NATO Okays Koran Burning
Read Time:3 Minute, 30 Second
NATO Secretary-General says burning the Muslim holy book though offensive is not illegal following outrage over Koran burning in the Islamic world
It is not necessarily a crime to burn the Koran in public, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, responding to a question about the recent incident in Sweden which caused outrage among Muslims.
The issue is especially sensitive, given that the Muslim-majority country of Türkiye is one of the two member states that has so far refused to ratify Sweden’s bid to join the US-led military bloc.
“I understand the emotion and the depth of feeling this causes,” Stoltenberg told reporters at a press conference on Thursday. He added that the burning of the Koran is “offensive and objectionable [but] not necessarily illegal.”
Stoltenberg also addressed the anti-NATO protests in Sweden that took place earlier this month. “I do not like them. But I defend the right to disagree. This is part of the freedom of expression,” he said.
“What is important for me is that we have to make progress on finalizing the accession of Sweden into the alliance,” the NATO chief explained. “I spoke with [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan recently and we agreed to convene a high level meeting of officials here in Brussels, Thursday, next week.”
On Wednesday, an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden burned a copy of the Koran outside a mosque in Stockholm amid the celebrations of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.
Türkiye, one of the two member states that have so far not ratified Sweden’s bid to join the bloc, strongly condemned the Swedish authorities for allowing the book-burning to go ahead.
“We will eventually teach Western monuments of arrogance that insulting Muslims is not freedom of thought,” Erdogan said on Thursday, according to Anadolu news agency.
“As [for] those who commit this crime, those who allow it under the guise of freedom of thought, those who turn a blind eye to this baseness will not achieve their goals,” the Turkish leader said.
Ankara previously objected to anti-Turkish demonstrations in Stockholm that were organized by Kurdish and left-wing groups. Erdogan has threatened to block Sweden’s accession to NATO unless the Nordic country extradites people linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist organization.
The Swedish authorities have condemned the public burning of the Koran in the past, but argued that such actions are protected under the country’s liberal laws.
“Sweden has a far-reaching freedom of expression, but it does not imply that the Swedish Government, or myself, support the opinions expressed,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said in January.
Dozens of people stormed the Swedish embassy to Iraq on Thursday, angry over a Koran-burning protest in Stockholm two days earlier.
The demonstration in Baghdad saw a crowd gather in front of the diplomatic mission, following calls for action by influential Iraqi Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr. The protesters distributed leaflets reading in both Arabic and English: “Our constitution is the Koran. Our leader is al-Sadr,” AFP reported, citing its photographer at the scene.
On Wednesday, Al Sadr called for the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador, accusing him of representing a nation “hostile to Islam” and supporting “immorality.” He demanded that the person behind the Stockholm stunt, who has been identified by Swedish authorities as Iraqi citizen Salwan Momika, be stripped of his citizenship and sent to Baghdad for trial.
The chief judge of the Iraqi Supreme Court, Faiq Zaidan, has also reportedly called on Sweden to extradite Momika. The Iraqi government also condemned the action, calling it “racist” and saying it promoted “violence and hatred.”
According to SVT, the burning episode has sparked “sharp reactions” in Jordan, Iran, and Morocco, with the latter even recalling its ambassador in the wake of the incident.
Russia also condemned the Stockholm demonstration. The Russian State Duma declared that the Swedish authorities were perfectly aware that allowing anti-Islam activists to carry out the Koran burning would lead to religious and ethnic tensions. President Vladimir Putin has called it a crime to deliberately offend religious beliefs.
Source AFP/RT/Reuters
Happy
0 %
Sad
0 %
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
0 %
Surprise
0 %
0
0
Average Rating