Sweden Charges Danish Extremist over Quran Desecrations

IQNA – Sweden has charged a 42-year-old man from Denmark with incitement against an ethnic group and insult on Wednesday, prosecutors said in a statement.

While the Swedish Prosecution Authority did not name the suspect, Swedish media, including Dagens Nyheter, Sveriges Radio, and Aftonbladet, have identified him as Rasmus Paludan, a Swedish-Danish extremist who over the past few years attracted international attention with public Quran burnings.

The statement said the charges related to two incidents in April and September 2022 in Malmö. Paludan had attended public gatherings in the Swedish city at both those times, during which he made hateful comments directed at Muslims, Arabs and Africans.

“My assessment is that there are sufficient grounds to bring charges, and now the district court will consider the case,” senior prosecutor Adrien Combier-Hogg said.

Paludan told Dagens Nyheter that he “hasn’t heard anything about the indictment.” He added that he “denies [committing] any crime.”

Burning the Quran is extremely offensive to Muslims, as the holy book is considered the word of God. Denmark banned Quran burning in December after more than 500 incidents took place in 2023.

Paludan, the chairman of the Danish and Swedish far-right political party Hard Line, has repeatedly set copies of the Quran on fire in Stockholm and Copenhagen, sparking outrage in Muslim-majority countries. In Iraq, hundreds stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad in protest against a planned Quran burning.

In April 2022, a violent wave of riots swept across Sweden in response to rallies organized by Paludan during which he planned to burn the Quran.

Paludan’s Quran burnings briefly jeopardized Sweden’s bid to join NATO, as such incidents exacerbated the country’s already tense relationship with Turkey. Sweden finally joined the defense alliance in January.

Source: politico.eu