Europe's history of burning the Qur'an during the 21st century (report)

(MENAFN- Hip Hop-24) The incident of burning a copy of the Holy Qur’an in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, on Saturday, sparked anger among Muslims, and sparked criticism and condemnation from Arab and Islamic countries that considered it a provocative act against the feelings of one and a half billion Muslims.

The justification behind giving the green light to such behavior in a European country inhabited by more than 600,000 Muslims is the right to freedom of expression, while Islamic countries refuse to include it in the so-called freedom of expression and say that it is an act that clearly amounts to a hate crime.

The incident of burning a copy of the Qur'an recently was not the first, and Sweden is not the first country in which this reckless act takes place.

The following is a chronology of the most prominent incidents of desecration of the Qur’an, from the newest to the oldest, monitored by Anatolia.

Through monitoring, it becomes clear that most of the incidents of desecration of the Noble Qur’an were led by the Danish far-right, Rasmus Paludan, or his supporters.

January 21, 2023

The leader of the far-right Danish "hard line" party, Rasmus Paludan, burned a copy of the Qur'an near the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, amid police protection, which prevented anyone from approaching him while he was committing the crime.

July 3, 2022

Lars Thorne - leader of the "Stop Islamization of Norway" movement - burned a copy of the Noble Qur'an, in a neighborhood where a large Muslim community lives on the outskirts of the capital, Oslo.

The scene angered a number of Muslims, who rushed to extinguish the burning fire, and soon a crowd gathered to protest against the activists.

May 1, 2022

Paludan burned the Holy Qur’an in front of a mosque in Sweden, despite the police’s refusal to grant him permission to do so, while a group of 10 people tried to prevent Paludan from burning the Qur’an, which prompted him to flee in his car.

April 14, 2022

Rasmus Paludan himself burned a copy of the Holy Quran in Linköping, southern Sweden, under police protection.

Clashes between protesters and policemen following the burning of the Holy Quran resulted in the injury of 26 policemen and 14 demonstrators, and 20 police cars were destroyed.

August 30, 2020

A Norwegian extremist anti-Islam group belonging to the Stop Islamization of Norway (SIAN) movement tore pages from the Holy Quran and spat on them during an anti-Islam demonstration in the capital, Oslo.

August 28, 2020

3 activists in the Danish Paludan "Hard Line" party burned a copy of the Qur'an in the Swedish city of "Malmö", as a result of which violent confrontations broke out between the Swedish police and demonstrators.

The Swedish authorities also banned the party's leader, Rasmus Paludan, from entering its territory for two years.

November 17, 2019

The "Stop the Islamization of Norway" (SIAN) movement organized a demonstration, during which it threw two copies of the Qur'an into a rubbish bin, then Lars Torsen, the leader of the organization, burned another copy, which prompted many of the protesters present at the time in the square to attack him.

Media said that a Syrian refugee appeared crossing the fence surrounding the demonstrators and kicking Lars Torsen while setting fire to the Koran, before the two people were stopped by the police.

June 8, 2019

The German authorities found about 50 torn Qurans inside the "Rahma" mosque in downtown Bremen, after which the Central Council of Muslims in Germany strongly condemned the incident and said that the act aims to cause "a spiral of hatred and violence against Muslims and their mosques."

March 22, 2019

In Al-Wadan, I burned copies of the Holy Qur’an, under the pretext of protesting the performance of Friday prayers, in front of the Danish Parliament building.

Muslims in Denmark performed Friday prayers, in front of the parliament building, to express their condemnation of the massacre of the two mosques in New Zealand.

December 25, 2015

A group of demonstrators attacked a Muslim prayer hall in a popular neighborhood in Ajaccio, on the island of Corsica, in southern France, vandalizing it, burning Qurans and writing anti-Arab phrases, the day after firefighters and a policeman were injured in an attack by masked men in the city.

December 2015

A 42-year-old Danish man burned a copy of the Holy Qur’an in his backyard and posted a video of his act.

About two years later, the Danish authorities charged him with blasphemy (blasphemy) for burning a copy of the Qur’an, which is punishable by law with a maximum of 4 months in prison.

But the public prosecutor said that if he is convicted of the charge against him, he will only be fined.

December 27, 2014

British police arrested a young man who tore up an English-translated copy of the Holy Quran and put it in the toilet and then burned it, before the authorities released him on bail, according to Business Insider.

April 28, 2012

American pastor Terry Jones burned a copy of the Koran and broadcast the scene on the Internet in protest against the arrest of Christian cleric Youssef Naderkhani in Iran.

March 22, 2011

American pastor Terry Jones supervised the burning of a copy of the Qur’an in a small church in Florida, after holding the Holy Qur’an responsible for a large number of crimes.

The US President condemned the action, which sparked violent reactions at the time, including an attack on a United Nations headquarters in Afghanistan that left a number of people dead.

April 18, 2011

A British court has sentenced a former soldier to 70 days in prison for setting fire to the Noble Qur’an in Carlisle, England.

The soldier, named Andrew Ryan, admitted religiously motivated harassment and the theft of a Koran from a library.

April 10, 2011

Police arrested Sayn Owens, the candidate for the far-right British National Party, after he burned a copy of the Koran in his garden.

In a video, Owens appeared pouring kerosene on the Koran and setting it on fire in his garden.

2005

Several Islamic countries, Britain and India witnessed large demonstrations and protests over reports that the Holy Qur’an was desecrated by US interrogators in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The demonstrations came at a time when the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva said that detainees at the US Guantanamo base had confirmed to it that there had been several desecrations of the Holy Quran.

In the Arab world, the recent incident of burning the Qur’an was condemned by 14 countries: the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Emirates, Kuwait, the Sultanate of Oman and Bahrain), Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco, Lebanon, Iraq, Algeria and Libya, in separate official statements.

Internationally, strong condemnations were issued by Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran for that incident, in separate official statements.

Commenting on the widespread reactions, the Swedish Foreign Minister, Tobias Bilstrom, expressed his rejection of the provocative action, and said on Twitter, "The anti-Islamic provocations are appalling."

The European Commission also said that the Swedish authorities should take steps regarding the incident, stressing that "racism, xenophobia, and ethnic and religious hatred have no place in the European Union," an acknowledgment that the incident is a racist and xenophobic act for which the law must be held accountable.

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