Protesters maintain copies of the Koran as they show outdoors the Consulate Basic of Sweden in Istanbul, Turkey, July 30, 2023. REUTERS
COPENHAGEN/STOCKHOLM — Extra Koran burnings came about in Sweden and Denmark on Monday because the governments of the 2 Nordic international locations stated they had been analyzing methods to legally restrict such acts in a bid to de-escalate rising tensions with a number of Muslim international locations.
Denmark and Sweden have seen a number of protests in latest weeks wherein copies of the Koran had been burned, or in any other case broken, prompting outrage in Muslim international locations and calls for that the Nordic governments put a cease to the burnings.
The Danish authorities stated on Sunday it will search to discover a “authorized software” that might allow authorities to intervene in such protests, if deemed to ivolve “important unfavourable penalties for Denmark, not least with regard to safety”.
“The truth that we’re signaling each in Denmark and overseas that we’re engaged on it can hopefully assist de-escalate the issues we face,” Overseas Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen instructed journalists following a gathering with international coverage audio system of parliament on Monday.
“It’s not as a result of we really feel pressured to take action, however it’s our political evaluation that it’s in the perfect curiosity of all of us,” Rasmussen stated. “We shouldn’t simply sit and anticipate this to blow up.”
Even so, Koran burnings came about in each international locations on Monday. In Stockholm, an Iraqi refugee behind a number of protests in latest weeks appeared to burn a replica of the Koran outdoors the Swedish parliament. In Denmark, anti-Muslim protesters burned the Koran outdoors the Saudi Arabian embassy in Copenhagen.
The Nordic international locations have deplored the burnings of the Koran however can’t stop it underneath constitutional legal guidelines defending freedom of speech.
Nonetheless, each governments have now stated they’re contemplating authorized modifications that may permit authorities to stop additional burnings in particular conditions.
The Swedish authorities stated this month it’s analyzing the same resolution, however right-wing events in each international locations have denounced the initiatives, with some saying freedom of speech can’t be compromised.
Swedish Overseas Minister Tobias Billstrom stated on Monday that he had despatched letters to all 57 international locations within the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to elucidate Sweden’s proper to meeting and condemned Islamophobic acts.
OIC international ministers convened in a unprecedented session on Monday to debate the latest developments the place it strongly condemned the Koran burnings.
It additionally stated in a press release after the assembly ended that it referred to as upon member states to take acceptable motion, whether or not political or financial, in international locations the place the Koran is being desecrated.
After the assembly, Billstrom and his Danish counterpart Rasmussen individually wrote on X, previously Twitter, that they might proceed their dialogue with the OIC.
Billstrom additionally wrote in his publish that Sweden would examine the resolutions and suggestions made by the OIC fastidiously.
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