his residence and the diplomatic representation. Al-Qaida, Hezbollah and Al-Shabaab (in Somalia) have designated Sweden as a “priority target” of their attacks. A few days later, the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, announced the strengthening of border controls before raising his level of terrorist alert.
“Legal acts, but not appropriate”
If the Conservative government has, each time, condemned acts “insulting” et “disrespectful”, the authorities nevertheless continue to authorize these gatherings. Asked by The crossJakob Forssmed, Minister of Social Affairs, Health, responsible for dialogue between religious communities, explains: “The government has been very clear from the start: we do not support these acts. They are legal but not appropriate. » But then why allow them?
As Anders Linberg, a daily political journalist, explains l’Aftonbladet, two laws collide. The first punishes hate crimes and hate speech, “provided there is a message”. “But what poses a problem for prosecutors is to qualify these profanations as messages because they are actions. »
The second, called “law of public order”, entrusts the police with the right to authorize or not the holding of demonstrations. “The problem is that the police cannot ask you why you want to organize a demonstration, any gathering must be authorized in the name of freedom of expression, unless there is a security risk. » This poses another political challenge: “If we bring up in this specific case the issue of security and terrorist threats, the far right could use it to ban other events, such as Gay Pride. »
The government trapped by the far right
An inextricable debate in which the Swedish political class has been entangled for several weeks. The conservatives in power are trying to ease tensions. On Friday August 18, Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer announced the launch of a public inquiry to amend the Public Order Act.
But the task promises to be difficult knowing that their political allies, the Democrats of Sweden (extreme right), continue to multiply the polemics and other provocations. At the head of the Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee, MP Richard Jomshof multiplies violent and racist outings against Muslims. Last January, after the burning of a Koran in front of the Turkish Embassy, he declared: “I don’t think you should (burn a Quran), but you can do it and if it pisses them off, then burn a hundred more. »
In a July 27 tweet, he called Islam a “anti-democratic, misogynistic and violent religion ideology, founded by the warlord, mass murderer, slave trader and thief Muhammad”. The far right has already announced that it will not give in “to threats and pressure from Islamists and dictatorships” and would oppose law reform to prohibit such actions.
For Mohammad Fazlhashemi, professor of theology and Islamic philosophy at Uppsala University (Sweden), the real question remains unanswered: “How is burning a Koran a form of expression? It is not an expression, it is an incitement to hatred and the target is very clear: it is the Muslims. » An opinion shared by George Joseph, director of Caritas in Sweden: “It should be forbidden to burn religious scriptures as is the case in Finland or Norway, countries which do not have a problem of freedom of expression. It should be forbidden to burn books. Remember what happened in World War II: we started by burning books. It starts with isolated acts. And we don’t know where it will end.»
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Auto-da-fé in five acts
January 21, 2023: first auto-da-fé organized by the Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan, to disrupt Sweden’s application for NATO membership.
4 avril : police ban further burnings, citing security threats. The Supreme Court overturned these bans, ruling that they would violate the constitutional freedom to demonstrate.
June 28: second copy of the Koran burned in front of a mosque by the far-right Iraqi Salwan Momika, affirming his wish to “show the world that the Koran is more dangerous than nuclear weapons”.
July 12: the UN Human Rights Council adopts a resolution condemning the burning of the Koran and other acts of religious hatred.
August 17: After raising the terrorist alert level to 4 out of 5, the Swedish Minister of Justice announces a consultation to modify the law on public order.
#Sweden #trapped