Planned burning of Bible outside of Israeli embassy in Sweden condemned by Israel and Jewish world

The Jewish state blasted Sweden’s decision to permit the burning of the Jewish Torah scroll and the Christian Bible outside the Israeli embassy in the Swedish capital Stockholm.

Swedish authorities decided to permit public burnings of sacred Christian and Jewish books after a series of recent Quran burnings in Sweden and Denmark.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog who recently condemned the Quran burnings, issued a strong condemnation of the Swedish decision to allow the destruction of sacred books.

“I unequivocally condemn the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books. As the President of the State of Israel, I condemned the burning of the Quran, sacred to Muslims world over, and I am now heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people,” stated Herzog.

Sweden is a highly-secularized Christian society with a strong emphasis on freedom of speech.

However, the Israeli president rejected the Swedish interpretation of freedom of expression.

“Permitting the defacement of sacred texts is not an exercise in freedom of expression, it is blatant incitement and an act of pure hate. The whole world must join together in clearly condemning this repulsive act,” Herzog said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed Herzog’s strong statement.

“Israel viewed very severely this shameful decision to harm the holy of holies of the Jewish people,” Netanyahu said.

Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Ziv Nevo Kulman, tweeted his opposition to the scheduled burning event outside his embassy.

“I utterly condemn the burning of holy books sacred to any religion, as an act of hate and disrespect, that has nothing to do with freedom of expression,” he wrote.

The condemnations were not limited to the Jewish state’s political leadership.

Israel’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau urged Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson to intervene and stop the scheduled desecration outside of the Israeli embassy.

“I call on you to do everything possible to prevent this act. Freedom of expression does not mean permitting everything,” Lau stated.

“Any desecration of sacred Jewish items is not freedom, but antisemitism,” warned the rabbi.

Meanwhile, Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef urged the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf to stop the event.

“By preventing this event from occurring, you would send a powerful message to the world that Sweden stands firmly against religious intolerance and that such acts have no place in a civilized society,” argued Yosef.

The king of Sweden, however, remains mostly a symbolic figurehead and lacks any political power in Swedish society.

The 32-year-old man who planned to burn the Torah scroll and the Bible outside of the Israeli embassy in Sweden, Ahmad Alush announced he was backing off from his plan, claiming that he never intended to carry out the plan.

“It is against the Quran to burn and I will not burn. No one should do that,” Alush, an immigrant of Syrian origin, told the media.

The Syrian activist stressed that he merely intended to draw attention to the recent Quran burnings.

“This is a response to the people who burn the Quran," Alush said, "I want to show that freedom of expression has limits that must be taken into account.”

He argued that mutual respect is needed in culturally- and religiously-diverse societies.

“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.

Sweden’s tiny Jewish community has faced growing antisemitism in recent years. Some 15,000 Jews live in Sweden, mostly concentrated in the capital Stockholm.

While some of Jew-hatred is linked to traditional Neo-Nazi groups, the majority of the antisemitism came from far-left, anti-Israel activists and members of the large and growing Muslim community.

U.S. Antisemitism Envoy Deborah Lipstadt warned on Friday that permitting the burning of holy books threatens religious minorities in Sweden.

“This will impact the ability of Jews and members of other religious minority groups from freely exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief in Sweden,” Lipstadt said.