A man set fire to pages of the Quran outside Stockholm’s main mosque on Wednesday, June 28.
The burning caused an instant condemnation from Turkey, which is holding up Sweden’s bid to join NATO, only days ahead of a summit.
Swedish police had granted a permit for the protest in line with free-speech protections. Still, the police opened an investigation into the man, originally from Iraq, for “agitation against an ethnic group.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan called the burning of the pages “despicable.”
“It is unacceptable to allow these anti-Islamic actions under the pretext of freedom of expression,” Hakan Fidan wrote on Twitter.
“Turning a blind eye to such atrocious acts is to be complicit,” he added.
Turkey is blocking Sweden’s NATO membership bid due to what it perceives as Stockholm’s failure to crack down on Kurdish groups it considers terrorists. The country took particular offence at another Quran burning outside its Stockholm embassy back in January.
Source: yahoo.com
