A 32-year-old Muslim man who announced his intention to burn a copy of the Torah outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm on Saturday instead decided at the last minute not to carry out the desecration.
Ahmad A., a Syrian immigrant to Sweden, obtained permission from Swedish police to carry out the protest, but when the time came to set fire to the holy text, he threw the lighter on the ground, DW reported.
“I never thought I would burn any books,” he said, according to the Swedish SVT broadcaster. “I’m a Muslim. We don’t burn [books].”
The would-be protester explained that the real reason for the threatened desecration was to draw attention to the current disparity between Swedish law – which allows such a horrific act – and its impact on the religious groups whose sacred tomes are destroyed in such protests.
“This is a response to the people who burn the Quran,” he said. “I want to show that freedom of expression has limits that must be taken into account.
“I want to show that we have to respect each other, we live in the same society. If I burn the Torah, another the Bible, another the Quran, there will be war here. What I wanted to show is that it’s not right to do it.”
A Syrian Muslim who obtained permission from the Swedish police to burn the Torah and the Bible in front of the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, has chosen not to burn the books.
Ahmet Allus said he wanted to draw attention to the fact that no sacred book should be burned.
“I am a… pic.twitter.com/z92qDjrMna
— 5Pillars (@5Pillarsuk) July 15, 2023
Israeli, Jewish Leaders Slam Intended Desecration
Israeli and Jewish leaders condemned the intended protest, and Israeli Chief Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak appealed in a poignant letter to the King of Sweden, urging him to stop the desecration.
“Your Highness, I appeal to your noble character and your dedication to promoting peace and harmony among all people,” the Chief Rabbi wrote. “I kindly request that you utilize your influence to ensure that the burning of the Holy Bible does not take place,” he added.
“I strongly condemn Swedish authorities’ decision to allow the burning of the Hebrew Bible in front of the Israeli embassy in its country,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “The State of Israel takes very seriously this shameful decision that harms the most sacred [scripture] of the Jewish people. The holy books of all religious must be respected.”
President Isaac Herzog wrote in a separate statement that he “unequivocally” condemns the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books. “As the president of Israel I condemned the burning of the Quran, sacred to Muslims world over, and I am now heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people.
“Permitting the defacement of sacred texts is not an exercise in freedom of expression, it is blatant incitement and an act of pure hate. The whole world must joint together in condemning unequivocally this repulsive act.”
Yaakov Hagoel, Chairman of the World Zionist Organization, wrote in a statement that the permission to burn a Bible in front of the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm “is not freedom of expression but antisemitism. Eighty years after the cursed Holocaust and signs we wanted to forget we are again reminded to stand guard! I also strongly condemn the burning of the Quran. This is not the way of the Jewish people and I call upon the Swedish government to reverse the decision of the police of allowing the antisemitic burning of the Bible. Enough hate.”
The umbrella organization of the Jewish communities in Sweden released a similar statement, condemning the intended burning of the holy text. “As a people of the book, the Torah is our most sacred treasure of moral codes and ethics that have changed the world we live in,” they wrote.
