Over 200 years ago, in 1809, Sweden passed the Basic Laws of Sweden, aka the constitution. Since then until today, those basic laws have been in effect. Even though from time to time, some Articles and paragraphs from those basic laws are amended. The Swedish constitution consists of the following four basic laws: the Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression, the Freedom of the Press Act, the Instrument of Government, and the Act of Succession.
The Swedish institutions such as police, court, government…etc, follow the laws, and the Basic Laws above all, whether the laws are good or not.
Article 1 of the second chapter of the Instrument of Government law says that everyone in Sweden has the right to freedom of expression, regardless of whether the person in question has a Swedish citizenship or not. This freedom of expression includes criticism, protests, strikes, disrespecting and burning flags, disrespecting and burning books (whether it is the Quran, Torah, Bible, or any other ordinary book), and many other symbols.
During the writing of this constitution and the amendments that followed, no one had thought that a day would come when a racist or sick individual, or any other person, burns a religious book and offends millions of people.
In the 214-year-old history of the Swedish constitution, the Quran has been burnt in this manner only in recent years. The first time was a few years ago by a racist Danish person called Rasmus Paludan.
Now the Quran has been burnt by an Iraqi citizen called Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Christian from the city of Tal Afar in Nineveh. He used to be a militia member of the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) for a number of years. A few years ago, this Salwan Momika went to Sweden and applied for asylum. Two years ago he was granted a residence permit for three years, and whether his permit will be extended or not remains unknown.
Whether it is for personal gains or hatred or any another reason, this Iraqi individual has misused the Swedish Basic laws by burning the Quran and offending millions of people. The Swedish police are absolved from this person’s actions. In fact, the Swedish police did not grant him permission to burn the Quran in a public place and rejected Salwan Momika’s request. But that Iraqi man went to the Swedish court and appealed the police’s decision. And since the court follows the laws, not the government, public, or personal opinions, it ruled that the police’s rejection of the request was unlawful, and authorized the man to burn the Quran or any other book in accordance with Article 1 of the second chapter of the Instrument of Government law.
However, the Swedish Government was against the act of burning the Quran and labeled it as “unacceptable”. A large number of Swedish people have also expressed their opinion against such acts.
In other words, the Swedish Police, the Swedish Government, and the Swedish people as a whole were against the burning of the Quran. If there is a shortcoming, it is in some texts of the Swedish constitution, which can be adjusted through dialogue and lobbying as to not link freedom of expression to insulting believers of another religion or a nationality or a group, which cannot be achieved in a day or two.
Therefore, the Iraqi government should not have been influenced by Muqtada al-Sadr's political and sectarian agenda and should not have allowed the burning of the Swedish embassy. In addition, the Iraqi government acted unwisely by severing diplomatic, political, and economic ties with Sweden. The Iraqi government should have understood that it was an Iraqi individual who burned the Quran, and that they do not need to fight the people and government of Sweden.
Additionally, let us examine the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) stance, which temporarily suspended its mission in Sweden on Thursday, July 23, 2023, while the burning of the Quran is neither the fault of the Swedish government nor the Swedish people.
Sweden’s 50 years of providing moral support to the people of Kurdistan should have been taken into account.
All the financial, military, and weapons aid which Sweden provided the Kurdistan Region with during the war with the Islamic State (ISIS) should have been considered.
The Swedish parliament’s beautiful stance on Anfal and Halabja should have been considered.
Sweden’s 50 years of accepting Kurdish asylum seekers should have been considered.
Sweden’s support of the Kurdish language and literature should have been considered.
The KRG could have taken the opinions of experts and independent individuals to prevent such a mistake. A significant number of government advisers and officials are Swedish.
Ladies and gentlemen, even though there is a demand from the federal government that the KRG representation should always adhere to the federal government’s diplomatic policy, you should not have fallen into the political and personal agenda of a political-sectarian individual.
Jabar Amin is a former member of the Swedish parliament
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw