Swedish law enforcement officials have authorized a gathering where three people will burn a Bible and Torah outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.
A decision that does not go in the direction of appeasement. Swedish police authorized an event this Friday, July 14, where three people plan to burn several sacred texts. A copy of the Bible and a copy of the Torah are to be burned this Saturday between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. local time in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.
This approval was immediately condemned by Israel.
For the organizers of the event, it is a reaction to the burning of the Koran in front of the Stockholm mosque last June. An Iraqi refugee in Sweden had burned several pages of a copy of the Koran on the day of Eid al-Adha. The event shocked the Muslim world and the UN passed a resolution on Wednesday condemning the burning of the Koran and other acts of religious hatred.
The Swedish authorities are fighting back
Swedish police made it clear that this was not a permit to burn religious texts, but a public gathering to “express an opinion” regarding the constitutional right to freedom of assembly.
“The distinction is important,” said Carina Skagerlind, spokeswoman for the Stockholm Police.
However, the rally was overwhelmingly condemned by Israel and Jewish organizations. “I condemned the burning of the Koran, sacred to Muslims around the world, and today it breaks my heart that the Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people, awaits the same fate,” said Isaac Herzog, Israeli President.
For many Western countries, the right to blasphemy remains important even as they all condemn such acts.