Former Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has called for maintaining close contacts with Muslim countries, which have condemned the burning of the Quran in Stockholm.
Andersson went on to say that her successor, Ulf Kristersson, had emphasized the need to keep in touch with Turkey, but, according to her, it's also important to explain to Muslim countries how the Swedish law works and why it works the way it does.
The former Swedish prime minister made the comments as protests are being held across the Middle East and Asia against the desecration of the Islamic holy book by Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan.
Paludan, who is the leader of the right-wing Danish political party Stram Kurs, has repeatedly burned copies of the Quran in Sweden, with his latest acts taking place in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. While he received a relevant permission from the authorities, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has condemned the burning of the Quran as a "disrespectful" act. He, however, admitted that it did not violate the country's law.
Turkey, for its part, has blasted the act as a "vile attack" on the holy book and "another example of the alarming level that Islamophobia and racist and discriminatory movements have reached in Europe." In response to the act, Ankara broke off negotiations on Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO, calling them "meaningless." It also canceled Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson’s planned trip to Turkey in the wake of the incident.
Nonetheless, Paludan has pledged to repeat his stunt every Friday until Turkey agrees to accept Sweden into NATO.
Over the past few weeks, relations between Turkey and Sweden have drastically deteriorated. Aside from the Quran burning, Kurdish activists in Sweden hanged an effigy of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Stockholm, while a Swedish newspaper held a cartoon contest mocking the Turkish leader.
Sweden, along with Finland, applied to join NATO in May 2022 following the launch of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, marking a major shift away from Stockholm's longstanding position of neutrality. However, Turkey has objected to their membership, accusing the Nordic states of harboring Kurdish "terrorists."
Ankara refused to greenlight their accession until both countries meet its demands, including extraditing a number of Kurds, who, Turkey claims, belong to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it views as a terrorist group. For its part, Stockholm has stressed that Turkey is demanding concessions that it cannot give, with Kristersson insisting that his country has done all it can to alleviate Ankara’s concerns.