A new survey conducted on the behalf of Swedish national television broadcaster SVT has revealed that the overwhelming majority of Swedes defend a prohibition on the public desecration of religious scriptures, such as the Quran and Bible.
The findings have disclosed a remarkable shift in the Scandinavian opinion on the boundaries of speech freedom and religious intolerance .
The survey, executed by Kantar Public, has shown that 54% of respondents believe that burning holy texts of any religion in public spaces must be forbidden.
34% believed it is an exercise of the freedom of expression, and 13% were ambivalent.
This indicates a 11% increase in those in favor of a ban on such acts, when a similar survey was carried out by Kantar for TV4, a Swedish Television network.
The new survey comes at a time marked by heated global debates and protests denouncing the burning of Qurans in front of the Stockholm mosque during Eid Al Adha.
Many governments and concerned individuals , especially in Asia and the Middle East, condemned Sweden’s decision to allow a Quran-burning demonstration in front of a mosque last week.
Pakistan’s prime minister called for nationwide protests , while the Pope said he was “angry and disgusted” by the acts.
The United Nations scheduled an emergency meeting to discuss the incident.
According to Toivo Sjoren, the head of opinion at Kantar Public, the global reaction to Quran desecration may have informed the shift in public opinion.
Although the majority of Swedes disagree with the burning of sacred books, the practice of desecration is likely to persist in the opposition.
While the police authorities had refused to grant permission for two Quran-burning demonstrations in 2023, the Court of Appeals vetoed the decisions.
The Swedish Government expressed its condemnation of the Quran burning , calling it an islamophobic act and charging the man with agitation against an ethnic group.
The Swedish foreign ministry stated that“The burning of the Quran, or any other holy text, is an offensive and disrespectful act and a clear provocation’’.
It maintained that expressions of racism, xenophobia, and intolerance are not welcome in Sweden and Europe.
Meanwhile, the ministry added that Sweden has a “constitutionally protected right to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration”.
Despite the Swedish government’s condemnation of the burning of Muslim’s holy book, it can not go beyond enacting a law on incitement against ethnic groups.
A complete prohibition of desecrating holy scriptures would require the reintroduction of an already abandoned law.
Although most Swedish people oppose the burning of religious texts, SVT revealed on Wednesday that three new applications to desecrate the Quran, Bible, and Torah are submitted to the police authorities.
One application, submitted by a woman in her 50s, requested permission to burn the Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm as soon as possible.
Another application , submitted by a man in his 30s , asked the court to allow him to burn the Torah and the Bible in front of the Israeli embassy on July 15.
The man wrote that the act would be a response to the Quran burning last week and “a symbolic gathering for the sake of freedom of speech”.
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