The Stockholm police have permitted a man to burn the Torah and Bible outside the Israeli Embassy.
In his request for the protest, the man said he wanted to burn the Torah and the Bible outside the Israeli Embassy as a response to the burning of the Quran outside a mosque.
Israeli officials have told the Swedish government to put a stop to the protest.
“As the President of the State of Israel, I condemned the burning of the Quran, sacred to Muslims world over, and I am now heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people,” Isaac Herzog tweeted.
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen called on officials to “prevent this despicable event and not to allow the burning of a Torah scroll.”
The Council of Swedish Jewish Communities condemned the police decision, saying their “tragic European history links the burning of Jewish books with pogroms, expulsions, inquisitions and the Holocaust.”
Reporting from Associated Press:
Last month, an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned a Quran outside a Stockholm mosque during the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, triggering widespread condemnation in the Islamic world. A similar protest by a far-right activist was held outside Turkey’s Embassy earlier this year, complicating Sweden’s efforts to convince Turkey to let it join NATO. On Wednesday, the U.N.’s top human rights body overwhelmingly approved a measure calling on countries to do more to prevent religious hatred in the wake of the Quran-burnings. It was approved despite objections of Western countries who fear tougher steps by governments could trample freedom of expression.
