Stockholm police on Friday said they have authorized a protest this weekend by a man who has stated that he wants to burn the Torah and the Bible outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm.
Israeli officials called on the Swedish government to stop the protest, which is scheduled to take place Saturday outside the diplomatic mission.
Sweden recently faced strong criticism from Muslim countries for allowing protesters to burn the Quran at small anti-Islam demonstrations.
The rally is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Saturday, between 13:00 and 14:00 local time.
Responding to Agence France-Presse, the police claimed that permission for this gathering was not given for an official request to burn religious texts, with the police clarifying that they approved a public gathering in which an “opinion” would be expressed based on the constitutional right of freedom of assembly.
“The distinction is important,” added Karina Skagerlid, a spokeswoman for the Stockholm police.
However, the rally drew strong condemnation from Israel and Jewish organisations.
“I condemned the burning of the Koran, which is sacred to Muslims around the world, and today I am devastated that the same fate awaits the Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people,” Israeli President Isaac Herzog commented.
For his part, Yaakov Hagol, president of the World Zionist Organization, held that the granting of such a permit by the police did not fall under “freedom of expression, but rather anti-Semitism.”
On 28 June, an Iraqi refugee in Sweden burned a few pages of the Koran in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque on the day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
This event provoked a reaction in the Muslim world and from the UN Human Rights Council, which adopted a resolution the day before yesterday, Wednesday, condemning the burning of the Koran and other acts of religious hatred.
However, some countries, mainly in the West, expressed their opposition to anti-blasphemy laws during the discussions, while strongly condemning such acts.
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