Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning and set it on fire, a source familiar with the matter and a Reuters witness said, in a protest against the expected burning of a Koran in Sweden.
Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning and set it on fire, a source familiar with the matter and a Reuters witness said, in a protest against the expected burning of a Koran in Sweden.
Why not?
We in the west allow all sorts of offensive messages in protests. What we don’t allow, and this is where the anti Nazi laws come in, are hostile messages, which is anything that instills and encourages hostility towards a group of people.
Burning a copy of a religious holy book is a frankly profane and offensive way of rejecting the ideas in that religion, but it is not, by itself, an encouragement to do harm to those that follow the religion.
There is a difference between burning a Quran saying ‘Sharia law has no place in Sweden’, and doing the same saying ‘Muslims have no place in Sweden’
Some people do see things like bible burnings as a way of making a threat that those who believe in it are next similar to cross burning being used as a threat against black people regardless of the stated intent (people lie btw). I don’t think the law should pander to the false persecution fetishes people have, but unlike 10s of millions of white Christian men in America, Iraqi people have a good reason to be distrustful. Still don’t think it should be illegal, but I’m also not going to be quick to dismiss their fears when 100s of thousands (maybe millions) of civilians in Iraq have been murdered in the last two decades, largely allowed because of racism and islamophobia.
Usually because they’ve been told as much by reactionary religious leaders attempting to profit from it. Whether Christian, Muslim, etc, that’s usually how it goes down.
Except cross burning by the KKK was always meant as an overt threat; even the KKK did not pretend it was anything else.
The problem there is, how are you gonna hold an effective protest while trying to hide your message? Dog whistles only work when you’re already preaching to the choir.
Of a protest in Sweden? Why?
Are you seriously comparing the aftermath of 9/11 to a Quran burning in Sweden? I think you’re struggling a bit with the concepts of scope and scale…
What does 9/11 have to do with this conversation? We’re talking about Iraq. Nothing to do with 9/11, except the islamophobia and xenophobia that spread as a result of 9/11.
Sweden is practically part of NATO, and has been long since they formally began the process of officially joining. The fact that NATO members murdered huge numbers of civilians within the lifetime of even young adults is pretty relevant seems relevant to why Iraqis might be a bit spooked by perceived threats of violence by islamophobes.
You’re the one that indirectly brought it up and tried to compare it to a simple fucking protest in Sweden. Don’t be disingenuous.
Wow. That’s such a huge leap in logic it’s actually quite comical.
First of all, the US wasn’t in Iraq on a NATO mission. NATO themselves kept out of it, the most they did during the conflict was send aid to Turkey, who borders Iraq.
Secondly the protestors in Sweden are just that. They are not NATO combatants, nor combatants in general.
Thirdly, the protesters in Sweden aren’t fucking going to Iraq. They don’t even care about Iraq, they don’t even mention Iraq.
Why would Iraqis think they are facing an existential threat because of a protest in Sweden that has literally nothing to do with them? They dont. It’s not about that.