Swedish Police Grant Permission To Burn A Torah And Bible Outside Israeli Embassy In Stockholm

An individual who requested permission to burn a copy of Judaism’s holy Torah, along with a Bible, has been granted permission by the police in Sweden.

The burning will allegedly take place on Saturday, July 15, outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm. According to previous information, the person behind the application was a man in his 30s, according to dagen.se.

He was said to have stated that the demonstration was being carried out in response to the high-profile Koran burning outside Stockholm’s mosque at the end of June and would be: ‘a symbolic gathering for the sake of the freedom of expression’.

There was widespread outrage at the recent Koran burnings

The recent burning of the Koran aroused great anger throughout the Muslim world. It led, among other things, to large-scale protests and the storming of the Swedish embassy in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

 Ziv Nevo Kulman, Israel’s ambassador to Sweden said he was shocked and horrified by further book burnings. ‘This is clearly an expression of hatred that must be stopped’, he wrote on Twitter in early July.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog condemned the action

Posting on Twitter this morning, President Isaac Herzog tweeted: ‘I strongly condemn Sweden’s permission to burn and desecrate the Holy Books’.

‘As President of the State of Israel, I condemned what happened in Sweden when the Holy Quran, sacred to Muslims all over the world, was burned. Even now, our hearts tremble with the intention to burn the sacred book of the Torah, the eternal book of the Jewish people’, he lamented.

إنني استنكر بشدة سماح دولة السويد بحرق وتدنيس الكتب المقدسة .
كرئيس لدولة اسرائيل أدنت ما حدث في السويد حين تم حرق القرآن الكريم، المقدس للمسلمين في جميع أنحاء العالم.
والان ايضا، قلوبنا ترتعش من النية لحرق كتاب التوراة المقدس، الكتاب الابدي للشعب اليهودي.

— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) July 14, 2023

He added: ‘The profanation of religions and beliefs is not an exercise of freedom of expression, but rather a blatant incitement and an act of abhorrent hatred that affects the feelings and beliefs of peoples all over the world. The whole world must unite in condemning this abhorrent act with firmness and clarity’.

ان تدنيس مقدسات الأديان والمعتقدات ليس ممارسة لحرية التعبير، بل انه تحريض صارخ وعمل من اعمال الكراهية البغيضة والذي يمس بمشاعر ومعتقدات شعوب في جميع انحاء العالم.
يجب على العالم كله أن يتحد في إدانة هذا العمل البغيض بكل صرامة ووضوح.

— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) July 14, 2023

Two days after the Koran burnings took place in the city, it was reported on July 5 by local police sources in Stockholm that three people had applied for permission to burn copies of the Torah and the Bible on Saturday 15. However, it was not immediately clear if the person planned to burn a copy of the Bible or a Torah scroll.