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STOCKHOLM: A man who was expected to burn the Torah and the Bible outside the Israeli embassy has abandoned the plan and held a demonstration against desecrating holy books.
Ahmad Alloush pulled a lighter from his string bag and threw it to the ground in Swedish capital on Saturday, saying he had never intended to burn holy books.
He then brought out a Quran and criticised previous incidents where copies of the Islamic holy book were burned in Sweden.
“If you want to criticise Islam, that is OK”, he said. But burning the Quran is “not freedom of expression”, he continued, switching from Swedish to English; it is “an action”.
Swedish courts have previously permitted the burnings as they constitutionally protected the right to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration.
“This is a response to those who burned the Quran – freedom of speech has its limits”, Alloush said.
He repeatedly said in both Arabic and Swedish that he could never burn a holy book and just wanted to demonstrate against the burning of the Quran.
“I made people angry,” he conceded when asked about the reaction to the news that someone planned to burn the Torah and the Bible in Stockholm. “They can be happy now”, he quipped.
Alloush said he was originally from Syria but had lived in Sweden for eight years and was based in the southwestern Boras municipality.
Swedish police said they had granted a permit for a protest which would include burning holy texts outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, sparking condemnation from Israel and Jewish organisations.
The controversial protest comes weeks after a man set fire to pages of the Holy Quran outside Stockholm’s main mosque, leading to widespread outrage and condemnations around the world.
Stockholm police stressed that in line with Swedish legislation they granted permits for people to hold public gatherings and not for the activities conducted during them.
“The police does not issue permits to burn various religious texts — the police issues permits to hold a public gathering and express an opinion,” said Carina Skagerlind, press officer for Stockholm police.
Sweden’s global image has suffered in the wake of the recent burning, as governments in several Muslim countries condemned the decision to allow the burning to take place.
