By AASIM HAFEEZ
The burning of the Holy Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Sweden encircled by almost 100 people who just gather to see the stupidity of an idiot on 21 January 2023 is the most emotionally tragic event of the current time not only for the Muslims but for all of the humanity.
Unfortunately, it had not happened the first time if we see the dark dirty biographical marks of this psychopath named Rasmus Paludan, He has committed such sort of unethical serious crimes many times before this he has been found guilty of sexual harassment of girls and boys and also was involved in registered cases of stalking the boys who were underage less than 18 years to harass them sexually also before committing this most unethical and unjustifiable a crime in Sweden, which shows his mental illness, retardation, and psychopathic deviation and mental sickness. He is just a living cancer of society filled with hatefulness and the very extremism at this time who should have been treated as soon as possible by giving severe punishment by putting him behind the bars or hanged publicly to eradicate such sort of cancer from its very roots. As he had done the heinous crime publicly, fully intentionally and deliberately to hurt the Muslims or just to earn fake fame with days and paved the way towards disturbance, anarchy and chaos in the whole of the world.
In April 2019, Paludan held a demonstration in Viborg, Denmark, which led to chaos with the presence of about 100 counter-protesters. Three people were arrested and, in June 2019, a 24-year-old Syrian in Denmark was sentenced to 60 days in jail for having thrown a rock at Paludan. The offender was also to be deported after the jail term and was banned from returning to Denmark for six years.
In connection with a planned Quran burning in Malmö in August 2020, Paludan was banned from entering Sweden for two years but in October he was granted Swedish citizenship due to his father’s citizenship.
In April 2022, Paludan again organised and announced several demonstrations in major Swedish cities, where he burnt or said he would burn the Quran. This led to rioting by counter-protesters, including the destruction of private and public property and attacks on police. Riots also erupted in the lead-up to his demonstration.
On 21 January 2023, Paludan took part in a small demonstration, set up by journalist Chang Frick, in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm and set fire to the Quran with a lighter, upsetting Turkey and causing repercussions regarding Sweden’s application to join NATO. Not even a single sensible person would like to see such an unethical pathetic demonstration by his own will because it has been revealed that all of those idiots who had been gathered there were highly paid to participate as an audience and were funded heavily according to authentic sources. This unethical act of a psychopath has raised many questions for all human rights activists.
If it could be covered as a right of freedom of expression then what does it mean by the laws and constitutions we are following so far? One fundamental question arises here if someone sexually harasses a woman in the name of his freedom of expression should we tolerate him? If someone abuses someone or bullies then too is it also justifiable?
Swedish Government support to such a psychopathic person to perform this heinous act by providing such special security is a fascistic form of supporting psychopathic emotional terrorism to increase religious intolerance and extremism all over the world. The Islamophobic practice is at its peak in the name of freedom of expression by the Sweden government in this unethical case which could lead the world towards more religious intolerance and extremism.
It is already clear that this act would hurt the religious sentiments and emotions of all Muslims across the globe. In this way, it would pave the way for more hatred and would widen the gap between the Muslims and The Swedish Govt deeply. Muslims are very much sensitive and emotional in these types of matters and this could be seen as an alarming signal of a bomb of sour severe consequences which will burst soon in the shape of strikes, riots and protests all over the world. Before this, the sketches of the Holy Prophet ( PBUH) by a Denmark journalist has set the fire for the Muslims and this would be considered as additional fuel to the already burning fire of the Emotions of Muslims all over the world. The assassination of Salman Rushdie and the attack on that stupid journalist who had made the sketches are not yet become a forgotten history of a long time but are just some recent events which indicate the rebellious nature and the intensity of attachments of the Muslims towards their religion and The Holy Prophet (PBUH). Their attachment towards their Holy Book The Quran is not less in any shape.
This incident would create a new wave of religious intolerance and extremism as it would evoke the very sentiments of revenge among the Muslims. It could be seen as pumping and pampering the psychopathic, mentally sick and frustrated person by backing him up against the sensitive sentiments of all Muslims. Where, why and how would it be called justice to give such immunity, safety and security to just a single individual to fulfil his madness against the sentiments and emotions of one billion Muslims and even against the whole of humanity?
Is it fair enough to make some person happy by giving him so-called freedom of expression and enrage millions of Muslims? Muslims had never compromised over their self-respect and their honour. The outcomes and consequences could be uncertain and unpredictable. But the real concerns are related to the state of Sweden and its very involvement in this issue. It is the very reason that the U.S and Sweden have issued a high alert to their citizens to remain careful and attentive to any kind of uncertain attack from the Muslims especially from Turkish people, although Turkey has cleared that all of such blames have baseless and Turkey is not in favour of violence and state would never ever sponsor such attacks. But usually, in these types of matters Non-State Actors (NSA) or individuals could retaliate and become rebellious by their own selves, just like in the cases of attacks on Salman Rushdie. Even if an ordinary Muslim does not need any kind of support or brainwashing, he could deliberately dare to attack any of Muslim state to take revenge for this humiliation of his religion. Therefore, the reaction to this action could be received from any region because Muslims have been spread all over the world and perhaps, they are the most strongly attached to their religion emotionally than all of the others. As we all believe that the state should remain secular and should not interfere in the religious affairs of any religion, but here Sweden has crossed that red line and supported the person by going out of the limits of statism and allowing him to ridicule the religion and sentiments of the millions of the Muslims. Now, what would be the outcomes that come out for the state that could be terrible enough to shock all states unfortunately or maybe? It all depends upon the attitude of the Swedish leaders and their adopted policies, we could just hope and pray for some better settlement of the issue instead of intolerance and tantamount treatment of torture and terrorism.
Turkish officials condemned the Quran-burning protest on Twitter and Swedish authorities for allowing it. Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called it a hateful crime against humanity. Ruling party spokesman Omer Celik accused Swedish authorities of protecting against hate crimes.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told journalists that attacking the Quran can’t be considered freedom of expression and said he hoped Swedish authorities would cancel the permit for the protest. Erdogan’s nationalist ally, Devlet Bahceli, said parliament wouldn’t ratify Sweden’s NATO membership “under these conditions.”
Turkey summoned the Swedish ambassador Friday to condemn the planned protests, saying protests by pro-Kurdish groups linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, would be a violation of the joint memorandum signed between Turkey, Sweden and Finland that prevented a Turkish veto for the Nordic countries’ NATO accession in June. Turkey, the US and the EU consider the PKK to be a terrorist group, and Sweden and Finland have also “confirmed” that classification in their memorandum.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will not allow Sweden to join the NATO military alliance as long as the Scandinavian country allows protests that desecrate Islamic scriptures.
Turkey has indefinitely postponed a key meeting in Brussels that was due to discuss her two Nordic countries joining NATO. “Don’t worry, Sweden! As long as you allow my holy book, the Quran, to be burned and torn, and you do it with the security forces, we will say ‘yes’ to your NATO membership.” I will not say, ”Erdogan said in a speech on his verdict by party lawmakers.
The protests against Sweeden for allowing such crime in the name of freedom of expression have been going on all around the world, especially in Islamic states, like Afghanistan, Indonesia, Baghdad, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and many other countries where the protestors set on fire the flag of Sweden to condemn its act and burn the statutes of the criminal who had committed the crime and they demand furiously from International Community to take such measures by which such religious crimes could be aborted and punished and draw the attention of the world community to make such strong laws that no one can again dare to commit such serious crime again against any religion in this world.
(RAO AASIM HAFEEZ, is a Scholar of International Relations and Social Studies, Analyst and Researcher of IR and Defence and Strategic Studies based in Islamabad )
