Sweden Warns Terror Threat Has Grown After Koran Burnings

Kati Pohjanpalo and Jonas Ekblom
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Sweden warned of a deteriorating security situation after disinformation campaigns and Koran burnings fueled hatred against the Nordic country across the Muslim world.

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The country’s Security Service said it’s “now dealing with ongoing threats of attacks directed at Sweden and Swedish interests,” according to a statement on Wednesday in which it kept the terror threat assessment at an “elevated” level of three on a five-point scale.

After being seen as a tolerant country, disinformation campaigns have attempted to change Sweden’s image, incorrectly portraying it as “a country hostile to Islam and Muslims, where attacks on Muslims are sanctioned by the state and where Muslim children can be kidnapped by social services,” the officials said.

Burnings of Islam’s holy book, Koran, have occurred since January in Sweden, intended to derail its application to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That’s sparked protests in Muslim countries, and just last week the Nordic country’s embassy in Baghdad was raided and Iraq has severed ties with the Nordic country.

Read More: Iraq Severs Ties with Sweden After Protest on Koran Burning

Sweden’s government has criticized burnings of the Koran. Police have repeatedly denied permits for demonstrations involving the desecration of the book in recent months, citing national security concerns. But their decisions have been overturned by courts ruling that freedom of speech must be prioritized unless there is an immediate threat to public safety.

The police gives no permits for burning any holy texts, said Carl-Oskar Bohlin, minister for civil defense. Instead, the permits are for holding public gatherings with no position taken by authorities on their motivation, he said.

“We are seeing influencing campaigns and we are doing what we can to fight the erroneous image of Sweden currently spreading abroad,” Bohlin told reporters on Wednesday. “Russian-backed actors are active in spreading erroneous statements regarding Sweden and that Sweden as a state supports the burning of the Koran and other holy texts.”

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The disinformation campaign against Sweden “has been immense since the last Koran burning on June 28 with roughly a million publications,” said Mikael Ostlund, spokesman for the country’s Psychological Defence Agency. “We also note many state actors and religious leaders have been active in the spread.”

In Sweden, the threat assessment has been at level three since 2010. The highest level on the scale, five, signals imminent danger.

Neighboring Denmark has also seen recent demonstrations involving burning the Koran, sparking protests in Muslim countries. The threat of terrorism in Denmark is already considered to be “serious” and there is no plan to raise the threat level from the current four on the five-step scale, police intelligence agency PET told newspaper Berlingske.

The European Union also weighed in, reiterating “its strong and determined rejection of any form of incitement to religious hatred and intolerance” in a statement by Josep Borrell, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief.

“We continue to stand up for freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression, abroad and at home; but not everything that is legal is ethical,” he said. “Expressions of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance have no place in the EU.”

--With assistance from Christian Wienberg and Kevin Whitelaw.

(Updates with comments from Swedish officials from sixth paragraph, from the EU from 11th paragraph.)

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