Jewish and Israeli leaders labeled Saturday's planned desecration as antisemitic and incitement to hatred. A similar burning of Islam's holy book, the Quran, also drew international condemnation.Israeli President Isaac Herzog said the approval by authorities in Sweden for the public burning on Saturday of the Torah as an act of "pure hate."

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The planned desecration of a Hebrew Bible and a Christian Bible — outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm — comes days after a man set fire to pages of the Quran, Islam's holy book, drawing widespread condemnation from Muslims worldwide.

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What have Israeli and Jewish leaders said?

"As the President of the State of Israel, I condemned the burning of the Quran, sacred to Muslims the world over, and I am now heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people," Herzog said on Friday.

"Permitting the defacement of sacred texts is not an exercise in freedom of expression, it is blatant incitement and an act of pure hate," Herzog said. "The whole world must join together in clearly condemning this repulsive act."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Twitter, "The State of Israel takes this shameful decision, which harms the Holy of Holies of the Jewish people, very seriously."

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen urged the Swedish authorities to "prevent this despicable event and not to allow the burning of a Torah scroll."

Israel's Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef implored Sweden's king to intervene:

"By preventing this event from occurring, you would send a powerful message to the world that Sweden stands firmly against religious intolerance and that such acts have no place in a civilized society," he wrote.

Yaakov Hagoel, chairman of the World Zionist Organization, said granting the permit for the burning of a Torah was "not freedom of expression but antisemitism."

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) also issued a condemnation, saying the Swedish authorities shouldn’t allow the event to take place.

"Provocative, racist, antisemitic and sickening acts such as these have no place in any civilized society," EJC President Ariel Muzicant said.

The Council of Swedish Jewish Communities expressed their disapproval of the police decision to allow the protest, saying, "our tragic European history links the burning of Jewish books with pogroms, expulsions, inquisitions and the Holocaust."

Why is Sweden allowing the burning of religious texts?

Stockholm police granted a permit to an applicant to hold a public rally to burn a Jewish and a Christian Bible on Saturday. The Associated Press reported that a police permit was obtained for three people to demonstrate outside the Israeli Embassy.

Seen as blasphemous by religious followers, others regard the book burning as an example of freedom of expression, which is protected by the Swedish constitution. Blasphemy laws were abandoned in the 1970s in Sweden.

The man who filed the request for Saturday's protest said the move was in response to the Quran burning outside a Stockholm mosque last month by an Iraqi immigrant during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

After that incident, Swedish authorities said they had opened an investigation over "agitation against an ethnic group," noting that the man had carried out the burning very close to the mosque.

A similar protest by a far-right activist was held outside Turkey's Embassy in Stockholm earlier this year, complicating Sweden's efforts to convince Turkey to let it join NATO.

Iraq, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco summoned Swedish ambassadors in protest at the Quran-burning incident, which led to an emergency meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

On Wednesday, the UN's top human rights body overwhelmingly approved a measure calling on countries to do more to prevent religious hatred in the wake of the Quran burnings.

Swedish government denounces burnings, police say hands tied

Sweden's government also condemned the Quran burning as "Islamophobic," while noting that the country had a "constitutionally protected right to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration."

Meanwhile, Stockholm police stressed on Friday that they can only refuse to approve a public gathering if it causes major disruptions or is a risk to public safety.

"The police does not issue permits to burn various religious texts — the police issues permits to hold a public gathering and express an opinion," Carina Skagerlind, press officer for Stockholm police, told the AFP news agency. "An important distinction."

In a meeting with representatives of religious communities, Haaretz newspaper reported that Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said: "Sweden is and must be a country where people of different faiths – or no faith – can live together side by side in mutual respect.

Let us together fight the hatred in society, which drives people to burn the Quran, the Bible or the Torah, and in places and times that are most offensive. Instead, let’s show each other respect."

mm/sms (AFP, AP, dpa)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 15, 2023 02:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).