speech laws differently. She said she had seen a lot of support for Qur’an burning on social media, but was strongly against it. “I don’t support it at all because it is basically violating another group of people. I don’t know how you can support that.”
For Inge Zurcher, 79, however, a ban made sense. “It’s awful. It shouldn’t be allowed,” she said, adding that the government did not “understand what damage they’re doing to Sweden and to Muslims”.
Tal Domankewitz, 39, a tourist guide, said there should be limits to Sweden’s freedom of expression laws. “There are some cases where you have to think again and not let it happen. It has to be limited.”
Meanwhile, Abdi Ibrahim, 44, a social worker, said the burnings were ruining Sweden’s reputation in the world. “It feels like most people have the same perception, that freedom of expression is good but that it should not violate others. You can express your views in another way.”
Iman Omer, 20, a Muslim, who was out and about with her sister Monica, said it should be possible to classify the Qur’an burnings as a hate crime. “I understand you are allowed to think and feel what you want, this is a free country, but there must be boundaries,” she said. “It’s such a pity that it has happened so many times and Sweden doesn’t seem to learn from its mistakes.”
Thems the breaks with speech.
Burning the Koran is most certainly going to get people upset. If someone took another’s Koran and burned it, there’s already a law for that. If someone burned a Koran, pointed at a Muslim person and said “You’re next!”, that’s a direct threat.
Getting overly upset because someone desecrated a common item you feel is holy… I don’t have a lot of sympathy.
If you are in a liberal democracy that values free speech, you’re gonna have to suck it up and pick your battles. If you want people to be tolerant of your nonsense book that has backward ways of seeing the world, you will have to tolerate that they may tell you precisely what they think about it. On the best days, people should be able to hear speech that offends them, and everyone goes home safe to argue another day. No personal threats, no violence.