Stockholm police have refused to issue a permit for an event in which the Quran was to be burned outside the Turkish embassy in the city, according to Swedish public broadcaster SVT.
“We spoke with SÄPO [the Swedish Security Service] before we made this decision,” Ola Österling, press secretary for the Stockholm Police Department, told SVT.
Rasmus Paludan, a politician from Sweden’s far-right Stram Kurs (Hard Line) party, burned a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish diplomatic mission in Stockholm on January 21.
A day later the Quran was torn up by the leader of the right-wing, anti-Islamist Pegida group at a small demonstration in The Hague. On January 28, Paludan burned another Quran in Denmark.
SÄPO announced on Wednesday that there has been an increase in the number of threats against Sweden due to Paludan’s stunt.
According to SVT, the request for this latest permit didn’t come from Paludan.
Protests have taken place across in Turkey and other Muslim countries since the Quran burning in Stockholm, which was condemned by foreign governments, international organizations and rights groups.
Upon the invitation of Turkey, members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) convened in Jeddah on January 31 to condemn the recent burning and desecration of the Quran in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark.
The OIC member states also called on these countries to take effective action to prevent a recurrence of “Islamophobic attacks.“
