Quran burning in front of Turkish and Danish embassies

The Muslim holy book has been set on fire by an anti-Islam protester outside the Turkish consulate in Denmark as well as close to a mosque in Copenhagen.

Rasmus Paludan, a far-right activist who is dual-nationality Swedish and Danish, angered the Turkish authorities on January 21 by holding a Quran-burning demonstration in Sweden.

He repeated the act on Friday in front of a mosque and the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen, and he vowed to keep doing it every Friday until Sweden is accepted to NATO.

In a historic break from their non-aligned policy, Sweden and its neighbor Finland are attempting to join the military alliance in the midst of the conflict in Ukraine.

However, their membership in NATO would need to be approved by all of the other members, and Turkey has said it will obstruct Sweden’s application, in part because of Paludan’s first prank.

Before then, Ankara had been pressuring the two nations to take action against Kurdish armed groups, activists, and other organizations it views as “terrorists.”

Ambassador is called in

The Danish ambassador was called into the Turkish foreign ministry, where Turkish authorities “seriously denounced the license provided for this offensive behavior which plainly constituted a hate crime,” according to the state-run Anadolu Agency in Turkey.

The ambassador was informed that Turkey anticipated permission to be canceled and that “Denmark’s stance is unacceptable.”

Later, in a statement, the Turkish foreign ministry denounced Paludan as a “Islam-hating charlatan” and expressed regret that the rally had been permitted to be held.

The practice of peaceful coexistence is threatened by showing tolerance for such horrible crimes that outrage the sensibilities of millions of people living in Europe, according to the ministry. It also encourages assaults that are racist, xenophobic, and anti-Muslim.

The event won’t affect Denmark’s “excellent relationship” with Turkey, the foreign minister of Denmark, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said Danish media, adding that Copenhagen planned to discuss its legislation preserving freedoms with Ankara.

Now, Løkke Rasmussen said, “our responsibility is to communicate to Turkey about the circumstances in Denmark with our open democracy, and that there is a distinction between Denmark as a nation – and our people as such – and then about individual people who have highly differing opinions.”

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, advised Stockholm not to anticipate support for its NATO application following Paludan’s incident in Sweden last week. A crucial conference in Brussels that was scheduled to discuss the accession of Sweden and Finland was also postponed by Turkey indefinitely.

Police security

Paludan initially set fire to a Muslim holy book outside a mosque in Copenhagen on Friday. According to the news agency The Associated Press, loud music was playing from the mosque as he was speaking, maybe in an effort to drown out what he was saying.

Paludan, who was encircled by riot police and was wearing a protective helmet, declared during a live broadcast on his Facebook page, “This mosque has no place in Denmark.”

Paludan was then taken away in a police vehicle while under police protection.

Paludan was later reported as stating, “Once he [Erdogan] has let Sweden into NATO, I pledge that I will not burn the Quran outside the Turkish Embassy,” while using a bullhorn in front of the Turkish Embassy. If not, I’ll do it every Friday at 2:00.

The far-right groups Paludan, a lawyer, founded in both Sweden and Denmark have not been successful in gaining any seats in national, regional, or municipal elections. His party only garnered 156 votes across the country in Sweden’s parliamentary election last year.

On Friday, demonstrations were staged to condemn Paludan’s protest in Sweden and a related event in the Netherlands in a number of nations with a significant Muslim population.

People calmly dispersed after the condemnation and demonstrations in nations including Pakistan, Iraq, and Lebanon. Police in Pakistan’s capital city of Islamabad halted several protesters who were marching in the direction of the Swedish Embassy.

In the meanwhile, in response to the Quran-burning episodes, the US issued a security alert, warning US residents in Turkey of potential reprisal actions against places of worship or locations frequented by Westerners.