WASHINGTON: The US state department has said that the desecration of the Holy Quran in front of Türkiye’s embassy in the Swedish capital Stockholm was “reprehensible,” but avoided directly condemning the act and said that the reason it happened in a “vibrant democracy” like Sweden was “precisely because it upholds freedom of speech.”
At a regular briefing, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said, “We can make very clear that an action like this is reprehensible, it’s disgusting, it’s vile, it’s repugnant, even as we uphold the principles that allow something like this to be able to happen.”
He said that no one in the US administration is voicing any degree of support whatsoever for this vile action that took place. In fact, it was “quite the contrary.” However, he added, it was something that could be categorised as “lawful but awful.”
“We’re also very quick to add that Sweden is a vibrant democracy, and the reason something like this could happen in a country like Sweden is precisely because of its democratic character, precisely because Sweden upholds freedom of expression, freedom of assembly,” he added.
He said, “when you provide people those freedoms, when you safeguard those freedoms, sometimes they make terrible decisions; they do awful things.”
Answering a question if his condemnation would deter any lunatic from committing such an act, the spokesperson said “I don’t think the condemnation would deter some crazy guy from doing that.”
Desecration of Holy Quran at hands of a convicted racist
In a recent act of provocation, an anti-Muslim Danish-Swedish politician and convicted racist, Ramus Paludan committed desecration of the Holy Quran by setting fire to a copy of the sacred Book in front of Turkey’s embassy in Sweden’s capital Stockholm on Saturday (January 21, 2023).
The Swedish government had allowed Paludan to organise the demonstration in which he committed the highly disrespectful act that caused severe outrage among the Muslim community and received widespread condemnation from global Muslim leadership.
