Sweden and Denmark Face International Condemnation and Jihadist Threats Following Quran Desecrations
Sweden continues to face backlash at home and throughout the Islamic world following Quran desecration incidents in Stockholm on June 28 and July 20. Moreover, international jihadist organizations are threatening attacks and are calling upon supporters to commit violence across Scandinavia and the West.
Iraq, in particular, has been the site of intense protests, as prominent Iraqi Shia religious and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr encouraged supporters to burn Sweden’s embassy. Just hours after demonstrators stormed and torched the facility, Iraq expelled the Swedish ambassador and prime minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani recalled his charge d’affaires in Stockholm.
Hostilities were exacerbated by another event on July 21 in which members of the far-right organization Danske Patrioter set a Quran and Iraqi flag on fire in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen and livestreamed it on Facebook. Consequently, Iraqi protesters attempted to break into the Danish Embassy, and police dispersed the crowd using tear gas. Two apparent members of the group again burned a copy of Islam’s holy book on July 24, prompting thousands to take to the streets in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, directing anger toward Denmark and Sweden.
On Saturday, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the perpetrators in Sweden will never enjoy security. This after Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei demanded that “the severest punishment be imposed” on them, while harshly condemning the governments of Sweden and Denmark.
Incensed by the acts and looking to leverage the groundswell of anger to inflict damage upon the West, the Islamic State (IS) was quick to chime in with bellicose rhetoric and overt threats of violence. IS Central published an editorial in its weekly al-Naba newsletter criticizing Muslim governments and Islamic movements for what it perceived as weak responses.
Taking the opportunity to distinguish itself from the pack, the Islamic State advocated “carrying out attacks in the heartland of the kuffar” by “striking their necks and spilling their blood.” Similarly, IS’s branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan (ISKP) published a booklet lambasting its Taliban adversary for its halfhearted condemnation and abstention from calling for those responsible to be killed as the Islamic State has done.
When asked how seriously these threats should be taken, leading researcher on blasphemy-motivated Islamist violence Liam Duffy told Militant Wire that such acts can have long lasting security consequences. Providing the example of the 2005 Jyllands-Posten cartoons affair, he said “the long-term reverberations in the form of plots and attacks were being disrupted and committed for as much as a decade hence,” adding that “blasphemy motivated violence is not necessarily tied to the fortunes of any one group, such as Al Qaeda or ISIS”.
Duffy’s statements are reflected in how the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda remain incensed about the previous incident in January when Rasmus Paludan, the leader of far-Right Danish party “Hard Line” had set fire to a Quran outside of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Paludan was, for instance, just featured on the cover of the aforementioned ISKP booklet advocating violence in Scandinavia. Moreover, arrests were made in Sweden months later in April after security officials detected an Islamic State-linked plot motivated by Paludan’s stunt.
There is a real possibility that Sweden and Denmark may be targeted at home or their interests attacked abroad, and this is all taking place within a European security environment that has seen a surge in raids on IS supporters planning terrorist violence across the continent.