Protesters call on Swedish government to ban Quran burnings

By Atila Altuntas

STOCKHOLM (AA) - A group of people staged a protest Sunday in the Swedish capital Stockholm demanding a ban on Quran burnings.

Nearly 100 people took part in the demonstration held by the Nyans (Nuance) party outside of parliament to protest against desecrations of the Quran and Islamophobia.

The head of the party, Mikail Yuksel, said that burning the Quran is "a hate crime and has no place in democracies."

Reminding that Finland does not allow such actions, Yuksel called on the Swedish government to act accordingly and ban the burning of the Quran.

Protesters also made effigies of Jimmie Akesson, head of the far-right Sweden Democrats, who has defended Quran burning "in line with freedom of expression" and Johan Pehrson, the leader of the Liberal Party, who is demanding the closure of Islamic religious schools.

Reminding that other countries' leaders were insulted by the hanging of their effigies by the feet at protests, Yuksel said they would not do such a thing as "there are limits on everything, even freedom of expression."

In early January, supporters of the PKK terrorist organization in Sweden hung an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by the feet and uploaded footage of the incident along with threats against Türkiye and Erdogan.

During the Nyans party’s demonstration in Stockholm, people also observed a minute of silence to honor the victims of the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria.

Yuksel also expressed his condolences and sympathy to those affected by the earthquakes.

At least 29,605 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye, the country's disaster agency said Sunday.

Last Monday’s magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa.

Meanwhile, far-right Dutch politician Edwin Wagensveld, the leader of the Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (PEGIDA) movement in the Netherlands, tore apart a copy of the Quran in the city of Utrecht on Sunday.

Sharing this on social media, Wagensveld said he would burn a copy of the Quran when he returned home.

He also thanked Utrecht Mayor Sharon Dijksma and the police "for allowing and facilitating the demonstration," which he held alone.

Wagensveld also tore apart a Quran before setting it on fire at an anti-Islam demonstration in Enschede, the Netherlands in late January.