The Swedish State Does Not Condone Koran Burnings, Overseas Minister Says

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – The Swedish state doesn’t sanction or condone Koran burnings however they’re permitted by Swedish freedom of speech legal guidelines, Overseas Minister Tobias Billstrom mentioned on Thursday.

“In some international locations there’s a notion that the Swedish state is behind or condone this. We do not,” Billstrom instructed reporters.

“These are acts dedicated by people, however they do it inside the framework of freedom of speech legal guidelines,” he mentioned.

On Wednesday, Sweden accused Russia and different state-sponsored actors of spreading disinformation designed to hurt Sweden’s fame and harm the Nordic nation’s bid to affix NATO.

Billstrom mentioned he had been in contact with the international ministers of Iran, Iraq, Algeria and Lebanon amongst others in addition to the United Nations secretary-general.

“And simply now I’ll converse to the secretary-general for the Organisation of Islamic Nations,” Billstrom mentioned.

“We are going to focus on these points and it is necessary to emphasize that it is a long-term subject, there aren’t any fast fixes,” he mentioned.

Sweden has seen a number of protests in latest weeks the place copies of the Koran have been broken or burned, inflicting outrage amongst Muslims.

(Reporting by Johan Ahlander and Simon Johnson, enhancing by Terje Solsvik)

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