Islamophobic demonstrations are on the rise in the land of freedom of expression. The extreme right exacerbates tensions by organizing book burnings where Korans are burned. Gestures condemned by many Muslim countries.
What is happening in the country reputed to be one of the most democratic countries in the world, according to the democracy index of the British press group The Economist Group? The violent riots that have shaken Sweden for several weeks reveal a dark side and call into question the generous interpretation of freedom of expression in the country while revealing the segregation to which this society is subject. This violence is provoked by the extreme right which wants to burn Korans in the public square.
Indeed, the arrival of the leader of the Danish anti-Islam Hard Line party, Rasmus Paludan, had degenerated Thursday into violence once morest the police, in districts with strong Muslim communities in the Swedish cities of Norrköping and Linköping. From Denmark to Belgium via France, Paludan has multiplied in recent years projects to burn copies of the Koran, generally in neighborhoods with a large immigrant and Muslim population.
In the name of free speech?
The management of this anti-Islam tour has also drawn condemnation from several Muslim countries. After Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Turkish diplomacy deplored on Monday “the hesitation to prevent provocative and Islamophobic acts (…) under the guise of freedom of expression”, while a demonstration took place in front of the Swedish Embassy in Iran.
The Swedish police maintained that despite the burnings, these “tours” fell under freedom of expression, a constitutional right, obliging them to grant authorizations to demonstrate. “We live in a democracy where the freedoms of expression and of the press are very extensive and we must be very proud of it”, underlined the Minister of Justice Morgan Johansson in a press conference. And there are “no plans to restrict this”, even if these freedoms are used by a “Danish extremist” to encourage “hate, division and violence”, which the minister considered “deplorable”.
Freedom of expression has historically enjoyed strong protection in Sweden. The police can refuse the holding of certain gatherings, for example if they constitute an “incitement to hatred” once morest an ethnic group”, but this exception is to be interpreted in a very restrictive way.
Ill-integrated migrants
Another source of provocation, the places chosen to organize these burnings of the Koran: generally suburbs with a predominantly Muslim population, classified by the police as “vulnerable areas”.
This term, introduced in 2015, designates poor, “disadvantaged” places with a high concentration “of people of foreign origin” and where there are “criminal networks exerting pressure on those who live in these neighborhoods or visit them”, has explained to AFP Manne Gerell, professor of criminology at the University of Malmö.
This rich Scandinavian country of 10.3 million inhabitants welcomed more than 400,000 immigrants between 2010 and 2019, according to statistics from the Migration Office. But many experts note that Sweden has struggled to integrate many of these newcomers, with thousands failing to learn the language and find jobs in a highly skilled job market.
Sami Nemli with Agency / Les Inspirations ECO
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