After burning pages of the Koran in front of a mosque in Stockholm, Morocco condemned the action and recalled its ambassador to Sweden. The Swedish government “once again allowed a demonstration” in which the Holy Quran was burned, criticized the Foreign Ministry in Rabat on Thursday night. The US also criticized the move.
“This new insulting and irresponsible act disregards the feelings of more than a billion Muslims during this holy period of pilgrimage to Mecca and blessed festival of Eid Al-Adha,” the Moroccan Foreign Ministry said. Faced with “repeated provocations” committed under the eyes of the Swedish government, the Swedish chargé d’affaires was summoned to Rabat on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the first day of the Islamic festival of sacrifice, Eid al-Adha, a man in front of around 100 spectators and journalists in front of Stockholm’s Grand Mosque kicked the Koran several times while waving the Swedish flag. He then placed strips of ham, which Muslims consider unclean, in the book and burned some of its pages. Iraqi Salwan Momika, 37, who fled to Sweden, had already received approval from Swedish authorities for his protest action after other such actions were recently banned. However, Swedish courts ruled that the police had no right to refuse permission to burn the Koran.
Turkey immediately condemned the move as “despicable” and “unacceptable”. The incident could cloud Sweden’s prospects of joining NATO, which Turkey has so far blocked. Sweden and Finland jointly applied for NATO membership in May 2022, before the imprint of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. In early April, Finland became the 31st member of the Western Defense Alliance. Sweden, on the other hand, still lacks the approval of Türkiye and Hungary.
The US State Department has also criticized the Koran burning. “We have always said that burning religious texts is disrespectful and offensive,” said deputy press secretary Vedant Patel. Regardless, Sweden must become a member of NATO “as soon as possible”.
In January, right-wing protesters in Stockholm burned a Koran outside the Turkish embassy, prompting angry reactions in the Islamic world. At that time, the burning of the Koran led to a hardening of Turkish resistance to Sweden’s NATO membership.
Ankara justifies its previous blockade of Sweden’s entry into the military alliance mainly on the grounds that the country is a haven for “terrorists”. This primarily refers to members of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).