(ConservativeSense.com) – Anti-Islam activists in Scandinavia burned copies of the Koran in front of embassies in the Danish capital on July 25, emulating similar protests in Sweden. A group known as Danish Patriots set fire to the Islamic holy book outside the Turkish and Egyptian embassies in Denmark’s capital city Copenhagen and were condemned by their governments, who say they cannot prevent the actions due to free expression laws.
In Sweden, police arrested dozens of people amid violent confrontations in the city of Norrkoping when controversial politician Rasmus Paludan set the Koran alight in the city center. Islamic states, including Saudi Arabia, which imposes the death penalty for apostasy, described the Scandinavian protestors as “extremists.”
Neighbors Sweden and Denmark are among Europe’s hot spots for Islam-related violence, and Swedish officials say their country is under grave threat of terror attacks because of the provocative demonstrations. Sweden already suffered a major terror attack in 2017, and violence, driven mainly by Muslim migrants, has radically altered the country’s reputation. Over two months in 2018, there were 162 explosions in the previously peaceful nation.
The Danish capital Copenhagen was the scene of a violent assault on a free speech event in 2015. Since then, security services have prevented several terror attacks, including those aimed at Synagogues and Jewish schools.
Rasmus Paludan, who organized many of the Koran-burning protests, founded a political party called Hard Line. He says he is angry at the transformation of Scandinavia and wants to warn his compatriots of what he sees as the impending destruction of their society. Paludan describes the purpose of his Koran-burning demonstrations as a bid to alert Scandinavians that “hundreds of thousands of people will never, ever accept freedom of speech, democracy, and assembly.”
“Hopefully I will be successful in inducing the Swedish people to wake up and understand that there are some who would like to murder and use violence if you do or say something that they do not like,” he said.
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