Politician who burned Koran in Sweden repeats his stunt in Denmark, sparking yet more fury

A far-right activist burned a Quran outside a mosque in Copenhagen and in front of a Turkish embassy, ​​further angering the Muslim world after a similar stunt last week in Sweden.

Rasmus Paludan, who has Danish and Swedish citizenship, first staged the arson protest outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm on Saturday after authorities granted him permission.

The convicted extremist repeated the protest in Denmark today and has vowed to do so every day until Sweden is admitted to NATO.

The provocative demonstration has jeopardized Sweden’s attempt to join the security organization after Turkey postponed planned accession talks.

Far-right journalist Chang Frick, who runs the populist site Nyheter Idag and previously worked for Russia Today (RT), is alleged to have paid the fee for the demonstration outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm last week.

Their involvement has led to unsubstantiated claims that Russia could be behind the line to prevent Sweden and Finland from joining NATO.

During the Paludan protest outside the mosque today, loud music blared from inside the holy building in an apparent attempt to drown it out.

The politician, who has police protection and was later expelled by the agents, said today in a live broadcast: “This mosque has no place in Denmark.”

The activist, who has police protection, was then taken away in a police vehicle.

In his live broadcast, he said that he would repeat the demonstration in front of the Turkish and Russian embassies.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency said the Danish ambassador was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, where Turkish officials “strongly condemned the permission given to this provocative act which clearly constitutes a hate crime.”

The ambassador was told that “Denmark’s attitude is unacceptable” and that Turkey expected the permit to be revoked, according to Anadolu.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told Danish media that the incident would not change Denmark’s “good relationship” with Turkey, adding that Copenhagen intended to talk to Ankara about Denmark’s laws upholding liberties.

“Our task now is to talk to Turkey about what conditions are like in Denmark with our open democracy, and that there is a difference between Denmark as a country, and our people as such, and then about individual people who have very divergent views. ‘ said Mr Lokke Rasmussen.

Paludan’s action last week caused a furore in Turkey, which criticized the Swedish authorities for allowing the demonstration to take place in front of the Turkish embassy.

Turkey’s president raised serious doubts about NATO expansion and warned Sweden not to expect support for its bid to become a member of the military alliance.

Turkey also indefinitely postponed a key meeting in Brussels that would have discussed Swedish and Finnish NATO membership, saying such a meeting would have been “nonsense”.

Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied for NATO membership after Russian forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

NATO member Turkey, which is pressing the two countries to crack down on Kurdish militants and other groups it views as terrorists, has yet to endorse its membership, which requires the unanimous approval of all existing NATO members. alliance.

Paludan, a lawyer, established far-right parties in both Sweden and Denmark that have failed to win any seats in national, regional or municipal elections.

In last year’s parliamentary elections in Sweden, his party received just 156 votes nationwide.

‘This is the fault of (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan. Now that he doesn’t want to let Sweden into NATO, I have to teach him about free speech until he does,” Paludan told Aftonbladet.

Earlier this week, Paludan told Swedish media that Frick paid for the stunt and claimed that the journalist, whose Twitter account includes photos of him posing in a Putin T-shirt and showing a Putin calendar, promised to cover the damages it incurred as a result of the demonstration.

In 2019, Frick accused the New York Times of misrepresentation on Twitter after the newspaper profiled him in a story about how Moscow was trying to sow political discord in Sweden, the Telegraph reported.

Frick said that RT was his client but not his employer and told the newspaper that he had been invited to meet Putin. He denied working for Russia. MailOnline has reached out to Frick for comment.

Paludan, a Danish-Swedish activist who has already been convicted of racist abuse, sparked riots in Sweden last year when he toured the country and publicly burned copies of the Koran.

Morocco said it was “astonished” that authorities had allowed it to take place “in front of Swedish law enforcement.”

Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also condemned it, as did the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Jakarta said that “the act of blasphemy against the holy book has hurt and tarnished religious tolerance,” adding that “freedom of expression must be exercised responsibly.”

Thousands of Afghans also took to the streets today to protest against his provocations.

“Today, Kabul residents in different parts of the city held protests,” Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said on Friday afternoon.

In the northern province of Badakshan, a provincial government spokesman said thousands had gathered after Friday prayers to protest.

“They were saying ‘Death to Sweden, the United States and the UN,'” Mahzudden Ahmadi said. “They said that such actions should not be repeated, they also called on the Islamic Emirate to have a strong position against such actions,” he added, referring to the Taliban administration.

Earlier in the week, the Taliban-run Afghan Foreign Ministry had called on the Swedish government to punish the individual and prevent similar incidents from occurring.