Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government issued multiple condemnations of a Quran burning incident in Sweden that could fortify Turkey’s blockade of the Nordic state’s entry into NATO.
“An immigrant from Iraq desecrated the Quran, the holiest book of the faith,” Russian ambassador Gennady Askaldovich said Thursday. “The world community is obliged to stand together against such shameful violations of the rights of believers.”
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An Iraqi immigrant in Sweden burned a copy of the Quran on Wednesday in Stockholm following a legal ruling that Swedish authorities could not “reject a request for a general gathering” just because they don’t want the burning to proceed. The incident threatens to fortify Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s refusal to ratify Sweden’s entry into NATO — a welcome controversy for Russian officials, who cited the Quran burning as a basis for enmity between “Western civilization” and Muslim countries.
"The barbarity of so-called civilized countries has no place in a multipolar world order that corresponds to the interests of the global majority, whose values and holy places are now opposed by the West,” a group of Russian senators wrote in a Thursday resolution. “It is clear that the anti-Muslim position of the Swedish authorities is shared by the EU and is in line with so-called ‘European values’. Western civilization thus poses yet another challenge to the entire Muslim world, which reacts with indignation to blasphemy against its shrine.”
The uproar comes at a difficult time for Swedish diplomats, who have hoped to overcome Turkey’s refusal to ratify their admission into NATO in time for the upcoming summit in Vilnius. Erdogan, who allowed NATO to extend an invitation to Sweden last year, has justified his refusal to finalize Sweden’s entry by arguing that Stockholm is tolerant of terrorist threats against Turkey.
"We will eventually teach Western monuments of arrogance that insulting Muslims is not freedom of thought,” Erdogan said Thursday, adding that his government would “show our reaction in the strongest way until a determined fight against terrorist organizations and enemies of Islam is carried out.”
Other Turkish officials were more explicit in arguing that Quran burning is a form of terrorism, in an apparent justification of continued opposition to Sweden’s membership in the alliance.
"Swedish authorities must take swift action and take a clear stance against terrorism in all of its forms,” Erdogan spokesman Fahrettin Altun wrote on Twitter. “Fighting terrorism is simply the most fundamental requirement in a civilized society and is a basic prerequisite of any serious alliance.”
The incidents have been an unwelcome difficulty for Swedish authorities, which so far have condemned the burnings while maintaining that they can’t censor Swedish citizens and residents.
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A previous Quran-burning incident “was funded by a far-right journalist with links to Kremlin-backed media,” as a report in the Guardian noted in January. On Wednesday, Putin — amid the aftershocks of the Wagner Group’s brief uprising — hastened to visit a mosque where he accepted a Quran as a gift and touted Russia’s criminalization of such acts.
“The President noted that to infringe on the Quran in any way is a crime in our country,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday. “Of course, it is a very important commentary amid what is happening in Sweden.”