STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden’s safety scenario has deteriorated after latest Quran burnings within the nation and protests in the Muslim world, each of which have negatively impacted the Nordic nation’s picture, its home safety service stated Wednesday.
The company, identified by its acronym SAPO, stated the burning and desecration of religious books in Sweden, and ongoing disinformation campaigns on social media and elsewhere, have negatively affected Sweden’s profile.
The picture of Sweden has modified “from a tolerant nation to a rustic hostile to Islam and Muslims, the place assaults on Muslims are sanctioned by the state and the place Muslim youngsters might be kidnapped by social providers,” SAPO stated in a press release.
This dangers fueling threats in opposition to Sweden “from people throughout the violent Islamist milieu,” the company stated, including the present threat of terrorism in Sweden stays at an elevated stage, at three on a five-point scale.
“It’s a severe scenario that we’re in,” Susanna Trehörning, SAPO’s deputy head of counter-terrorism, instructed Swedish public broadcaster SVT. “It’s a heightened menace and an assault can happen throughout the framework of a heightened menace.”
A latest string of public desecrations of the Quran by a handful of anti-Islam activists in Sweden and most not too long ago in neighboring Denmark has sparked angry reactions in Muslim international locations.
There is no such thing as a regulation in Sweden particularly prohibiting the burning or desecration of the Quran or different spiritual texts. Like many Western international locations, Sweden doesn’t have any blasphemy laws.
The best to carry public demonstrations is robust in Sweden and guarded by the structure. Blasphemy legal guidelines had been deserted within the Seventies. Police usually give permission primarily based on whether or not they imagine a public gathering might be held with out main disruptions or dangers to public security.
European Union overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell, in a press release on Wednesday, condemned the spiritual guide desecrations in Sweden and Denmark, saying the acts “by particular person provocateurs solely profit those that need to divide us and our societies.”
“Respect for range is a core worth of the European Union. This consists of respect for different spiritual communities,” EU’s prime diplomat stated. “The desecration of the Quran, or of some other guide thought-about holy, is offensive, disrespectful and a transparent provocation. Expressions of racism, xenophobia and associated intolerance haven’t any place within the European Union.”