The two policemen who tried to snatch the Qur’an away from the burner said that they were trying to “keep order in the square.” Would they have been so anxious to do so if the man had been trying to burn a Bible? Or is this yet another example of Western authorities bowing to violent intimidation and enforcing Sharia blasphemy laws because they’re too weak and cowardly to stand up for the freedom of expression?
“VIDEO: Here, the police intervene against Koran burners at the Riksdag,” translated from “VIDEO: Här ingriper polisen mot koranbrännare vid riksdagen,” Samhällsnyt, October 23, 2020 (thanks to Kevin):
On Friday, a memorial service was held in Stockholm for teacher Samuel Paty, who was beheaded in France after showing cartoons of Muhammad in his lesson on freedom of expression. The ceremony included a Koran burning outside the Riksdag. When the organizer began, however, two policemen intervened and tried to snatch the book from him, on the pretext that they wanted to “keep order in the square”. The organizer was notified of suspicion of incitement against an ethnic group, but eventually managed to set the book on fire.
On Thursday, Samhällsnytt was able to announce that the Stockholmer, anonymous for his own safety, who organized the so-called Koran football game outside the Riksdag at the end of September, would now visit the power center again and oppose the Police Authority’s claims that it is forbidden to hold Islamophobic demonstrations with Koran burning.
At twelve o’clock, the organizer began his demonstration on Mynttorget and was quickly surrounded by people who wanted to show their support, but also press photographers who documented the gathering. When the organizer started lighting the Koran with the Riksdag in the background, two police officers intervened and asked the organizer what his purpose was.
The officers were met by verbal protests from the people who had gathered at the site to support the rally and said they refused to be denied the right to express their opinions and burn a book that they themselves possess. The police were asked to identify themselves, which they did, and then began to talk about the crime of opinion incitement against ethnic groups.
The police on the spot were called “opinion police” and were asked what crime the organizer was accused of and why, but the police could not or did not want to discuss that. The organizer presented a decision from the Public Prosecutor’s Office that a previous investigation concerning incitement against ethnic groups for having “desecrated the Koran” had been closed. The police took a few steps back and let the burning of the book continue.
The organizer of Samhällsnytt: “Suspected of incitement against ethnic group”
After the organizer finished burning the Koran and cleaned up the remains of the book, he thanked people for stopping by. When he then left the square, the “opinion police” ran after him and he was ordered to identify himself.
– They notified me of suspicion of incitement against an ethnic group even though I showed the prosecutor’s decision from a previous violation, the organizer says.