Man sets fire to Quran pages outside main mosque in Stockholm, Sweden, after police grant permit for protest

A man on Wednesday set fire to pages of a Quran outside the main mosque in Stockholm, Sweden, after police granted a permit for the protest.

What are the details?

Stockholm police said security risks surrounding the Quran burning "were not of a nature that could justify, under current laws, a decision to reject the request," Agence France-Presse reported.

AFP added that the protest coincided with the start of the three-day Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, which marks the "Prophet Ibrahim’s devotion to Allah ... and his readiness to sacrifice his son, Ismail."

Turkey — which is blocking Sweden's pending NATO bid — condemned the act and the allowance of it, AFP said, adding that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called it "despicable."

"It is unacceptable to allow these anti-Islamic actions under the pretext of freedom of expression," Fidan said on Twitter, AFP said. "Turning a blind eye to such atrocious acts is to be complicit."

Turkey is standing against Sweden's NATO entrance over what it views as Stockholm's failure to crack down on Kurdish groups it considers "terrorists," as well as a Quran burning outside its Stockholm embassy in January, the outlet noted.

What do we know about the protester?

Salwan Momika, 37, fled from Iraq to Sweden several years ago and asked police for permission to burn the Quran "to express my opinion about" it, AFP said.

Momika had told news agency TT he also wanted to call attention to the importance of freedom of speech, AFP added: "This is democracy. It is in danger if they tell us we can't do this."

More from AFP:

Under a heavy police presence and with around a dozen opponents shouting at him in Arabic, Momika, dressed in beige trousers and a shirt, addressed the crowd of several dozen through a megaphone.

He stomped on the Koran, put strips of bacon in it, lit a few pages on fire before slamming it shut, and kicked it like a football, while waving Swedish flags, AFP correspondents at the scene reported.

Police had cordoned off an area in a park next to the mosque separating Momika and a co-protester from the crowd.

In the afternoon, police said in a statement that the protest had not caused "disturbances to order" but added that an investigation had been opened regarding "agitation against an ethnic group" since the man had chosen to burn the Quran so close to a mosque, AFP said.

Noa Omran — a 32-year-old Stockholm artist who said her mother was from a Muslim background — told AFP at the scene that the protest was "absolutely insane," adding that "it's just hatred masquerading in the name of democracy and freedom — which it isn't."

Sweden: Man sets fire to Quran pages outside Stockholm mosqueyoutu.be

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