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QURAN BURNINGS

Woman with fire extinguisher storms Quran burning in Stockholm

A woman ran up to Salwan Momika as he burned a Quran outside the Iranian Embassy in Stockholm on Friday, and appeared to try and put out the flames with a fire extinguisher.

Woman with fire extinguisher storms Quran burning in Stockholm
A counter-protester ran forward with a fire extinguisher to try and put out the fire on the Quran Salwan Momika had set alight. Photo: Fredrik Sandberg/TT

“The woman was taken into custody by police shortly afterwards for disrupting public order, and is also suspected for that crime,” police press spokesperson Towe Hägg said.

“She will be held until she no longer disrupts public order and will be questioned about the crime shortly.”

Momika, the Iraqi man behind the Quran burning on Friday, has set fire to copies of the Quran on a number of occasions, which has led to international protests in many countries, most of all Middle Eastern countries with large Muslim populations.

These Quran burnings were cited as one of the reasons behind Sweden’s deteriorating security which led the Säpo security services to raise Sweden’s terror level from a three (“elevated threat”), to a four, (“high threat”) on Thursday.

“Why are you a loser, Salwan?” said another woman, who was present at the Quran burning on Friday in order to show her disapproval.

During the Quran burning, police confirmed that a separate report will be filed on a suspected crime which they believe falls into the category “incitement against an ethnic group”, which may have been committed, but they were unwilling to give more details.

“It is currently not possible to give more details other than we will file a complaint as we believe this crime may have been committed there. We will investigate further and cannot say much more than that,” Hägg said.

Momika has previously been reported for incitement against an ethnic group in connection with Quran burnings in June and July.

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MALMÖ

Malmö police urge calm ahead of Quran burning in run-up to Eurovision

Updated: Malmö police are urging the public not to let themselves be provoked by the expected burning of a Quran on Friday, just before Eurovision week gets under way in the southern Swedish city.

Malmö police urge calm ahead of Quran burning in run-up to Eurovision

The protest, which is set to be held in central Malmö on the afternoon of May 3rd, has been granted permission by police to go ahead.

“We can’t reject [the permit]. Police have been criticised when we have rejected permits in various ways. There have been court decisions and we look at each case very thoroughly. But every situation is unique,” senior police officer Per Engström told the TT newswire.

“This is a call for everyone in the area to let it pass. The purpose is to cause offence and upset, but we’re telling the public to try to keep calm,” he added.

EXPLAINED:

Several other, separate, protests are also expected to go ahead in Malmö in the coming week, both in support and in protest of the European Broadcasting Union’s decision to let Israel participate in the song contest despite the brutal war with Hamas in Gaza.

Israel has warned its citizens not to visit Malmö during the week of Eurovision.

Quran burnings have become a hot topic in Sweden in recent years, including sparking fury in several Muslim countries which even put Sweden’s Nato application at risk. In Malmö, which has a large Muslim population, similar incidents have sparked riots on some occasions.

Police have little power to prevent protests featuring Quran burnings due to Sweden’s strong freedom of speech laws.

That’s not to say that setting a religious text on fire could never be prosecuted under hate crime laws (it all depends on context, as this court case shows), but Swedish law says that the police are only allowed to refuse a permit for a demonstration if it is “necessary to do so with respect to public order or safety at the gathering or, as a direct consequence of the gathering, in its immediate surroundings”.

This means that they cannot refuse a permit even if somebody says they are going to do something illegal, as long as it doesn’t endanger anyone.

Another application for a demonstration permit from the same people, a man and a woman, to walk through Malmö on Saturday while carrying Israeli flags and pulling a copy of the Quran on a leash has been denied by police. That’s because two people going for a walk through the city does not qualify as a public gathering and therefore does not need a formal permit.

A third application to burn a copy of the Quran in Rosengård, an immigrant-heavy area of Malmö, on Sunday is still being processed by police and hasn’t yet received a decision.

Updated to add the last two paragraphs

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