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Sweden Raising Terror Threat After Koran Burnings

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

STOCKHOLM (Worthy News) – Sweden on Thursday raised its terrorist threat level to the second-highest level possible amid heightened security fears over several burnings of the Koran, deemed a holy book by Muslims.

It is the first time since 2016 that the Nordic nation changed its threat level to four as the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, had thwarted planned attacks.

Raising the threat level from three, meaning “heightened threat,” to four, “high threat,” on the five-point scale, the Swedish security service (Säpo) said that in recent months Sweden had shifted from a “legitimate” to a “prioritized” target for acts of terror.

Charlotte von Essen, the director general of Säpo, said that Sweden was becoming an “increased focus” for Islamic extremists.

She said the change in terror threat was a strategic and long-term move, not linked to one particular incident.

However, von Essen stressed that disinformation campaigns painting Sweden as an Islamophobic country had contributed to the increased threat.

There has been Muslim anger over protests in Sweden involving Koran burnings.

SEVERAL INCIDENTS

In the latest such incident, an Iraqi living in Sweden stomped on and kicked Islam’s book in a two-person rally last month outside the Iraqi Embassy in Stockholm.

The protest was authorized by Swedish police, who kept a handful of agitated counterdemonstrators at a safe distance.

The same Iraqi man burned a Koran outside a Stockholm mosque in June in a similar protest approved by the police.

And at the start of the year, a far-right activist from Denmark carried out a similar stunt outside the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm.

Speaking alongside von Essen, the justice minister Gunnar Strömmer and police chief Anders Thornberg, Prime Minister Kristersson said Koran burnings in Sweden had contributed to the heightened terror threat. Another factor, he added, was the attempted murder of an employee of the Swedish consulate in İzmir, Turkey.

“Our authorities, not least Säpo, and the police, work hard to guarantee safety in Sweden. We know that planned terrorist acts have been prevented,” he explained.

He announced that he had convened the national security council and said the government would update parliament on the situation. “Protecting the safety and security of all citizens is the government’s most important task,” the prime minister added.

SECURITY SERVICES

Swedish security services were “proactive and on their toes,” he said, monitoring social media and working closely with each other and international partners.

He was asked if the Sweden Democrats, the far-right party his minority coalition depends on, had contributed to the international perception that Sweden was Islamophobic.

The prime minister answered that while the country’s laws of freedom still applied, some Swedes should “reconsider how you express yourself.”

He added: “There is no reason to intentionally offend someone else because it risks threatening Sweden. Calm and realizing the seriousness of the situation is my message.”

Addressing future planned Koran burnings, he said the government looked at its public order laws but also cautioned: “Everything that is legal isn’t [necessarily] appropriate.”

The Koran burnings have raised concerns about how far freedom of expression will continue in Sweden, which membership of the NATO military alliance.

NATO Member Turkey mentioned the burning of the Koran in Sweden as one reason not to ratify Sweden’s NATO membership.

Sweden isn’t the only European nation where Koran burnings have been condemned. In the Netherlands, on Thursday, the leftist pro-Turkish party DENK asked The Hague Major Jan van Zanen to prevent a protest where a Koran-burning would be shown.