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Swedish police receive request to burn Torah, Christian Bible outside Israeli embassy

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The requests, which have not been denied, follow a public Koran burning last week. 

By World Israel News Staff

Swedish authorities have received three new requests to publicly burn religious texts, including a Torah scroll, a week after a Koran was burnt outside a mosque in Stockholm.

The other two requests include a New Testament and a second Koran burning.

One person submitted a request to burn a Jewish and a Christian Bible outside Israel’s Embassy in Stockholm on July 15th as “a symbolic gathering for the sake of freedom of speech.”

A separate individual requested to burn a Koran in Helsingborg “as soon as possible.”

The requests have not been denied and are currently under police review to determine if they meet requisite conditions.

Swedish political figures have expressed shock and horror in response to the requests.

Last week’s incident prompted various Arab countries to call Swedish ambassadors for a summoning.

The Swedish foreign ministry responded by calling the burning of holy texts “an offensive and disrespectful act and a clear provocation.”

“Expressions of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance have no place in Sweden or in Europe,” the Swedish foreign ministry said, but added that the country has a “constitutionally protected right to freedom of assembly, expression and demonstration.”

Rabbi Moshe David HaCohen, co-founder and project director of Amanah, a Swedish interfaith group, said Sweden’s Jewish community was “shocked”.

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“We spoke out against the burning of the Koran in recent months and we now condemn the will of local Swedes to burn holy scriptures of Jews, Muslims, and Christians. The Swedish government does not understand that this is a hate crime with a threat to religious life in our country,” HaCohen told The Jerusalem Post.

Muslim leaders in Sweden were behind the cancelation of a planned demonstration in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm which included the public burning of a Torah scroll.