Sweden opens hate crime investigation into Quran burning

By Utku Simsek

ANKARA (AA) - An investigation over hate speech was launched in Sweden on Wednesday against the Iraqi-origin attacker who burned a copy of the Quran in front of a mosque in the Södermalm district of Stockholm.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm appealed to Swedish authorities for prevention of such attacks.

Anadolu correspondent said that the attacker of Iraqi origin, who tore up a few pages of the copy of Quran in which he had put bacon in and burned them, and who claimed that he aimed to "criticize Islam" and introduced himself as a "secular atheist" on social media, had previously praised the far-right Islamophobe Rasmus Paludan, who carried out the act of burning the holy book, and that he saw Islam as a threat to Swedish values.

After the attack, the Swedish police launched a hate speech investigation against the Islamophobe.

As in previous similar actions, the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm took the necessary steps before the Swedish authorities to prevent the attack.

In this context, the Embassy contacted the embassies of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) members Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Morocco, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Palestine in Stockholm and sent a joint message to prevent the incident, conveying a message to Ambassador Jan Knutsson, State Secretary of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Police chief Anders Thornberg, parliament speaker Andreas Norlen and to the Prime Minister's Chief Foreign and Security Adviser, Henrik Landerholm.

Previous applications regarding the burning of the Quran in front of the Stockholm Embassies of Türkiye and Iraq were rejected by the Swedish police, but this decision was annulled by the court.

The Swedish police did not reject the activist's application today.