Ankara: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that another incident of Quran burning in Sweden was unacceptable and accused the Stockholm authorities of “complicity in a crime.”
Earlier in the day, media reported that the Swedish police allowed a protest action featuring the burning of a Quran near the main mosque in Stockholm on the first day of Eid al-Adha, one of Islam’s major holidays.
“I condemn the heinous act committed in Sweden against our holy book, the Holy Quran, on the first day of the blessed Eid al-Adha. It is unacceptable that these anti-Islamic acts are allowed under the pretext of freedom of speech. Turning a blind eye to such heinous acts is complicity in a crime,” Fidan said on Twitter.
In April, the Stockholm Administrative Court ruled that the Stockholm police’s refusal to issue a permit for the Quran burnings near the Iraqi and Turkish embassies was unfounded. The police later appealed the decision in court.
In January, Rasmus Paludan, the leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs, burned copies of the Quran in Sweden in protest against the Turkish leadership. In response, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Stockholm should not count on Ankara’s support for its NATO membership bid.
