Swedish Qur’an burner jailed

In the summer of 2023, a string of Qur’an burning protests in Sweden, including some outside parliament, prompted domestic debate over Sweden’s exceptionally liberal freedom of expression laws. It also led to a diplomatic row between Sweden and Muslim countries.

A far-right Danish-Swedish politician has been sentenced to prison on charges of incitement against an ethnic group for burning copies of the Qur’an and making offensive statements about Muslims.

Rasmus Paludan was the first person to go on trial in Sweden – and is now the first to be sentenced – for burning the Qur’an during an organised demonstration.

The leader of the Danish political party Stram Kurs (Hard Line) was on Tuesday sentenced to four months in prison at Malmö district court for two cases of incitement against an ethnic group and one case of insult in 2022. He was also ordered to pay damages and fees of 80,800 kroner (£5,822).

After Paludan’s trial last month, the chair of the court, Nicklas Söderberg, said: “It is permitted to publicly make critical statements about, for example, Islam and also about Muslims, but the disrespect of a group of people must not clearly cross the line for a factual and valid discussion.

“In these cases, there was no question of any such discussion. The statements instead only amounted to insulting and smearing Muslims.”

Paludan was sentenced to prison because he had been previously convicted of similar crimes by a Danish court, the Swedish court said.

The judgment said: “Rasmus Paludan has expressed disrespect for a people group or other such group of people with allusions to creed, national origin or ethnic origin by putting bacon in and around a Qur’an and then setting fire to, kicking and spitting on the Qur’an.”

The judgment also highlighted statements made by Paludan and their implications, including “that Muslims do not like western democracy and freedom of speech”, as well as “that Muslims like to use violence as a means of communication” and “that countries are negatively affected by Muslims going there”.

Speaking after the judgment, prosecutor Adrien Combier-Hogg said it was the first conviction “in this political context in Sweden”, meaning at a formally applied for and permitted protest event.

He said: “This gives some kind of understanding for the rest of society of what is permissible and what is not.”

He added that the context-based nature of such incidents meant that each has to be looked at individually. “It’s really hard to say something black and white is OK or not OK because it depends on so many different factors and variables. If you boil it down it concerns human communication. Human communication is very complex.”

In this case, though, he said it was clear that Paludan’s behaviour was illegal.

Paludan, who denied the charges, said he would appeal against the decision. While any appeal process is ongoing, he will not serve any jail time.

The sentence relates to Qur’an burnings and statements made by Paludan, 42, in April and September 2022.

Paludan refused to attend the trial, saying his life would be in danger if he went to the southern Swedish city. He appeared by video link from an undisclosed location in Sweden.

In April 2022, Paludan held a public meeting that was followed by riots in Swedish cities including Malmö, Landskrona, Linköping and Örebro during the Easter weekend. At the meeting he made several statements that the prosecutor alleged were incitement against an ethnic group.

At another meeting, in September 2022, Paludan was accused of racially motivated verbal attacks on “Arabs and Africans”. For this, he was charged with insult, a crime that under Swedish law is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to six months.

Taking the stand remotely, Paludan said: “I am a critic of Islam and criticise Islam. Not Muslims.” He added: “I want to criticise ideas not people.”

In the summer of 2023, a string of Qur’an burning protests in Sweden, including some outside parliament, prompted domestic debate over Sweden’s exceptionally liberal freedom of expression laws. It also led to a diplomatic row between Sweden and Muslim countries.

Paludan’s burning of the Qur’an outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm in January 2023 is thought to have slowed Sweden’s passage to NATO membership.