2y ago

Kuwait to distribute 100,000 copies of Quran in Sweden after Muslim holy book desecrated at one-man protest

www.cbsnews.com

Kuwait announced this week that it will print thousands of copies of the Quran in Swedish to be distributed in the Nordic country, calling it an effort to educate the Swedish people on Islamic "values of coexistence." The plan was announced after the desecration of a Quran during a one-man anti-Islam protest that Swedish police authorized in Stockholm last month.

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said the Public Authority for Public Care would print and distribute 100,000 translated copies of the Muslim holy book in Sweden, to "affirm the tolerance of the Islamic religion and promote values of coexistence among all human beings," according to the country's state news agency Kuna.

On June 28, Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi Christian who had sought asylum in Sweden on religious grounds, stood outside the Stockholm Central Mosque and threw a copy of the Quran into the air and burned some of its pages.

The stunt came on the first day of Eid-al-Adha, one of the most important festivals on the Islamic calendar, and it triggered anger among Muslims worldwide. Protests were held in many Muslim nations, including Iraq, where hundreds of angry demonstrators stormed the Swedish embassy compound.

CBS News sought comment from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Kuwaiti government's announcement, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

The U.S. State Department condemned the desecration of the Quran in Stockholm, but said Swedish authorities were right to authorize the small protest where it occurred.

"We believe that demonstration creates an environment of fear that will impact the ability of Muslims and members of other religious minority groups from freely exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief in Sweden," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. "We also believe that issuing the permit for this demonstration supports freedom of expression and is not an endorsement of the demonstration's actions."

The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution Wednesday condemning the burning of the Quran as an act of religious hatred. The U.S. and a handful of European nations voted against the resolution, which was introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), arguing that it contradicts their perspectives on human rights and freedom of expression.

181 comments

The man who burned the quran literally had his family tortured to death by muslims in Iraq
He's free to burn the garbage as many times as he wises
Weird how all you people don't even care about that part of this story
- This is very much tarring all Muslims with the same brush, no?
  Like I'm not denying he has the right to burn the quran if he wants.
  But to insist that the actions of some Muslims justify hatred towards all of them is deplorable.
  
  If my family was killed by Christian colonizers, I would probably have some pretty negative feelings about the Bible, too.
  It's not merely the actions of a few. It is the broader community of tacit support for religious doctrine that allows extremism to develop and thrive.
  More people should actually read these religious texts to get a better understanding of just how terrible it is to be a "real" Christian or Muslim.
- Like, nobody ever says "you people" unless they're about to commit injustice.
  Lmfao what? That's one of the most ridiculous things I've read.
  He said "all you people", referring to the media and the comments. He wasn't referring to any demographic.
  Obviously, when "you people" is used to refer to a demographic, it's followed by something negative. But it doesn't mean it can't be used in normal conversation.
- If I had relatives killed by extremist Jews (yeah, yeah, just hear me out), would it be okay for me to promote Nazi ideology and idolize the Holocaust? Hate is wrong in every circumstance.
  
  This is burned paper, though. Not quite the same as advocating for burned people. We shouldn't give human rights to any book. If someone wanted to burn a book they should be free to do so for any reason as long as it's their book, I guess.
  Also, if this would have been a Torah or a Bible used in this demonstration, we wouldn't even have heard about it, because Muslims seem to be the only ones willing to kill someone for burning paper.
  
  Would it be okay for an angry Palestinian who had their family killed by Israel to burn a Torah?
  Or should that Palestinian respect the feelings of the people who follow the ideology responsible for their families death?
  
  What ideology did he promote?
  Being against Judaism is not the same as being a Nazi whatsoever, so your analogy is just incorrect on a fundamental level. And frankly, it's so obvious that it feels like a bad faith argument.
  And yes, if you had relatives killed by jewish (religion, not ethnicity) people justified by their religion, it would be completely in your right to burn their religious text.
  Hell, you're in your right to go burn any religious texts you want without a reason. (Not recommended in Islamic countries, might lead to a severe case of a death penalty).
  
  Promote Nazis? No. Burn Tora? Yes.
  
