A sudden overthrow causes reactions to Sweden: Court of Appeal of the country partly acquitted Rasmos Paludan, a far -right activist who has become known for his provocative actions against Muslims, including his burning Koran in a public place.
Con -2022 in Sweden in four months in prison for hate crimes, including the burning of the Koran, Puludan now sees his sentence being suspended and replaced by 50 daily fines of 50 Swedish Koronos each (about 4.50 euros).
The judges of the Court of Appeal Skone and Blakery ruled that Paludan “criticized Islam as an idea and not his faithful”, which led to his exemption from one category. However, they ratified his guilt for incitement to incident on September 6, 2022, where he allegedly publicly insulted a attende.
Dennal and Sweden’s double national, Puludan has become known for his provocative appearances, burning repeated copies of the Koran, often wrapped with bacon slices – acts that caused anger in the Muslim world and intensity in Sweden’s diplomatic relations.
His actions are part of a wider wave of anti -Islamic activism that has appeared in Sweden and Denmark in recent years, with public burns of the Koran and calls for limiting such actions in the name of respect for religions.
Although the freedom of speech in Sweden protects such symbolic acts, the incitement of hatred against a religious or ethnic group remains criminal. The court, however, ruled that Puludan’s statements in April 2022 concerned a criticism of a religion rather than an attack on a particular community.
In its ruling, the court states: “Since the activist criticized Islam as an idea in other parts of the concentration, it is not obvious that his comments were targeting Muslims as a group.”
This decision rekindlers the debate in Sweden on the limits of freedom of speech, in a society that is still deeply divided by the Islamophobic challenges of Puludan.