Ahmad A, the man who had threatened to burn copies of the Torah and the Bible outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, Saturday announced he had decided not to desecrate the holy books of Christians and Jews out of respect for other religions, according to local media.
The man claimed he had no intention of burning any books despite Swedish authorities giving him permission to hold a three-person protest; instead, he threw the lighter to the ground, DW reported.
“I never thought I would burn any books. I’m a Muslim, we don’t burn,” broadcaster SVT quoted the man as telling those gathered for the planned desecration.
The 32-year-old claimed that the protest’s main objective was to highlight the distinction between exercising one’s right to free speech and offending other ethnic groups.
One of many Israeli officials and Jewish organisations to immediately denounce the Swedish government’s choice to allow the burning of holy books was Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.
The demonstration’s organiser, Ahmad, clarified that his goal was not to burn the holy books but rather to condemn those who have recently desecrated Qurans in Sweden, a practice that is not forbidden by Swedish law.
“This is a response to the people who burn the Quran. I want to show that freedom of expression has limits that must be taken into account,” ex-plained the Swedish resident of Syrian origin.
“I want to show that we have to respect each other, we live in the same society. If I burn the Torah, another the Bible, another the Quran, there will be war here. What I wanted to show is that it’s not right to do it,” he added.
The planned burning of the Torah was sched-uled to occur only a few days after another man burned pages of the Quran, the holy book of Islam, drawing widespread condemnation from Muslims all over the world, Al-Arabiya reported.
Rasmus Paludan, a Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist, burned a copy of Quran in January to protest Sweden’s NATO membership application and the talks with Turkey to allow Sweden to join the alliance.
During the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, which is observed on June 28, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden set fire to some Quranic pages in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque.
Following the two incidents, the Muslim world issued a number of condemnations. Although the Swedish police emphasised that a permit to protest did not constitute a formal authorisation to burn a holy book, there is no law that forbids it.
However, if a demonstration endangers security or gives rise to actions or speech that incite racial hatred, the police have the right to forbid it.—Agencies
