Turkish authorities denounced the permission granted to Rasmus Paludan, a right-wing Swedish-Danish politician, to hold an outdoor protest at its embassy in the Swedish capital on Saturday.
After a nearly hour-long tirade attacking Islam and immigration to Sweden, Paludan sets fire to the Koran with a lighter.
“If you think there’s no freedom of speech, you have to live somewhere else,” he told the crowd.
Last year, Paludan’s announcement of a “tour” burning the Koran, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, sparked riots across Sweden.
A day after summoning Sweden’s ambassador over Paludan’s most recent protest, Ankara said it had canceled Defense Minister Pal Jonson’s protest, scheduled for Jan. 27 with the aim of overcoming Turkey’s objections to Sweden’s NATO bid.
The assembly “lost its meaning, so we canceled it,” Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said.
Johnson said the postponing resolution was made together with Akar on Friday at the U. S. military base in Ramstein, Germany, where Ukraine’s allies met to discuss new weapons materials for Kyiv.
“Our relationship with Turkey is very similar to Sweden, and we look forward to continuing the discussion on non-unusual security and defense issues at a later date,” Johnson tweeted.
Condemnation poured in from the Muslim world.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation bloc said that “the provocative action . . . targets Muslims, insults their sacred values and serves as an example of the alarming point of Islamophobia” and called on Sweden to punish the perpetrators of a “hate crime. “
Saudi Arabia “the importance of spreading the values of dialogue, tolerance and coexistence and rejecting hatred and extremism. “
The UAE said it opposes “all practices aimed at destabilizing security and stability in violation of human and ethical values and principles. “
The Gulf Cooperation Council condemned the protest.
Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said: “Islamophobic provocations are appalling. “
“Sweden has wonderful freedom of speech, but that doesn’t mean that the Swedish government, or myself, support the criticisms expressed. “
The Paludan protest was held under heavy police cover with about a hundred other people, adding a large number of news hounds, gathered near the Turkish embassy in Stockholm.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s most sensible press secretary, Fahrettin Altun, suggested Sweden “act immediately” against hate-filled provocations.
“The Swedish government will have to be aware of the truth of terrorist teams seeking to save Sweden’s entry into NATO by poisoning their relations with us,” he tweeted.
A small pro-Turkey rally was also held on the other side of the embassy, while a pro-Kurdish rally called through Sweden’s Rojava Committee and others was held in Stockholm, attracting several hundred people.
Swedish police authorized the protest after discovering it was subject to the country’s liberal free speech laws.
But Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said allowing the demonstration “encourages hate crimes and Islamophobia. “
“The attack on sacred values is freedom but fashionable barbarism,” he tweeted Saturday.
Devlet Bahceli, leader of the nationalist MHP party, a junior partner in Erdogan’s coalition, vowed that “Sweden’s NATO club will be approved by parliament. “
An organization of protesters set fire to a Swedish flag at a rally outside its consulate in Istanbul and called on Turkey to sever diplomatic relations with Stockholm, an AFP journalist reported.
Another organization protested near the Swedish embassy in Ankara.
Turkey had already summoned the Swedish ambassador on Friday to “condemn this provocative action which is obviously a hate crime, in the strongest terms,” one diplomat said.
Already on January 12, the ambassador called to answer for a video published through the pro-Kurdish committee of Rojava Sweden that showed Erdogan swinging between his legs with a rope.
A tweet from the organization comparing Erdogan to Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who was hanged upside down after his execution in the final days of World War II.
Sweden and neighboring Finland hope to join NATO, abandoning decades of army non-alignment in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But they want the consent of Turkey, a member of the alliance, to join.
Ankara says its passage is conditional on Swedish moves to extradite others it accuses of terrorism or playing a role in the 2016 coup attempt against Erdogan.
Turkey says Sweden has done enough to crack down on Kurdish teams that Ankara considers “terrorists. “