This content was published on January 24, 2023 – 6:49 p.m. January 24, 2023 – 6:49 p.m
Islamabad, 24 January (EFE).- Hundreds of people took to the streets in various cities in Pakistan this Tuesday to express their outrage at the burning of the Koran in Sweden by a far-right Swedish-Danish lawyer in front of the Turkish embassy.
The protest, organized by the newly formed Markazi Muslim League party, swept the streets of the country’s major cities, although the largest demonstrations took place in the eastern cities of Lahore and Islamabad.
“In Lahore, the Markazi Muslim League protested against the burning of the Koran,” a municipal police officer confirmed to EFE, asking not to give his name or other details.
Demonstrators in Lahore carried banners against the incident, which took place in Sweden last Saturday, and chanted slogans such as “Shame on Sweden,” according to multiple videos broadcast by Pakistani media.
Ultra Rasmus Paludan, a Danish lawyer who also has Swedish citizenship, last Saturday burned a copy of the Muslims’ holy book in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, where he also exhibited a drawing ironic about the sexuality of the Prophet Mohammed.
Paludan, who defended his right to freedom of expression during the event, became a social media phenomenon in Denmark a few years ago for his controversial burning of the Koran in immigrant neighborhoods, and his Rumbo Firme party was trailed by a tenth. to enter parliament in the 2019 general election.
After several lighter sentences for racist offenses and a ban from the Danish electoral authority for manipulating voter statements, Paludan tried his luck in Sweden, where he committed similar acts that led to riots last Easter.
The Koran burning also sparked protests from the Turkish government and other Muslim-majority countries such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Morocco.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif joined that list on Sunday, claiming that “not one word suffices to adequately condemn the heinous act of desecration of the Holy Quran by a right-wing extremist in Sweden.”
“This is unacceptable,” the president said on Twitter.
Blasphemy and insults to Islam are highly sensitive issues in Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country that has seen regular violent protests and the occasional lynching of those accused by angry mobs. EFE
aa-mvg/mah
(photo) (video)
� EFE 2023. The retransmission and redistribution of all or part of the content of the Efe Services is expressly prohibited without the prior and express consent of Agencia EFE SA