  It's a pretty big leap from burning a holy book (no consequences except hurting people's feelings) and promoting actual harm against people and idolizing genocide.
  Also- you say that like Jewish extremists aren't currently killing Palestinians.
  https://www.npr.org/2022/06/02/1102728946/a-look-at-jewish-extremism-in-israel
  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/26/why-israeli-raids-killed-many-palestinians-this-year-explainer
  
  Not okay, but understandable. Two seperate things.
Swedes pilling up Qurans for the winter to save on wood in 1, 2..
- Man, I'm so glad my brief guilt about having this same thought was dissolved when I find it matched the top comment on here...
  
  Ahah I mean it's an obvious idea, it might be hot now but.. winter is coming.
- I wonder how they distributed them. There are only about 10 million people in Sweden, so that's about 1 book per 100 people. If they did just dump a huge pile of books someplace I could absolutely see them all getting burned in a big bonfire.
  It's a strange idea anyway- "Hey! You burned a book we like! Here's a hundred thousand more of the same book! Don't, um, burn them, plz."
  
  Usually they are having them distributed my mosque communities to interested passer-bys in the streets of cities for free.
- Absolutely not since this should be used only as toilet paper : make holy shit.
  Edit : About the 30% downVotes... I was just kidding : you can burn them as well.
I wish there's a similar reaction if one woman is raped or degraded, one gay person beaten or oppressed, one child molested, one dictator suppresses a population or one politician decides against environment, reason and humanity and for greed. But no, a fkn book was burnt. What would Mohammed say about that if he'd live today, hm?
- He'd say "don't care, I have 9 year olds to rape".
- Wait, what would similar reaction actually be? Would they send 100 000 women to Sweden?
- he'd say 'thats HaLaL' and then proceeds to rape another 9 year old.
This is 1000% better as a response than I've seen recently from other Islamic countries and I'm a little sad it's getting dunked on so much. Others are calling for speech to be silenced in response to Quran burnings and they're literally just saying "hey, could you just read it instead?" It's a low bar compared to Western Values ™️ I guess but this kind of response should be what we strive for even if you don't agree with them on anything else.
- I would add that nonetheless, every sovereign country can and should stand up for itself. Also this is not just a couple Qurans burned, its racism more in general on the rise here in europe.
  
  Racism how, if I may ask? The Quran wasn't burned by a Swede who hates Muslims/Middle Eastern people, it was done by an Iraqi national.
  
  So one person kicking up a big fuss by burning a book is rising racism in the entirety of Europe
My wife hates it but I LOVE antagonizing the religious snakes who try to tell you about their bullshit in public. I grew up in the Bible Belt and I fucking HATE that fake "oh I'm just trying to save your immortal soul because you're a sinner" bullshit. Fuck these people, they're predators preying on people at their weakest and they don't pay taxes while pissing their influence all over our politics.
Fuck. These. People. All of them.
I don't stop walking but I always interrupt them or put words in their mouths or ask why their all powerful god won't do anything about pedos when they're screeching about that etc. Especially the ones that try to hand you things, love them! They're always carrying a bunch of papers that you can knock out of their hands.
I hope these fuckwits meet lots of friendly people like me as they go to SOMEONE ELSE'S FUCKING COUNTRY to force their mythology on 😁
- I now live in a building that has restricted access, so no one can randomly knock on my door. But the last place I lived had a door accessible to anyone who might walk up. Anyone pushing religion was kindly told to "Get Fucked," and I closed the door. It happened maybe three times over the years I lived there. I'm otherwise very polite to strangers.
  Coming to a stranger's home and presuming you know better than they on such a (in their mind) important topic. To knock on my door and basically tell me that I'm wrong and they know the right answer. Get Fucked!
- You sound like a well adjusted and kind member of society.
  
  Someone sounds upset that their superstition isn't treated as fact.
- The problem is mate, your country funds the worst Muslim countries and other theocracies like the Saudis and Isreel. So when you advocate for going all militant atheist, you have to consider that you're not harrassing or kicking down an already impoverished, powerless people whether they're refugees or victims of US bombs in Yemen or Palestine.
  I obviously understand your disdain for your local Christian fundamentalists.
  
  Who said anything about militant atheism? I'm not the guy harassing strangers with my religious beliefs in public, but I am the guy mocking and embarrassing them (if they're even capable of shame)
  I don't give a fuck what country someone is from. You don't deserve respect when you go out and harass and insult strangers. Being a refugee and insulting your host country is even worse in my opinion. Deport those snakes, they obviously miss home. How dare they come up another country claiming to be seeking help and then spit on them like that.
- Fuck these people, they’re predators preying on people at their weakest and they don’t pay taxes while pissing their influence all over our politics.
  So what you're saying is that you expect the Kuwaiti government to pay taxes in Sweden?
  
