The burning will take place at Medborgarplatsen on Södermalm in Stockholm on Wednesday at 1.30pm, reports TV4. The applicant is an Iraqi citizen in his 30s who lives in Sweden, it says. He is probably the first to have been granted a license since the court in the Swedish capital decided that the police’s ban on Koran burnings was against the law. Muslim demonstrators in Lebanon burned the Swedish flag after a Koran burning in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Photo: Hassan Ammar / AP Tryggingspolitiet Säpo tells Svenska Dagbladet that actions like this can increase the threat of violence. The police have prepared themselves during the morning in case of unrest. – We are prepared for various developments and have taken the measures we see as necessary, says the police’s press spokesperson, Helena Boström Thomas, to SVT. The police have not said specifically that the person will burn anything, but say in a statement that it is a “demonstration about the Koran”. But they point out that there is currently a bonfire ban throughout Sweden, and that breaking this can lead to fines. – The constitution overrides the general ban on bonfires. The police intervene if there is danger, Boström Thomas told the broadcaster. New meeting about NATO membership Previous Koran burnings outside, among others, the Turkish embassy in Stockholm have led to massive demonstrations in large parts of the Middle East. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been clear that he would not give approval to Swedish membership as long as Sweden allowed Koran burning. There will be an extra meeting between Sweden, Finland and Turkey in Brussels next week, confirmed Nato’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a visit to Vilnius on Monday. – I spoke to President Erdogan on Sunday. I am also in contact with Sweden and Finland, and we have agreed to hold a meeting at a high level. Among the participants will be foreign ministers, heads of the intelligence services and national security advisers. Stoltenberg together with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson at a press conference on membership in March. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT / AP The aim of the meeting will be to get closer to Turkish approval of the NATO application to Sweden. Stoltenberg has previously said that he wants Sweden into the defense alliance before the summit in Vilnius on 11 and 12 July. It is Turkey that seems to be the last obstacle. The country has been particularly dissatisfied with the fact that the banned Kurdish Workers’ Party is allowed to function relatively freely in Sweden. – The timing is probably hardly accidental Turkey expert Einar Wigen does not think the reaction from Erdogan will be as strong as what was seen during the presidential election in the country. Wigen is professor in Turkey studies at the University of Oslo. Photo: University of Oslo – One can get similar reactions, of course, but I think it is less likely that the president and the political leadership in Turkey will make this up. – It is both because the election is over, and because they probably saw that it took a little longer than they were comfortable with last time. At the same time, he believes that those who have now applied to burn the Koran in front of a mosque in Stockholm are clearly trying to “provoke a reaction”. – What is unnecessary about this is that the act of burning Korans in front of Turkish mosques or the embassy is done exclusively to make the Turks stand out as easy-thinking, hot-tempered, vulnerable and so on. – The timing is probably hardly accidental. It is probably designed to interfere with this extra meeting that takes place next week. It was the Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan who burned the Koran outside the embassy in January. Photo: Joakim Registad / news Not the most important issue for Turkey Wigen does not want to speculate whether further Koran burnings will have any impact on the membership process. He still believes that there are other combat matters which are much higher on the agenda for the Turkish authorities. – The big issue is how much they can get out of Nato, he says, and gives arms agreements as one example. – You no longer see NATO as a community, but as a counterpart you can push out for good. It is a problem for NATO and Sweden, but it is also a problem for Turkey.
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Has been given permission to burn the Koran in front of a mosque in Stockholm – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
