Stockholm, Jul. 16, (dpa/GNA) - A demonstrator in Sweden who had planned to burn a Jewish Torah on Saturday refrained from doing so after all, the police confirmed to dpa, following reports.
The man threw a lighter on the ground in front of the Israeli embassy and explained that he had not intended to burn the Hebrew Bible, but that as a Muslim, he wanted to call for mutual respect, according to the Swedish radio station SVT.
His move came after police authorized a protest at which a Torah and a Bible were to be burnt.
The protest was said to be a reaction to the burning of a Koran outside a Stockholm mosque that officials allowed to go ahead last month, outraging Muslims in Sweden and around the world.
In turn, the man’s plan to burn a Torah caused dismay and anger in Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen called on the Swedish authorities to prevent the plan to burn the book from going ahead.
“Allowing the defacement of sacred texts is not an exercise of freedom of expression, but an obvious incitement and an act of pure hatred,” Israel’s President Izchak Herzog said on Friday.
GNA