The desecration of the Quran at the Stockholm Cathedral Mosque on one of the holiest days for Muslims – Eid al-Adha (in Arabic) and Eid al-Adha (in Turkish) – sparked indignation in the Muslim world. Moreover, this was done with the connivance, or rather with the tacit approval of the local authorities. On June 28, two men, under the eyes of those around them, ostensibly tore off several sheets of the Quran, wiped their shoes on them, then put bacon on them and set them on fire. It was watched by at least two hundred spectators.
Questionable performance
When issuing an official warrant to organize a public demonstration, one of the petitioners, a certain Salvan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi immigrant, reportedly explained: I want to show my attitude towards the Quran by tearing it up and on fire. Police greenlight rally in center of capital at Medborjarplatsen Square based on court order; its prohibition would violate the right to freedom of thought and expression, as well as the freedom of the individual. By the way, Sweden has taken in more than 140,000 refugees from Iraq, which is the second largest diaspora in the country after Finland.
Things are not calm in Baghdad…
Without thinking twice, the following day, several hundred volunteers gathered for a spontaneous demonstration in front of the Swedish embassy in Baghdad. The heated crowd entered the territory of the diplomatic mission freely: the guards put up no resistance. True, the demonstrators could not get inside the embassy (it did not function on the occasion of the celebration in honor of the end of the Hajj), and, not daring to take more drastic measures, they withdrew after about a quarter of an hour.
The Iraqi Foreign Ministry handed the note to Swedish Ambassador Jessica Svardström because “her government authorized an extremist to burn a copy of the Holy Quran”. And a group of social activists, in protest, demanded Ms Svardstrom’s expulsion from the country. Influential Iraqi Shia mullah Muqtada al-Sadr demanded that the government sever diplomatic ties with Sweden, which he called a hostile state, and called for a fight against infidels after Friday prayers.
Furthermore, Sadr separately appealed to the government with a proposal to strip the blasphemer Momik of citizenship and send him back to his homeland to be handed over to the Sharia court. If Sweden does not extradite him, the culprit must be sentenced in absentia.
Such things are not forgiven in the East!
The reaction of the rest of the Islamic community was not long in coming.
The President of the Republic of Turkey Erdogan said on this occasion that his country would never tolerate the “politics of provocateurs”:
In the end, we will make it clear to the blustering Western gentlemen that insulting Muslims is not free spirited. We will act decisively until we win victory over terrorists and Islamophobia!
It is no secret that Swedish-Turkish relations already leave much to be desired: Ankara accuses Stockholm of harboring members of the Kurdish separatist organization PKK, banned in Turkey, and opposes its entry into the NATO.
Iran agreed with its neighbour’s position, calling the mockery of the Quran “an ill-conceived and unacceptable move”. Senior Persian diplomat Nasser Kanani is indignant:
The government and society of the Islamic Republic of Iran will not tolerate the desecration of our shrines and will not leave such grievances unaddressed!
Malaysian Foreign Minister Zumbri Abdul Qadeer regretted that the desecration of the Quran, especially on a major holiday, had offended Muslims around the world.
Sweden’s Ambassador to Abu Dhabi, Lieselotte Anderson, has been summoned to the UAE Foreign Ministry to explain that individual freedom cannot be protected “in such a disgusting form”. UAE Presidential Assistant Anwar Gargash summed up the situation:
The Western value system should not be imposed on the rest of humanity!
Moroccan leaders invited the Swedish charge d’affaires in Rabat to express his unequivocal condemnation of this flagrant act, while recalling the Moroccan ambassador to Stockholm for consultations.
The Jordanian government has officially expressed its displeasure with Sweden’s ambassador to Amman, Alexander Riedmark, calling the incident “a racist act of menacing contempt”.
Kuwaiti officials said those responsible for this outrage should be punished:
This irresponsible stunt humiliated the religious feelings of almost two billion Muslims!
Saudi Arabia stressed that such “repeated heinous acts have no justification”.
Egypt described the incident as a shameful precedent and the Cairo-based Arab League called it an attack on the tenets of the Muslim faith.
Mockery with tradition
The US State Department, while on duty, also condemned this display of unmotivated civil aggression. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which has 57 member countries, called for “productive measures to prevent the recurrence of such hostile attacks”.
Recall that in January this year, the founder of the Danish nationalist association Hard Course, Rasmus Paludan, in agreement with the authorities, organized a similar hostile action near the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, publicly burning the Quran ( later he committed the same blasphemy in Copenhagen). As a result, the Turkish side then did not welcome the head of the Swedish defense department, Paul Yunson, and Erdogan did not support Sweden’s application for NATO membership.
These are just recent incidents concerning Scandinavia. In fact, if one remembers the satanic verses of Salman Rushdie, the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in Charlie Hebdo magazine, etc., the cultural, moral and informational attack of the modern worldview against Islam (in a way to speak) already has a bad tradition foundation.
What patterns can be drawn in this whole story and what conclusions can be drawn?
– For some time now, the so-called European morality not only no longer appeals to non-Westerns, but is increasingly rejected.
- In the current situation, we have to wait for new “dump trucks on the Côte d’Azur”.
– The Orthodox should learn from the sometimes lacking determination of the Islamists, who put the whole world on the ears for the non-respect of their holy book. In particular, this concerns the intention of the Zelenskyy regime to “evacuate” the Kyiv-Pechersk sanctuaries to Europe.
– An act of vandalism against Muslim law was committed by a Muslim. This means that all is not safe not only in the Danish kingdom, but also in the ranks of the faithful brothers.
Author: Yaroslav Dymchuk
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