  Reading comprehension is hard.
  
  It must be hard being religious in a world of science. You have to rely on distractions and half truths and obvious lies because your world view is so completely fucked that you are constantly at war with reality itself.
  Too bad religion doesn't coexist well with intelligence or education. It's hard to be dumb, ignorant AND at battle with reality in every conversation with people outside your religion.
  All that is to say, your post is a weak attempt to misdirect the conversation away from a government pushing their own refugees in a foreign country to force their religious bullshit on their host country.
Delusional that they think distributing that book in that country will promote tolerance. "So, tell me more about your 'Prophet' that marries 9 year old girls...".
- She was 6 when he married her. He just waited until she was 9 to rape her.
- which book we talking about here? the Quran or the bible?
  
  Quran
  
  Jesus married a 9 year old?
- Religion is more than a book mate. It's also a culture. The Ottoman and other empires did tolerate other ethnic groups, and Jews and Christians - the assertion that they were made to pay unfair taxes as a disincentive is false, those states actually liked the money coming in and were incentivised to treat non-Muslims fairly.
  
  I attempted to find a point in your statement but I failed. You seem to be trying to draw a parallel of some sort between empires from hundreds of years ago and a modern day nation.
Hopefully we reach the point where we simply don't gaf about anyone's religion or lack thereof. Being offended is on you.
- On that note, why respect people's pronouns? Being offended is on them init
  
  We like to pick and choose what we want to get outraged by.
  
  I think this would be more akin to forcing a Muslim to eat some pig meat than make them look into the mirror and say "I am a Christian" a few times. Does go a bit further than just ignoring someone burning a book, don't you think?
This is honestly the best response
- Kuwait just tryna save the day. Meanwhile, Iraq is a lot more enthusiast (if a country can't behave decently, its ambassador might as well move out).
Good plan. As they say, the solution to bad speech is more speech.
Sweden should send back a bunch of IKEA catalogues as a reply.
- For every Muslim? That's a lot of paper.
  
  1000 should be enough. 1000 qurans aren't enough for the whole swedish country as well.
Wonder what would happen if someone burnt a bible in Kuwait.
I guess: Applause. Or nothing at all.
- Christians used to behave like this centuries ago. They grew up. Let us hope our Muslim brothers and sisters can do the same at some point.
  
  I highly doubt they will
  
  Treating people from poorer countries as children or "undeveloped" while not questioning the belief that we westerners are at the center of the world. Also don't question the inability of other peoples to develop on their own, because we are the only ones who have the brain to do so? Sorry, I'm struggling to wrap my head around western chauvinists.
  They are undeveloped, because obviously our culture is superior, everyone should accept it. Ignore the economic part of the "superiority" or the legacy of imperialism.
  This is how racism is born, in a nutshell.
  
  Every time a muslim country makes progress the US invades them and installs dictators because their biggest nightmare is a middle east that is at peace.
As if we Swedes wouldn’t have mandatory education about the major religions of the world during school already. And I am pretty sure almost every school library carries copies of the quran, just as the bible and some other major scriptures.
So they can burn some more? 🤷‍♂️
- Al-Sabah is gonna make the Pikachu face, isn't he?
Waste of paper.
How about we send 100.000 copies of The God Delusion to Kuwait?
- Better send Russel's teapot.
  
  Right after we find it
  
  lol, thanks for the chuckle.
- The Saudis already read it, and apparently didn't care.
  You mistake the religion to be a problem when it's the most powerful and wealthiest countries that back theocracies like the Saudis and Isreel that actually fund wahabhism and induce acts of terror.
I wonder how many of them will end up in landfills. Probably over 95% - so thanks for letting even more get desecrated I guess?
Those poor trees.
Go ahead and do it. I DO want more people to read that book. lol Let people find out for themselves.
- Yeah, more people should know about their great prophet, who also happens to be a pedophile.
  
