The defacing of Islam’s holy scripture is considered an act of provocation to most in Indonesia, host of the world's largest Muslim population, regardless of whether the act was aimed at another nation entirely.

Swedish-Danish activist Rasmus Paludan, who has previously been convicted of racial abuse, repeated the act he did last year in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm on Saturday in protest against Ankara’s demands to repatriate Kurdish activists, a sticking point in Sweden’s attempt to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Paludan’s theatrics, and the fact that he got a permit to protest despite his anti-Islamic rhetoric that sparked riots across Sweden last year, angered Turkey and led it to cancel a scheduled visit by Sweden’s defense minister.

Dozens of protesters gathered in Istanbul on Saturday to call on Turkey to sever ties with Sweden, AFP reported.

Many Muslim and Muslim-majority countries, as well as the organizations representing them, joined in on the chorus of outrage – including Indonesia.

The Indonesian Foreign Ministry “strongly condemned” the act and demanded that freedom of expression be responsibly exercised. “This act of blasphemy has hurt and tarnished religious tolerance. Freedom of expression must be exercised in a responsible manner,” the ministry stated through its official Twitter account on Sunday.

Meanwhile, lawmakers and grassroots groups have urged the government to put its foot down and summon the Swedish envoy to express Indonesia’s disappointment.

“The act constitutes a hate crime against humanity and the beliefs of Muslims all over the world,” said Abdul Kharis Almasyhari, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing foreign relations, on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Organization Friendship Body (LPOI), which groups together 12 Islamic organizations from Indonesia, issued a press release on Monday lambasting Paludan’s repeat offenses and called for an end to racism and hate speech against Islam.

The members of the LPOI jointly proclaimed: “To all stakeholders around the world, and especially to the governments of Sweden and the European Union, we call on you to stop racist acts and hate crimes against Islam, and that any blasphemous actors, including the person who set fire to copies of the Quran, must be dealt with firmly and justly, so that they may not inspire a wave of horizontal conflict that can chip away at peace.”

Separately, Ahmad Fahrur Rozi, a chairman of the tanfidziyah (executive board) at Nahdlatul Ulama, the nation’s largest Muslim group, also strongly condemned the “highly disgraceful”, “extremist” and “ill-mannered” act.

However, he also called on Indonesians to refrain from falling prey to Paludan’s provocations. “Indonesian Muslims should strive to remain calm and avoid being provoked emotionally,” he told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Responding to calls to send an official diplomatic note to the Swedish government, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson told the Post that it would summon Swedish Ambassador Marina Berg this week.

Swedish inaction

Several other countries, including Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco and Kuwait, also denounced the act.

Late on Saturday, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson tweeted: “Freedom of expression is a fundamental part of democracy. But what is legal is not necessarily appropriate. Burning books that are holy to many is a deeply disrespectful act.”

But many observers in Indonesia are still suspicious of the fact that Stockholm has allowed figures such as Paludan to get away with similar actions time and again.

“I’m stumped,” said Sudarnoto Abdul Hakim, the Muslim Ulema Council’s (MUI) head of external relations and international cooperation, to a Muhammadiyah-affiliated media website, on Monday.

[https://suaramuhammadiyah.id/2023/01/23/mui-pembakaran-al-quran-di-swedia-sudah-keterlaluan/]

“Even though the act has been repeated several times, the Swedish government has yet to act decisively against Paludan. This is the same as endorsing Islamophobia by omission and contradicts the United Nations resolution to combat Islamophobia,” he said in a statement.

On March 15, 2022, just a month before Paludan incited unrest across Sweden over a similar act, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a text combating Islamophobia, tabled by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Yon Machmudi, a Gadjah Mada University (UGM) expert in Islamic studies, said that the rise of Islamophobia in certain countries should be addressed by all parties concerned, including Indonesia, fearing that such negative sentiments could bleed into other areas of cooperation.

“The conflict between Sweden and Turkey is rooted in NATO membership and has nothing to do with Islamic beliefs. When Islamophobia is used as a political tool to provoke people, the social unrest that follows can be detrimental to the economy and the diplomatic relations of these countries,” Yon told the Post on Monday.

Islam is the second-largest religion in the world after Christianity, with more than 2 billion followers representing about a quarter of the world’s population. A 2017 Pew Research Center study has found that it is likely to overtake Christianity as the largest religion by 2070. (tjs)