Swedish police receive request to burn Jewish Torah scroll and New Testament after Quran is publicly burned

The Swedish police have received requests to burn several religious books, including a Jewish Torah scroll and a New Testament, following the public burning of a Quran last week

The burning of the Quran outside of Sweden’s main mosque in Stockholm on June 28 led to uproar throughout the Muslim world and brought international condemnation.

A police official confirmed on Swedish public radio that they had received three separate requests to burn religious texts after the burning of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God.

The government of Sweden condemned the Quran burning, with the Swedish Foreign Ministry issuing the following statement: “Expressions of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance have no place in Sweden or in Europe.”

The man who filed for a permit to burn the Quran was an Iraqi activist Salwan Momika.

In addition, a woman in her 50s filed a request to burn a Quran “as soon as possible.”

Police have not released the identity of the man who filed a request to burn the Torah scroll and New Testament, but reported that it was a man in his 30s.

He reportedly made the request to burn the two religious books outside of the Israeli embassy in Sweden on July 15 as “a symbolic gathering for the sake of freedom of speech.”

Swedish police said they are reviewing the requests.

Israel’s Ambassador to Sweden Ziv Nevo Kulman condemned the requests to burn religious books in a post to social media.

“I am shocked and horrified by the prospect of the burning of more books in Sweden, be it the Quran, the Torah or any other holy book. This is clearly an act of hatred that must be stopped,” Kulman wrote.

I am shocked and horrified by the prospect of the burning of more books in Sweden, be it the Koran, the Torah or any other holy book. This is clearly an act of hatred that must be stopped. https://t.co/slQDZlRUMR

— Ziv Nevo Kulman (@zivnk) July 5, 2023

In January, a Quran was burnt outside of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm by Danish politician Stram Kurs Rasmus Paludan.

The following month, a request to burn a Torah scroll during an anti-Israel demonstration was canceled after the organizer withdrew his request, reportedly as a result of protests from both the Israel Foreign Ministry and the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.