The Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau, addressed the Prime Minister of Sweden this past Friday, Ulf Hjalmar Ed Kristersson, following the decision of the local police to allow a demonstration in front of the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, in which the demonstrators planned on burn Torah scrolls and Christian Bible books. In his words, he condemned the demonstrators and called on the government to prevent the protesters from burning the holy books. As it turns out, the event never occurred, with the petitioner saying he only wanted to bring attention to the issue, not actually defile a holy book of another religion.
"I was mortified to hear about the intention of a number of Swedish citizens planning to demonstrate in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, the demonstration will include burning a Torah scroll," Rabbi Lau wrote. "The more serious thing is, according to the same news, the Swedish police approved this serious and terrible thing, of course under the guise of 'freedom of expression'."
Horrific!
— Safta Miriam (@MiriamSafta) July 14, 2023
Do we have an ambassador to Sweden? Send him home
Following reports that the Swedish police have allowed Torah scrolls to be burned in the name of freedom of expression Chief Rabbi David Lau penned an open letter to Swedish PM Kristerssonhttps://t.co/bjyT3Q28mg
Rabbi Lau reminded Kristersson that "several months ago, demonstrators in Sweden burned the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy building. This in itself is a shocking thing and obliges everyone to strongly protest and condemn this thing. But this injustice does not justify another injustice, one despicable act does not permit another despicable act. I call on you to insist that this not be done."
"Freedom of expression does not permit doing anything, and any damage to the sanctuaries of Israel is not an expression of freedom but of antisemitism," he concluded. "I am convinced that all the inhabitants of the world understand the seriousness of these acts and condemn them."
The Swedish courts allowing the burning of the Torah, Bible and the Quran are the same courts that allow rapists to walk free because “the rapist didn’t know it was wrong to rape.” In 2018, I said that Sweden is destroying itself with a social experiment. Those governing Sweden… pic.twitter.com/RGmgEkqxlN
— Imam of Peace (@Imamofpeace) July 15, 2023
As mentioned above, the burning of the Torah scroll was not carried out after it became clear that the person who petitioned for this act was in fact a devout Muslim who refuses to burn any books and was simply proving a point on how ridiculous the Swedish understanding of freedom of expression is. After the court in Sweden approved Ahmed Alush, a 32-year-old Muslim activist, to burn a Torah book in front of the Israeli embassy he said that he would not burn any book. "I'm Muslim, we don't burn books." The activist also said that he was only interested in demonstrating in front of the Israeli embassy. Alush submitted a request to set the book on fire in protest of burning a Qoran in front of a mosque in Stockholm about two weeks ago.
With all the outrage surrounding the incident, perhaps a very important point has been lost. #Torah #Sweden https://t.co/YcIzMtWP15
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) July 16, 2023
Israel's ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Coleman, responded after the Torah book was not set on fire: "I feel relieved that the incident did not happen. I want to thank everyone all over the world, including the Muslim and Christian leaders, for the messages of support and condemnation of the act. Unfortunately, the danger of burning and desecrating holy books has not yet disappeared from the world, I hope that a way will be found to prevent such acts from happening in the future."
