Turkish FM Fidan condemns Quran burning in Sweden

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has condemned the burning of Islam's holy book Quran in Sweden on the first day of Muslims' major festival of Eid al Adha, calling it "unacceptable".

“It is unacceptable to allow these anti-Muslim actions,” Fidan said in a statement posted on social media.

“To turn a blind eye to such atrocious acts is to be a partner in crime,” he said.

Meanwhile, Omer Celik, spokesperson for Türkiye's Justice and Development (AK) Party said in a statement: "We condemn the Swedish authorities' approval of the application to burn the Quran in front of a mosque on Eid al Adha."

"We strongly condemn the Swedish Supreme Court's stance on protecting hate crimes. Every disrespect is a crime against humanity. We will continue to fight against these cursed acts in the strongest way possible on all political and legal grounds," Celik added.

The remarks came after Swedish police granted earlier on Wednesday permission for a Quran burning outside a mosque.

The police said in the written decision that the security risks associated with the burning "were not of a nature that could justify, under current laws, a decision to reject the request."

The green light came two weeks after a Swedish appeals court rejected the police's decision to deny permits for two demonstrations in Stockholm which were to include Quran burnings.

Police had at the time cited security concerns, following the burning of a copy of the Quran outside Türkiye's embassy in January which led to weeks of protests, calls for a boycott of Swedish goods and further stalled Sweden's NATO membership bid.

Altun condemns Sweden's duplicitous attitude

Turkish Communications Director Fahrettin Altun also strongly condemned the burning of a copy of the Quran in Sweden.

"There has occurred yet another disgusting and despicable act of Quran burning in Sweden on our most holy day," he said in one of his two tweets, referring to the first day of Eid Al Adha, Islam's major religious festival.

"We are sick and tired of enabling Islamophobia and continued instances of hatred for our religion on the part of European authorities especially in Sweden. Those who seek to become our allies in NATO, cannot tolerate or enable destructive behaviours of Islamophobic and xenophobic terrorists," Altun added.

"Fighting terrorism is simply the most fundamental requirement in a civilized society and is a basic prerequisite of any serious alliance. Despite our dwindling hopes on this front, we expect that the European authorities will come to their senses about the threat of hatred against Islam," Altun concluded.

Global outrage

Muslims are outraged by the destruction of their holy text and similar acts have in the past sparked violent protests. Police argued the January protest had made Sweden "a higher priority target for attacks".

Türkiye, which has blocked the country's NATO bid due to what it perceives as Stockholm's failure to crack down on terror groups, took particular offence that police had authorised the January demonstration.

Police then banned two subsequent requests for protests involving Quran burnings - one by a private individual and one by an organisation, outside the Turkish and Iraqi embassies in Stockholm in February.

The appeals court in mid-June ruled that police were wrong to ban those, saying "the order and security problems" referenced by the police did not have "a sufficiently clear connection to the planned event or its immediate vicinity."

In granting the new protest permit, police said that "in light of this judgement," the "security risks and consequences" it expected in connection with the protests were not enough to warrant them denying the request.

The request for the Wednesday demonstration was made by the same individual who had his previous request blocked.