AMMAN — A week after a politician burned the Quranin Stockholm, Swedish authorities stopped a planned burning of the Torah in front of the Israeli embassy, according to Swedish officials.
Israeli ambassador Ziv Nevo Kulman said on Friday that his country and the local Jewish community had prevented the Torah from being burned in front of the Tel Aviv embassy building in
coordination with Swedish officials.
‘Spark a debate'According to Jo24, a young Swedish Muslim of Arab origin had applied to the Swedish police to burn a copy of the Torah in front of the Israeli embassy.
The man said that as a Muslim, he knew that the burning of scriptures was not permissible, but he wanted to debate and ensure that all scriptures were treated equally and that freedom of expression was guaranteed to all in Sweden.
A Swedish newspaper reported that the 34-year-old man who applied to burn the Torah in front of the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm also applied to burn a bible in central Stockholm's Sergel's Square.
The man told the newspaper, "burning scriptures is disgusting, but I'm angry, and I'm doing it to spark a debate about it."
‘I represent myself’The paper added that the man stated that he was tired of tax money going to protect Rasmus Baludan, who has repeatedly had demonstrations to burn
copies of the Quran.
The young man confirmed that representatives of the Muslim Association at the Stockholm mosque had advised him not to do so, indicating that he would not represent Muslims if he burned down a copy of the Torah.
The man added: "Representatives of an Islamic association contacted me and asked me not to do so. They say it is contrary to Islam and that I do not represent Muslims when I burn a copy of the Torah outside the Israeli embassy.”
“That is okay. I represent myself,” he said, stressing that his work does not target the Jewish minority in Sweden.
Last week, the Swedish government agreed to let Rasmus Baludan, leader of the far-right Danish "hard line" party,
burn a copy of the Quran, citing it as "freedom of expression".