Sweden jails activist who burned Quran for inciting hatred – DW – 11/05/2024
www.dw.com
Far-right activist Rasmus Paludan caused outrage when he burned a copy of the Quran in 2022. A judge said his actions went beyond reasonable criticism of Islam and were intended to defame Muslims.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/21671511

Summary

A Swedish court sentenced far-right activist Rasmus Paludan to four months in jail for inciting hatred against Muslims after he burned a Quran at two protests in Malmo in 2022.

The court ruled that Paludan’s remarks and actions went beyond permissible criticism of Islam, aiming instead to insult and defame Muslims, Arabs, and Africans. Paludan, a dual citizen of Sweden and Denmark, plans to appeal the verdict.

His Quran burnings previously strained Sweden’s relations with Turkey, complicating Sweden’s bid to join NATO.

  • mumblerfish@lemmy.worldEnglish
    32·
    9 hours ago

    Note that he is not sentenced for the burning itself exclusivley, but all the context of his actions. For example, in his “critique of islam” as he probably would put it, he generalize it to “arabs and africans” and he, according to the court, insulted a person present at his demo “based on skin color and ethnic background”. As I understand it, this was a big part of his demos; go to a segregated area, yell insults at non-white people to try and make them angry. This is also what seems he is, at least partly, sentenced for.