Kuwait announced this week that it will print thousands of copies of the Quran in Swedish to be distributed in the Nordic country, calling it an effort to educate the Swedish people on Islamic “values of coexistence.” The plan was announced after the desecration of a Quran during a one-man anti-Islam protest that Swedish police authorized in Stockholm last month.
Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said the Public Authority for Public Care would print and distribute 100,000 translated copies of the Muslim holy book in Sweden, to “affirm the tolerance of the Islamic religion and promote values of coexistence among all human beings,” according to the country’s state news agency Kuna.
On June 28, Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi Christian who had sought asylum in Sweden on religious grounds, stood outside the Stockholm Central Mosque and threw a copy of the Quran into the air and burned some of its pages.
The stunt came on the first day of Eid-al-Adha, one of the most important festivals on the Islamic calendar, and it triggered anger among Muslims worldwide. Protests were held in many Muslim nations, including Iraq, where hundreds of angry demonstrators stormed the Swedish embassy compound.
CBS News sought comment from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Kuwaiti government’s announcement, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.
The U.S. State Department condemned the desecration of the Quran in Stockholm, but said Swedish authorities were right to authorize the small protest where it occurred.
“We believe that demonstration creates an environment of fear that will impact the ability of Muslims and members of other religious minority groups from freely exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief in Sweden,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “We also believe that issuing the permit for this demonstration supports freedom of expression and is not an endorsement of the demonstration’s actions.”
The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution Wednesday condemning the burning of the Quran as an act of religious hatred. The U.S. and a handful of European nations voted against the resolution, which was introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), arguing that it contradicts their perspectives on human rights and freedom of expression.
If I had relatives killed by extremist Jews (yeah, yeah, just hear me out), would it be okay for me to promote Nazi ideology and idolize the Holocaust? Hate is wrong in every circumstance.
This is burned paper, though. Not quite the same as advocating for burned people. We shouldn’t give human rights to any book. If someone wanted to burn a book they should be free to do so for any reason as long as it’s their book, I guess.
Also, if this would have been a Torah or a Bible used in this demonstration, we wouldn’t even have heard about it, because Muslims seem to be the only ones willing to kill someone for burning paper.
Talk about burning bibles anywhere in rural America and I assure you the threat of jail time is the only thing stopping you from being shot in the street.
Jail time for what crime? Do you have an example of this happening?
I can find one case in 2014 in Arizona. The man burned a bible in front of a Christian-oriented homeless shelter. He was detained on suspicion of one count of unlawful symbol burning.
That seemed like a very strange law, so I looked it up.
If I had to speculate, this law was probably put in place against cross burning by the KKK or similar intimidating acts.
He was arrested on suspicion of unlawful symbol burning, but I can’t find any updates on the case, which likely means he was not prosecuted for it.
I can’t find any more cases besides this and someone being jailed for 11 years for burning a bible. In Egypt.
I think he means “The law against shooting people dead with guns” is what stops people shooting you dead with guns, if you are to mention anything related to bible burning.
However, the info you’ve dug up there is really interesting, thanks!
this guy got it right, but yea thanks for the info dump. I’m sure I can make a trivia night question outta that lol. He also managed to dig up an oddly relevant law as I live in Arizona.
Would it be okay for an angry Palestinian who had their family killed by Israel to burn a Torah?
Or should that Palestinian respect the feelings of the people who follow the ideology responsible for their families death?
It’s a book. Why does it matter?
Didn’t someone from Sweden just try to burn the Torah until they realized Torahs are fucking expensive so they just burned a piece of paper.
I know of at least one instance where they asked for permission to burn torah scrolls outside the Israeli embassy. They got permission, Israel protested and Swedish dept of foreign affairs basically said “We don’t condone the action, but this falls under freedom of expression laws.”
On the day though, instead of doing the burning they instead protested against burning qurans.
Yeah that’s what I am talking about. The protesters just couldn’t afford to burn a Torah Scroll (It’s handwritten on leather and stuff). So they just burned a blank piece of paper instead.
Personally I don’t care what religious text people want to burn but I am just worried it will develop into burning people just like that common phrase.
What ideology did he promote?
Being against Judaism is not the same as being a Nazi whatsoever, so your analogy is just incorrect on a fundamental level. And frankly, it’s so obvious that it feels like a bad faith argument.
And yes, if you had relatives killed by jewish (religion, not ethnicity) people justified by their religion, it would be completely in your right to burn their religious text.
Hell, you’re in your right to go burn any religious texts you want without a reason. (Not recommended in Islamic countries, might lead to a severe case of a death penalty).
Promote Nazis? No. Burn Tora? Yes.
It’s a pretty big leap from burning a holy book (no consequences except hurting people’s feelings) and promoting actual harm against people and idolizing genocide.
Also- you say that like Jewish extremists aren’t currently killing Palestinians.
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1102728946/a-look-at-jewish-extremism-in-israel
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/26/why-israeli-raids-killed-many-palestinians-this-year-explainer
Not okay, but understandable. Two seperate things.