STOCKHOLM: A Swedish court on Thursday convicted a man of inciting ethnic hatred with a 2020 Qur’an burning, the first time the country’s court system has tried the charge for desecrating Islam’s holy book.
The conviction comes after a wave of Qur’an burnings earlier this year that stoked international outrage and made Sweden a “prioritized target,” prompting the country’s intelligence agency to heighten its terror alert level.
The Swedish government condemned the desecrations but repeatedly upheld the country’s extensive freedom of expression laws.
The Linkoping district court in central Sweden found the 27-year-old man guilty of “agitation against an ethnic group,” saying his action had “targetted Muslims and not Islam as a religion,” and “can hardly be said to have encouraged an objective and responsible debate.”
In September 2020, the man had recorded a video clip outside the Linkoping cathedral showing a Qur’an and bacon being burned on a barbecue, with a pejorative remark about the Prophet Muhammad written on a sign under the barbecue.
The man published the video on social media platforms Twitter, now known as X, and YouTube, and placed the burnt Qur’an and bacon outside the Linkoping mosque.
The song “Remove Kebab” was used in the video, a song popular among far-right groups and which calls for the religious cleansing of Muslims.
The court said “the music is strongly associated with the attack in Christchurch,” New Zealand, in 2019 in which an Australian white supremacist killed 51 people at two mosques.
The man had denied any wrongdoing, arguing that his action was a criticism of Islam as a religion.
But the court rejected that argument.
“The court finds that the chosen music to a film with such content can not be interpreted any other way than as a threat against Muslims with an allusion to their faith,” the court wrote in a statement.
“The film’s content and the form of its publication are such that it is clear that the defendant’s primary purpose could not have been other than to express threats and contempt,” it said.
Sweden convicts man over 2020 Qur’an burning, a first
https://arab.news/p75fs
Sweden convicts man over 2020 Qur’an burning, a first
- Conviction comes after wave of Qur’an burnings earlier this year that stoked international outrage
Anger and anguish spread across Cuba as it learns of Trump’s tariff threat on those who provide oil
- Cuba is hit every day with widespread outages blamed on fuel shortages
- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Trump’s measure was “fascist, criminal and genocidal”
HAVANA: Massive power outages in Cuba meant that many people awoke Friday unaware that US President Donald Trump had threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to the Caribbean island.
As word spread in Havana and beyond, anger and anguish boiled over about the decision that will only make life harder for Cubans already struggling with an increase in US sanctions.
“This is a war,” said Lázaro Alfonso, an 89-year-old retired graphic designer.
He described Trump as the “sheriff of the world” and said he feels like he’s living in the Wild West, where anything goes.
After Trump made the announcement late Thursday, he described Cuba as a “failing nation” and said, “it looks like it’s something that’s just not going to be able to survive.”
Alfonso, who lived through the severe economic depression in the 1990s known as the ” Special Period ” following cuts in Soviet aid, said the current situation in Cuba is worse, given the severe blackouts, a lack of basic goods and a scarcity of fuel.
“The only thing that’s missing here in Cuba … is for bombs to start falling,” he said.
Cuba is hit every day with widespread outages blamed on fuel shortages and crumbling infrastructure that have deepened an economic crisis exacerbated by a fall in tourism, an increase in US sanctions and a failed internal financial reform to unify the currency. Now Cubans worry new restrictions on oil shipments will only make things worse.
On Friday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said on X that Trump’s measure was “fascist, criminal and genocidal” and asserted that his administration “has hijacked the interests of the American people for purely personal gain.”
Meanwhile, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez wrote on X that Trump’s measure “constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat” and said he was declaring an international emergency.
Trump previously said he would halt oil shipments from Venezuela, Cuba’s biggest ally, after the US attacked the South American country and arrested its leader.
Meanwhile, there is speculation that Mexico would slash its shipments to Cuba.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that she would seek alternatives to continue helping Cuba and prevent a humanitarian crisis after Trump’s announcement.
Sheinbaum said one option could be for the United States itself to manage the shipment of Mexican oil to the island, although it was necessary to first understand the details of Trump’s order.
Mexico became a key supplier of fuel to Cuba, along with Russia, after the US sanctions on Venezuela paralyzed the delivery of crude oil to the island.
“It’s impossible to live like this,” said Yanius Cabrera Macías, 47, a Cuban street vendor who sells bread and sweet snacks.
He said he doesn’t believe Cuba is a threat to the United States.
“Cuba is a threat to Cubans, not to the United States. For us Cubans here, it is the government that is a threat to us,” he said, adding that Trump’s latest measure would hit hard. “In the end, it’s the people who suffer … not the governments.”
Jorge Piñon, an expert at the University of Texas Energy Institute who tracks shipments using satellite technology, said there is no answer to a key question: how many days’ worth of fuel does Cuba have?
If no tanker looms in the horizon within the next four to eight weeks, Piñón warned Cuba’s future would be grim.
“This is now a critical situation because the only country we had doubts about was Mexico,” he said, noting that diesel is “the backbone of the Cuban economy.”
Piñón noted that the Chinese don’t have oil, and that all they could do is give Cuba credit to buy oil from a third party. Meanwhile, he called Russia a “wild card: It has so many sanctions that one more doesn’t bother (Vladimir) Putin,” adding that because of those sanctions, a lot of Russian oil is looking for a destination.
Meanwhile, many Cubans continue to live largely in darkness.
Luis Alberto Mesa Acosta, a 56-year-old welder, said he is often unable to work because of the ongoing outages, which remind him of the “Special Period” that he endured.
“I don’t see the end of the tunnel anywhere,” he said, adding that Cubans need to come together and help each other.
Daily demand for power in Cuba averages some 3,000 megawatts, roughly half what is available during peak hours.
Dayanira Herrera, mother of a five-year-old boy, said she struggles to care for him because of the outages, noting they spend evenings on their stoop.
She couldn’t believe it when she heard on Wednesday morning what Trump had announced.
“The end of the world,” she said of the impact it would have on Cuba.
