Sweden court convicts first for Quran desecration, racial hatred 2020.
The sentence follows a series of similar incidents earlier this year that sparked international outrage and led to Sweden being designated a “priority target” by the country’s intelligence agency for terrorism. Raised the warning level.
The Swedish government condemned the desecration but repeatedly upheld the country’s extensive freedom of expression laws.
Central Sweden’s Linköping District Court found the 27-year-old man guilty of incitement against an ethnic group. The court declared that his actions “targeted Muslims, not Islam as a religion,” and they could hardly be considered to have served any purpose, nor do they align with reason.
In September 2020, this man recorded a profane video clip outside Linkoping Cathedral. The man posted the video on the social media platform Twitter, now known as X, and YouTube.
The video uses the song “Remove the Kebab”, which is popular among far-right groups and advocates of religious cleansing of Muslims.
The court said the music was related to the 2019 attack in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which an Australian white supremacist killed 51 people at two mosques.
The man denied any wrongdoing and claimed that he aimed to criticize Islam as a religion.
However, the court rejected this argument.
