Displaying respect for other religions, a Muslim in Sweden did not set fire to the Torah or the Bible despite permission from the Swedish authorities.
The Torah-burning was to take place on Saturday July 15 in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.
The individual, identified as Ahmed A, had obtained permission from the police to burn the Torah and the Bible.
Surrounded by television cameras, he pulled out a lighter, held a copy of the Torah aloft and then in a remarkable gesture of respect for other religions, he threw the lighter on the ground.
“I never thought I would burn any books. I’m a Muslim, we don’t burn,” broadcaster SVT quoted the man as telling those gathered to witness the spectacle.
Ahmed said the main goal of the demonstration was to draw attention to the difference between exercising one’s right to free speech and offending other ethnic groups.
“This is a response to the people who burn the Qur’an. I want to show that freedom of expression has limits that must be taken into account,” explained Ahmed.
“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 Qur’an, there will be war here. What I wanted to show is that it’s not right to do it,” he added.
Some context is necessary.
Last January, Rasmus Paludan, an extremist right-wing Swedish politician, burnt a copy of the Qur’an.
The police had given him permission to do so and provided him protection under the rubric of his right to ‘free speech’.
A week later, when a Muslim sought permission from the police to burn a copy of the Torah in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, it was denied.
The police alleged it would be provocative and offend the sensitivities of the Jewish people.
No such concern for the sensitivities of Muslims was shown.
Then, on June 28, coinciding with the celebration of Eid al Adha, Salwan Momika, 37, an Iraqi refugee living in Sweden, not only burnt a copy of the Qur’an in front of Stockholm’s largest mosque, but also indulged in other acts of desecration.
It has now emerged that Momika has links with the Israeli spy agency, Mossad.
Regarding permission for Torah burning, Israeli president Isaac Herzog, the fascist anti-Muslim minister Itamar Ben Gvir and a number of other Israeli officials and Jewish organisations condemned the Swedish government’s decision.
The fact that Ahmed did not burn the Torah is a welcome development.
No religious books should be burned anywhere regardless of one’s disagreements with others.
The zionists who became hysterical about permission to burn the Torah did not reflect that Israel’s illegal squatters have on numerous occasions desecrated copies of the noble Qur’an in Occupied Palestine.
One such incident occurred in the zionist-occupied West Bank town of Oref, where the squatters not only desecrated the mosque with their filthy boots abut also ripped pages of the noble Qur’an.
Following the Qur’an-burning incidents in Sweden, the Muslim world issued a number of condemnations.
This seemed to have some effect on the Swedish government which announced it would consider the Qur’an-burning incidents.
How far the Swedes would go to fulfill their pledge is yet to be seen.
A start, it seems, has been made.