Police in Sweden have banned a demonstration planned for Wednesday in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, where copies of the Koran, Islam’s holy book, were expected to be burned.
According to the authorities, the Swedish Intelligence Service had evidence that the demonstration could have caused threats to national security, which was the main reason for the ban.
This national security risk has increased in recent weeks following demonstrations in the Swedish capital in which a well-known Danish far-right leader set fire to a copy of the Koran, sparking criticism from several Muslim nations, including Turkey.
«Sweden is more than ever before in the crosshairs of violent Islamism around the world,» the Swedish Intelligence Service has warned.
In fact, this protest in Sweden has resulted in a cooling of relations between Stockholm and Ankara precisely at a time when it is up to the Turkish – and also the Hungarian – Parliament to give the final ‘green light’ to Sweden and Finland’s accession to NATO.
The Turkish authorities then cancelled meetings with high-ranking Swedish officials, and the possibility even arose that Finland might dissociate itself from its neighboring country in order to advance alone towards membership in the Atlantic Alliance. However, this option was ruled out by Helsinki.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
