STOCKHOLM – A court in Sweden has convicted a man for inciting hatred with a sacrilegious act of burning of the Holy Quran, an act he had committed in 2020.
This is for the first time that the Sweden courts have convicted a person for desecration of the Holy Quran. The development comes after series of desecrations that have sparked outrage across the globe with Muslim world asking the Swedish government to take measures against such sacrilegious acts.
The Swedish government has been condemning such acts, but repeatedly upheld the freedom of expression laws of the country.
The Linkoping district court declared the 27-year-old man guilty of “agitation against an ethnic group”, saying his act had “targeted Muslims and not Islam as a religion”, and “can hardly be said to have encouraged an objective and responsible debate”.
In September 2020, the man had shared a video on social media platforms, showing him burning the Holy Quran outside the Linkoping cathedral on a barbecue. He also used derogatory music for the video clip.
The court said “the music is strongly associated with the attack in Christchurch”, New Zealand, in 2019 in which over 50 people were killed at two mosques.
“The court finds that the chosen music to a film with such content cannot be interpreted any other way than as a threat against Muslims with an allusion to their faith,” the court wrote in a statement.
“The film’s content and the form of its publication are such that it is clear that the defendant’s primary purpose could not have been other than to express threats and contempt,” it said.
Another incident of Quran desecration in Sweden outrages Muslims
