Is Islam under threat ?

On August 28, riots broke out in the city of Malmo in Sweden after a member of the ‘Stram Kurs’ group burnt a copy of the Holy Quran.

The burning of the Quran was a part of an anti-Islam protest which took place in Sweden’s Malmo city, following the arrest of one Rasmus Paludan. He is the leader of a Danish anti-immigration political party ‘Hard-Line’ and was supposed to hold a meeting in the city.

Reports suggested that Paludanone had been banned from Sweden for two years due to concerns about him breaking the Swedish law. As such, he was stopped at the border and was denied entry into Malmo. Last year, Paludan had set a Quran on fire after wrapping the book with a piece of bacon.

Muslims mobs unleash mayhem on the streets of Sweden

The incident triggered radical Islamists to take to the streets and unleash violence. While the rioters first protested against the actions of the group, they soon resorted to burning tyres and pelting rocks at the police.

Following the events of the day, rioters pelted rocks at vehicles and police personnel who were trying to maintain the law and order situation in the city.

Incidents of burning the Holy Quran

Anti-Islamic rallies were often held in Norway, sometimes with the burning of the Holy Quran, not the first of its kind this year, but its tragic history spans the past few years.

In 2019, Norway was shocked by a far-right attack targeting the Muslim community, where a far-right group wanted to burn the holy Quran in the largely Muslim-populated area of Kristiansand.

In 2011, anti-Muslim neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik massacred 77 people in Norway’s worst peacetime atrocity that shook the country, the majority of them teenagers at a youth camp.

Breivik is serving Norway’s longest prison sentence, 21 years, which can be extended if he is still considered a threat to society. However, since then, he has become a reference point for many people who are obsessed with violent far-right ideologies.

Why it happens in Norway

The extreme right-wing group ‘Stop the Islamisation of Norway’ (SION), attempted to burn the Quran during a protest in Norway’s Kristiansand last year.

This action sparked anger among Muslims and raised questions about rising far-right sentiments in Norway. The Scandinavian nation is well known for its prosperity, beautiful nature and generally moderate politics.

There are more than 150,000 Muslims living in Norway out of a population of five million. Norway has been accused of remaining silent and inactive against rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the country.

In August last year, a gunman attacked a mosque ‘inspired’ by the New Zealand and El Paso anti-Muslim attacks. Two bystanders stopped the would-be gunman opening fire on worshippers in the city of Baerum.

The populist Right-Wing Party (Fremskrittspartiet, FrP) entered parliament in alliance with the Conservative Party for the first time in 2013. The FrP was established in 1987 on an anti-Muslim and anti-immigration platform.

Norwegian Prime Minister

In August last year, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg had moved forward with plans to tackle expressions of hatred against Muslims in Norway.

Four of her government ministers launched the plan,  just weeks after a young Norwegian man attacked a mosque and murdered his adopted Chinese sister after becoming a white supremacist.

“We already have a string of surveys that show there’s hostility towards Muslims in Norway, and that there’s a need for a plan to address that,” said Culture Minister Trine Skei Grande of the Liberal Party when unveiling the new plan in August this year.

The Norwegian government already has plans for tackling racism and discrimination in general, along with anti-Semitism.

Survey shows anti-Muslim sentiments

A report from Oslo’s Holocaust Centre in 2017 showed that negative stereotypes about Muslims community are alarmingly widespread in Norway. Some 40 per cent of those questioned said they believed Muslims pose a threat to Norwegian culture.

Another 32 per cent agreed with a statement that Muslims “want to take over Europe,” while 48 per cent supported the claims that “Muslims have much of the blame themselves for the rising hatred towards them.”

French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo

Charlie Hebdo, a weekly magazine based in the French capital, Paris, regularly publishes cartoons, reports and jokes, with controversial articles against not only Islam but also Christianity, Judaism and culture. The journal was started in 1970 and closed in 1981 for such articles.

Charlie Hebdo has started his services again in 1992, after which a number of controversial articles, cartoons and reports were published.

In 2011 and 2015   attacks were carried out on the publication over blasphemous sketches of the Holy Prophet.

Reprints sketches of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

Charlie Hebdo, the target of a massacre by gunmen in 2015, said on Tuesday it was republishing hugely controversial sketches of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) to mark this week’s start of the trial of alleged accomplices to the attack.

The cover of the new issue has a dozen sketches of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), reproducing images that sparked protests when they were first published and a debate about the limits of freedom of speech.

“We will never lie down. We will never give up,” director Laurent “Riss” Sourisseau wrote in an editorial to go with the blasphemous sketches.

Twelve people, including some of France’s most famous cartoonists, were killed on January 7, 2015, when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi went on a gun rampage at the paper’s offices in Paris.

The latest Charlie Hebdo cover shows a dozen sketches first published by the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten in 2005 — and then reprinted by the French weekly in 2006, unleashing a storm of anger across the Muslim world.

In the centre of the cover is a sketch drawn by cartoonist Jean Cabut, known as Cabu, who lost his life in the massacre.

Pakistan condemned French magazine’s decision

Pakistan on Tuesday “condemned in the strongest terms” the decision by the French magazine to re-publish the controversial and offensive sketches.

Foreign Office spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri in stated that the decision of the French magazine would amount to undermining the global desire for peaceful co-existence and a threat to social and interfaith harmony.

The FO spokesman said Pakistan condemns in the strongest terms the decision by the French magazine, Charlie Hebdo, to re-publish deeply offensive caricature of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

People should not be offended over religious beliefs

The world today is a global village, and people should not be hurt based on their religious beliefs.

Muslims do not tolerate the insolence of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the desecration of the Holy Quran they always openly speak out against it.

By publishing controversial and offensive sketches and the desecration of the Holy Quran all Muslim countries, including Pakistan, are being pushed towards World War III.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should address these issues as the West views religion differently than this region.

The OIC must address the fact that the entire Muslim world is being condemned for the actions of a few (the Charlie Hebdo attackers) who resort to extremism.