Shifting gears after planning to burn a religious text, a man burned pages of NATO’s bylaws on Wednesday to protest Sweden’s bid to join the alliance.
The protest in the southern Swedish city of Helsingborg was peaceful and attracted a crowd of about 200 people to the city square, local police said. Police said the lead-up drew attention after the man, Lucas Ljungqvist, said he would burn a religious text chosen at random from a bag containing the Koran and two others. It is not clear what the other texts were.
A planned protest by Swedish news media sparked a tense debate last month after a Koran was burned outside a mosque in Stockholm during the key Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, leading to protests and widespread condemnation.
The episode also raised tensions with Turkey, which partially suspended Sweden’s NATO bid for saying Sweden harbors dissidents it considers terrorists, including pro-Kurdish activists. In a sudden reversal, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Monday to clear an entry route to Sweden.
Sweden, among other countries, is grappling with how to handle protests involving the burning of the Koran. Critics called them incitement to religious hatred, and the government called the acts Islamophobic and warned that the burnings would have implications for Sweden’s security. But Swedish courts have overturned authorities’ decisions to deny permission for such protests, saying there was insufficient evidence that they would disrupt security to violate public order and rights to freedom of speech.
Local authorities issued Mr Ljungqvist a protest permit, citing freedom of speech. “We can’t say anything about the freedom of speech petition,” said Mattias Sigfridsson, police commissioner of Skåne County, which includes Helsingborg.
After Turkey agreed to support Sweden’s bid, Mr. Ljungqvist said he had changed his mind and would instead burn a copy of the NATO laws, according to news outlet Aftonbladet. He initially said he wanted to burn the religious text to try to delay or stop the process of joining NATO, Aftonbladet reported without elaborating.
At the protest on Wednesday, the man apologized for any offense along the way, saying his intention was to express his opposition to NATO, according to a police spokesman. He has previously said he wants to support free speech.
The issue of Koran burning in Europe recently sparked debate before the United Nations Human Rights Council, which passed a resolution on Wednesday calling on countries to review their laws to curb religious hatred. However, countries including the United States disputed the resolution, saying that while they oppose religious intolerance, the move would infringe on freedom of speech.
