Sweden to expel man behind recent Koran burning demos - TV4
ReutersOCT 13 2023
The Swedish Proesecution Authority (SPA) announced Wednesday that two men, Salwan Momika and Salwan Najem, will be prosecuted on "offences of agitation against an ethnic or national group" after the pair were seen burning the Quran last year.
The men, one of whom is a Christian Iraqi, were seen setting fire to the Islamic holy book on video and in person at protests, including at a Mosque in Stockholm. Besides desecrating and burning the books, they're also accused of disparaging Muslims.
In response, one of the men's lawyers argued that his "client's" actions were "protected by the Swedish constitution," which establishes freedoms of speech and assembly.
Burning the Quran is not free speech, as it's clearly been used by far-right activists and others to insult and provoke Muslims. Europe has laws against several other speech-adjacent acts, such as Holocaust denial and defaming royal families, which are intended to incite hatred against certain groups of people. Burning the Quran is no different under the law.