Stockholm

Swedish police on Wednesday granted permission to burn the holy book Quran as part of a protest outside Stockholm’s main mosque, ahead of the Muslim’s three-day Eid Al-Adha holiday, AFP reported.

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Some private individuals had requested the police to allow them to demonstrate even though their earlier requests were blocked.

“I want to protest in front of the large mosque in Stockholm, and I want to express my opinion about the Koran… I will tear up the Koran and burn it," Salwan Momika, 37, wrote in the application, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.

Police said they have called in reinforcements from across the country to maintain order.

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The decision comes two weeks after a Swedish appeals court rejected the police ban on Quran burning protests after the burning of the Muslim holy book outside Turkiye’s embassy in January led to weeks of protests and calls for a boycott of Swedish goods and further stalled Sweden’s NATO membership bid.

Unrest in Sweden over Quran burning during Easter weekend

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The police had refused to authorise the Quran burnings in Stockholm saying that the protest had made Sweden "a higher priority target for attacks."

But this was challenged in the appeals court, which in mid-June ruled that the police were wrong to ban the protest, saying that “the order and security problems" referenced by the police did not have “a sufficiently clear connection to the planned event or its immediate vicinity."

If the protest takes place outside the main mosque on the Sodermalm island, it would be the first such act in the public since a Danish-Swedish far-right extremist caused an uproar in Turkey and other Islamic countries by burning a translated copy of the Quran near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm in January.

The January incident had been severely condemned by several Islamic countries, and the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan had ruled out supporting Sweden’s bid to enter the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation citing Stockholm's failure to crack down on Kurdish groups Turkey views as 'terrorists'.

The political leaders in Sweden have criticised the Quran burnings but defended the right to freedom of expression.

The move reflects the country’s growing tilt towards far-right groups and the emergence of neo-Nazi organisations in recent years, of which is the Sweden Democrats — which became the second-largest party in the Swedish parliament following elections last year.

It is also the largest party in the right-wing ruling bloc, although not recognized as a part of the government.

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