  I bet a million shmeckles that u heard this from someone else and you didn’t actually bother to check for wether its true or not.
I'm pretty sure you can already get the Quran in Sweden.
Also I thought burning a Quran was a respectful way to dispose of it.
- Burning a U.S. flag is how you're supposed to dispose of it too, but there's a difference between burning it in a ceremonial way and burning it as a protest. One is showing respect, the other isn't. Now you might think it isn't necessary or warranted to show respect to the Quran, but that is a different matter.
  Jews believe you're supposed to bury prayer books when you're done with them. Do you think that if a bunch of Nazis got as many Jewish prayer books as possible and buried them in a big landfill that Jews would be okay with it?
  
  Didn't that happen recently where someone tried to burn a Torah in front of the Israeli embassy but instead just burned a blank piece of paper or a Passover Haggadah. Honestly I got a laugh out of it.
- Of course you can get one. They are probably planning to distribute them for free in the streets.
Meh. Who cares. Doubt they'll find a lot of willing takers. Sweden should have encouraged the raging idiots to burn bibles. Nobody would have fucking cared. It's all fake outrage and the Qur'an burners all have ties to Russian money. Wonder why...
- the quran burner had his family killed by muslims, he's from Iraq. He doesn't need russian money to express his hatred for people who killed his family
  
  No, santa clause is off limits. What would we do if the easter bunny wasn't real?
  These concepts must be kept alive, granted special treatment, tax exemptions or... we might forget about them and... well... what are we going to fight about then!?
- They're... just gonna burn more of it, whether anyone likes it or not.
Well at least Sweden will be warm this winter.
Hopefully those're at least made up of recycled paper.
- Gonna get recycled anyways
burn it alll 😍
You may not agree with it, but now you possess the knowledge to argue against it.
Lots of really weird, dogmatic chest thumping in this section... can we not go down this road?
Respect and mutual community is the way we all benefit. Learn from others or leave them well alone.
I know this might shock some Americans but I'm not keen on the burgeoning possibility of seeing a christiofascist theocracy spill out onto society either. My friends are already suffering organised attacks by yeehawdists for being queer - which is the boogie man y'all (royal y'all) fear from Islam, right? Being attacked for existing?
Stop burning books and stop casting stones. We're better than this. We can talk in better dialogue than this.
As an atheist, I strongly support this act of extreme free speech.
This just means the protest was effective.
wow...
Do you suppose they would take offense to distributing copies of "Demon Haunted World" in Kuwait?
Pretty strong western bias in this thread
- You should have stuck to r/Islam.
  
  I'm agnostic and live in the West, I just think it's pretty ironic how many of you praise Europeans burning the Curan and make fun of the more mature response to this, and then you defend yourselves saying they'd do the same
Don't shun the religions but kick the missionaries.
If Kuwait wants to show their "values of coexistence", then they could take all Muslim immigrants from Sweden. They would be able to live together in coexistence in a " brother land", and the swedes would be able to live in a safe land in harmony and peace again. Win win for everyone.
- That's actually a pretty good idea.
  
  Lmao, no it's not.
There shouldn't be freedom of religion. I'd interpret this as a hostile action by Kuwait to try and encourage the growth of a hate group.
- Every religion has extremists. Every single one. Even Hindus and Sikhs have idiots that commit atrocities in the name of religion. Doesn't make the religions themselves hateful.
  
  Cool, let's ban them all! Grown up men and women have no place believing in magical sky daddies.
  
  I dunno dude if every single religion has a problem with, your words, committing atrocities, maybe we just shouldn't allow religion.
  
  You are correct, however, I'll offer this counterpoint:
  If you believe in an imaginary man in the sky as an adult, it's not different than an adult believing in Santa or the Easter Bunny. You'd look at that person as mentally ill... yet we give religion a pass for some reason?
  No... we should be treating these people as mentally ill, because that's what they are. They have full fledged delusions and need help. They shouldn't be allowed to own firearms, hold public office, be in any position of authority, vote, etc... until they are cured. Allowing mentally ill people to run society is madness, yet here we are.
- You also mistake the religion to be a problem when it’s the most powerful and wealthiest countries that back theocracies like the Saudis and Isreel that actually fund wahabhism and induce acts of terror.
  Money is the problem.
  
  People have been beating each other to death with rocks over gods & demons since we used barter, my guy. It's a problem inherent to tribalism. "Big money" doesn't get people burning their daughters and sisters as witches.

181 comments