Türkiye’s religious affairs department to file lawsuits after Quran burning in Sweden

Presidency of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) head Ali Erbaş on January 23 said that Diyanet would file a legal complaint against Sweden after it allowed a far-right politician to burn a copy of the Quran in Stockholm, offending millions of Muslims worldwide.

“With the attache’s offices and consultancies of our presidency in 120 countries, we will file a complaint in court,” Erbaş told journalists in the capital Ankara, Daily Sabah reports.

“We will reach out to the representatives of various sections with letters; we have already started. We plan an online meeting with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday. Here, we will try to show common reaction against the heinous Quran burning action in Sweden but also against some Islamophobic attacks in European countries,” he underlined.

Saying that the presidency prepared a 2022 Islamophobia report, Erbaş said: “We see that Islamophobic movements occur mostly in the form of mosque attacks. We encounter more than ten mosque attacks per month. Apart from that, attacks on the Quran come second."

The high representative of the U.N.'s Alliance of Civilizations on Sunday "unequivocally" condemned the "the vile act" of burning a copy of the Quran.

"While the High Representative stresses the importance of upholding the freedom of expression as a fundamental human right, he also emphasizes that the act of Quran-burning, amounts to an expression of hatred towards Muslims," said Nihal Saad, a spokesperson for Miguel Angel Moratinos, the high representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), in a statement.

"It is disrespectful and insulting to the adherents of Islam and should not be conflated with freedom of expression," the statement added.

Meanwhile, some 250 people gathered outside the Swedish Consulate in Istanbul, where a photo of Danish anti-Islam activist Rasmus Paludan was set on fire. Paludan burned Islam’s holy book outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, sparking protests in Istanbul and Ankara that night.

Participants in Sunday's event carried green flags featuring the Islamic proclamation of faith and a banner that said, “We condemn Sweden’s state-supported Islamophobia.” A sign on a window of the Swedish Consulate read, “We do not share that book-burning idiot’s view.”

Turkish officials slammed Sweden for allowing the Quran-burning protest, but President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan did not comment on it during his weekend speeches.

Condemnations kept coming in from Muslims, Christians and Jews in Türkiye and across the globe in a religious show of solidarity over the weekend.

Russian Muslims and Christians, Türkiye's Armenian Patriarchate and the Jewish community were also slamming the incident.

The Armenian Patriarchate said the "heinous act" not only offended those who belong to the religion of Islam but that there were also movements “aimed at inciting feelings of enmity among people of different faiths.”

"It is certain that this act, incompatible with democracy, freedom and human rights, will not be accepted by those who share these feelings," it added.

The statement underlined that the Turkish Armenian patriarch, Sahak Mashalian, especially "regretfully condemned this outdated act," along with the Spiritual Assembly of the Church, the clergy, foundation boards and the Turkish Armenian community.

Stressing the "need for love and peace" as the world struggles with a multitude of problems, the patriarchate said, "We reiterate that it would be better for people to refrain from acts that would add problems to the (existing) problems of our world, regardless of religion, language and race, and to serve with all their might to provide the desired environment of peace."

The Spiritual Administration of Muslims in Russia described the burning session as “barbarity” and expressed that all Russian Muslims “strongly condemn” it.

“The perpetrators of this act are trying to politically incite a group of certain people by stoking the fire of hatred between religions,” the administration warned and called on European authorities to “show the courage to accept that faith in the hearts of most people is a guiding force.”

Vladimir Legoyda, the chairperson of the Synodal Department for the Russian Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media, took to Twitter to denounce the incident as “an unacceptable act of vandalism.”

“Humanitarian limits cannot be crossed, and religious sanctity cannot be hurt in political struggles,” Legoyda said.

The OIC also condemned the Quran burning as a provocative action that "targets Muslims, insults their sacred values and serves as a further example of the alarming level reached by Islamophobia" and asked Sweden to punish those behind the "hate crime."

On the other hand, the incident raised questions about the prospect of Sweden's NATO bid.

Sweden and Finland dropped decades of military non-alignment last year when they applied to join the Western defense alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, Türkiye voiced objections to the membership bids, criticizing the countries for tolerating and supporting terrorist groups.

For Sweden and Finland to become NATO members, their applications must be ratified by all 30 NATO members. So far, 28 have already done so – only Türkiye and Hungary have pending votes.

Ankara has long criticized Stockholm for housing members of various terrorist organizations, particularly members of the PKK and, in recent years, the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) – the organization behind the 2016 defeated coup attempt in Türkiye.

Ahead of a historic NATO summit, the three countries signed a trilateral deal in June that prevented a Turkish veto. In the memorandum, the Nordic countries said they would address Türkiye’s extradition requests for terrorists. In addition, the joint directive states that Finland and Sweden “will not provide support to ... the organization described as FETÖ” and terrorist groups.

Türkiye has provided a list of wanted individuals to Sweden and expects the Scandinavian nation to take swift action to show that its demands are being addressed.

Quran burning no freedom

Burning a copy of the Quran has "nothing to do with freedom," Türkiye's Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said.

"There is a big difference between freedom of expression and hate speech. This incident promotes violence against Muslims, especially Muslims in Sweden," Altun said in an interview with the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter.

Reminding Sweden of the tripartite memorandum, Altun said: "The Swedish government made some commitments to Ankara in Madrid but they have not fulfilled their promises."

Also, speaking about the cancellation of Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson's upcoming visit to Türkiye by Ankara in response to Sweden's permission to burn the holy Quran, he said: "There is no point in coming together if Stockholm will not take Ankara's concerns seriously."

Asked whether the new Swedish government is making enough efforts in its bid to join NATO, Altun said Türkiye "traditionally" supports NATO's enlargement, and that in this context, it does not oppose Sweden's participation in NATO in principle.

"Sweden has taken some steps to address Ankara's concerns, but I can say that it is insufficient to meet all demands," he said, adding Ankara called on the Swedish authorities to stick to their word.

"Türkiye does not demand from Sweden anything it does not want from NATO allies," he stated.

Also, he said that Ankara's stand on Sweden has nothing to do with Türkiye-U.S. relations, adding that Sweden is "the only country that can get Sweden into NATO."