.jpg)
By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright January 2023
During 1930s, the Nazis took to burning books in Germany and Austria. It started as a campaign conducted by the German Student Union to ceremonially burn books that were viewed as being "subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism."
Fast forward to 2023 in Sweden, Rasmus Paludan, the leader of a Danish far-right political party who also has Swedish citizenship, has held a number of demonstrations in the past where he has burned the Koran. And he did the same again recently on 21 January.
That was what reminds us of what the Nazis did in 1930s with their bonfires of anti-nazi books. Although the Stockholm's protest that involved a ceremonial burning of only one Koran, the act by Paludan nevertheless angered Muslims in Islamic countries around the globe.
Reuters reported that "protests in Stockholm ... against Turkey and Sweden's bid to join NATO, including the burning of a copy of the Koran, sharply heightened tensions with Turkey at a time when the Nordic country needs Ankara's backing to gain entry to the military alliance" in Europe.
What Rasmus Paludan did is inexcusable. By Swedish law he might be exercising his constitutional right, but by burning a Muslim holy book he has moved closer to the Nazis of 1930s where book burning - although regarded as symbolic protest - appears as an attack on Muslims and their faith as a whole everywhere in the world.
As a lawyer by profession, Paludan knows the implications of his actions. He represents a far-right extremist group as a leader of the Danish political party Stram Kurs, which he founded in 2017. He has held several events in which he burned the Koran, previously resulting in counter-protests, some of which were violent where cars were torched aflame similar to what took place in Sweden as last Ramadan in April 2022.
Most likely his latest action would invite counter protests from Muslims in Sweden and other countries and we just wonder when these prejudices would ever end.
Why can't we live peacefully leaving everyone to believe in what they want to believe without instigating others by destroying books that they regard as holy?
The Nazis did not burn holy books targeting Muslims then. They burned only books that were anti-Nazis. But in this case, Paludan touched a raw nerve among Muslims and the impact will be far more serious when billions of them rise against such an insult to their faith.
Turkey has since responded by saying it will not support Sweden's application to join NATO in retaliation for allowing the Koran burning to take place in front of its embassy in Stockholm under police protection.
This could well spark the Clash of Civilisations as suggested by Huntington in his book by the same title. And Paludan will be blamed as the one who cast the first stone!
Mihar Dias is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
