As the debate rages about freedom of expression, soundings from Stockholm suggest many feel the limit has been reached

speech laws differently. She said she had seen a lot of support for Qur’an burning on social media, but was strongly against it. “I don’t support it at all because it is basically violating another group of people. I don’t know how you can support that.”

For Inge Zurcher, 79, however, a ban made sense. “It’s awful. It shouldn’t be allowed,” she said, adding that the government did not “understand what damage they’re doing to Sweden and to Muslims”.

Tal Domankewitz, 39, a tourist guide, said there should be limits to Sweden’s freedom of expression laws. “There are some cases where you have to think again and not let it happen. It has to be limited.”

Meanwhile, Abdi Ibrahim, 44, a social worker, said the burnings were ruining Sweden’s reputation in the world. “It feels like most people have the same perception, that freedom of expression is good but that it should not violate others. You can express your views in another way.”

Iman Omer, 20, a Muslim, who was out and about with her sister Monica, said it should be possible to classify the Qur’an burnings as a hate crime. “I understand you are allowed to think and feel what you want, this is a free country, but there must be boundaries,” she said. “It’s such a pity that it has happened so many times and Sweden doesn’t seem to learn from its mistakes.”

  • @[email protected]English
    19•11 months ago

    Thems the breaks with speech.

    Burning the Koran is most certainly going to get people upset. If someone took another’s Koran and burned it, there’s already a law for that. If someone burned a Koran, pointed at a Muslim person and said “You’re next!”, that’s a direct threat.

    Getting overly upset because someone desecrated a common item you feel is holy… I don’t have a lot of sympathy.

    If you are in a liberal democracy that values free speech, you’re gonna have to suck it up and pick your battles. If you want people to be tolerant of your nonsense book that has backward ways of seeing the world, you will have to tolerate that they may tell you precisely what they think about it. On the best days, people should be able to hear speech that offends them, and everyone goes home safe to argue another day. No personal threats, no violence.

  • @[email protected]English
    1•11 months ago

    “It’s a racism crisis,” my pimply ass. Don’t white and Asian Muslims read the same Koran?

    Kinda pointless pretending logic is involved, when dealing with the indoctrinated.

    • Flying SquidEnglish
      3•11 months ago

      You shouldn’t be downvoted for this. I have no love for Islam, but I also have no love for burning books because it has traditionally been a precursor and excuse for violence. I also just think even symbolically destroying knowledge- and even a book like the Quran gives us knowledge of things like the culture of the area and time it was written- is a bad thing.

      So no, I don’t like Islam. I wish there was no Islam or any other religion. But I also don’t like people burning books (not that I would stop them).

      • @[email protected]English
        4•11 months ago

        It’s certainly an indicator for the type of community this is. My dad went from full anti-thiest to carrying the churches’ water by going full anti-woke.

        ‘Bigotry’ is the common through line. Whether the hatred is aimed at Christians, Muslims gay people, trans people, it’s all the same to him.

        When your campaign is predicated on hate it’s easy to align with others whose campaign is also predicted on hate.