A Swedish resident of Syrian origin who had received permission to burn the Torah and the Bible in Stockholm chose not to desecrate the sacred books in response to the provocations of burning the copy of the Holy Quran.
Thirty-two-year-old Ahmad Alloush, received permission from Swedish Police on Friday to carry out the act, which drew widespread condemnation and opposition from Israeli and Jewish groups, among others.
On Saturday, Alloush threw a lighter on the ground outside the Israeli Embassy, saying he had never intended to burn holy books.
“I am a Muslim, and I cannot burn sacred and religious books,” he told reporters.
As per media reports, he then took out the Quran and criticized the previous incident of burning copies of Islam’s holy book in Sweden.
Referring to the provocations of burning the copy of the Quran under police protection in Sweden, Alloush said, “This is a response to the people who burn the Quran. I want to show that freedom of expression has limits that must be taken into account.”
“I want to show that we have to respect each other; we live in the same society. If I burn the Torah, another the Bible, another the Quran, there will be war here. What I wanted to show is that it’s not right to do it,” he added.
The protest comes two weeks after 37-year-old Salwan Momika, an Iraqi citizen, burned the Quran in front of a Stockholm mosque on the occasion of Eid Al Adha.
In January, Swedish-Danish right-wing extremist Rasmus Paludan burned a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Sweden.
The two incidents sparked a series of condemnations in the Muslim world.
