The recent terrorist attack in Brussels in which a Tunisian jihadist killed two football fans whom he chose for being Swedish nationals has confirmed what the authorities of the Scandinavian country had long feared: attacks on citizens and interests of Sweden due to anger. of radical Islamists facing the burning of the Koran in the country.
Also in Denmark, detractors of Islam have set fire to the Muslim holy book, and the Danish Government also observes the risk of attacks. Both Nordic nations raised the alert for terrorist threats in the summer, and their respective governments – which condemn these incendiary actions – are looking for mechanisms to prohibit them for security reasons without undermining freedom of expression, an apparently unsolvable dilemma.
In Sweden, the Government has been exploring for weeks the possibility of giving the police greater power to not authorize such acts for reasons of national security. “Not everything that is legal is appropriate; What is done in Sweden can have consequences in other places,” warned the Swedish Prime Minister, the conservative Ulf Kristersson, last week.
In Denmark, the Executive of social democrats, liberals and moderates presented a bill in early September to prohibit “the inappropriate treatment of objects of religious significance relevant to a religious community”, which would also include the Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah. . The text refers to “the important consequences” of the burning of the Koran for “the interests of Denmark and its security.” More than half a thousand Danish artists and intellectuals have signed against this draft, which they see as “an attack on art, political expression and freedom of the press, and on a free and democratic society.”
The paths explored by the two countries are, therefore, different. Sweden works with the concept of risk to national security, tiptoeing around the religious issue, while Denmark studies de facto the direct protection of religious symbols to avoid greater evils. “Sweden is doing a review of the public order law; “Currently, the police can only deny permission for a public event if there is a danger to public order or security at that place and at that time, not a security risk for Sweden in general,” explains Patrik Oksanen, researcher at the foreign policy think tank Frivärld/Free World Forum in Stockholm. It is this second option that is being evaluated.
In Stockholm, an Iraqi refugee named Salwan Momika this summer burned copies of the Koran in front of the main mosque, in front of the Iraqi embassy and in front of Parliament. Protests broke out in Islamic countries, with destruction of Swedish flags, calls for a boycott and threats of violence, and in July the Swedish embassy in Baghdad was attacked. There were also riots in immigrant neighborhoods in Stockholm. Already before, the far-right Rasmus Paludan, with dual Swedish and Danish nationality, had set fire to the holy book in both countries, with similar reactions in the Muslim world.
In summer, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, Josep Borrell, condemned “the desecration of the Koran, or any other book considered sacred” for being “offensive, disrespectful and a clear provocation.”
The Koran burnings in Sweden have also become a perfect storm, says analyst Patrik Oksanen. “The fires are used in the information field and on social networks by different groups; It is a toxic mix of Islamists, extreme right, Russia, Iran and others interested in adding gasoline to the sparks – says Oksanen. And the events and the interests of the various actors cannot be fully understood without considering Sweden’s application to join NATO.” Indeed, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in August that profanations of the Koran make it difficult for him to agree to Swedish membership in the Atlantic Alliance, pending Turkish and Hungarian ratification.
In Sweden, many citizens maintain that criticizing a religion, even in a way that adherents of that faith may find offensive, should prevail. For them, changing that would be equivalent to de facto reinstating the old law against blasphemy, repealed in two phases (1949 and 1970). A similar law existed in Denmark, definitively abolished in 2017. To put limits on freedom of expression, both countries now basically have laws against incitement to hatred.
The situation in the other two Nordic countries, which share the Lutheran socio-religious tradition with Sweden and Denmark, is disparate. In Norway there have been attempts to burn the Koran, prohibited by the authority citing public risk. “The police emphasize that the burning of the Quran is a legal political statement in Norway, but this act cannot be carried out due to security concerns,” Oslo police inspector Martin Strand said in February to veto a burning before the Turkish embassy, ??according to Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang reported.
In Finland, the framework is very different, as there is a law that criminalizes “the violation of the sanctity of religion” – which includes the possibility of a six-month prison sentence for blasphemy – which allows the police to prohibit burning of the Koran. In return, the UN Human Rights Committee has repeatedly called on Finland to modify the norm, warning that it restricts freedom of expression.
