Far-right extremist and former Muslim make bid to burn the Koran in Sweden ahead of Eurovision

A far-right extremist and an ex-Muslim atheist are planning to publicly burn a copy of the Koran in the city hosting the Eurovision Song Contest a day before the event starts, the Mail can reveal.

Swedish police have received an application to burn the Muslim holy book at the centre of Malmo before the glare of the world’s media.

Jade Sandberg, 48, a Far-Right Christian extremist who campaigns to ban Islam from Sweden, and Salwan Najem, 48, an Iraqi refugee who has become a Swedish national, have applied for permission to conduct the burning.

There have been fears this year’s Eurovision will be a prominent target for Islamic extremists because of the inclusion of Israeli contestant Eden Golan.

Earlier this month, the Mail on Sunday revealed how two Israeli undercover reporters posing as British tourists inside a mosque in Malmo were warned by security guards not to attend the contest.

Petra Stenkula, the head of Malmo Police District and in charge of Eurovision security, said her force was considering the application which was likely to be granted as Koran-burning itself does not constitute an offence in Swedish law.

Sandberg and Najem – who have both publicly burned the Koran before in the capital Stockholm – are likely to anger Malmo’s 50,000-strong Muslim community, as well as followers of the faith across the world.

Last night, terrorism experts warned that the desecration will raise the likelihood of terrorist attacks during the seven-day-long Eurovision contest.

Anthony Glees, professor of terrorism studies at Buckingham University, said: ‘Already the Eurovision has become a passive target of the awful war in the Middle East.

‘This will make it an active target. Publicly burning the Koran will pour petrol over a fraught situation, and it could inspire those thinking of launching an attack into doing something.’

Tens of thousands of concertgoers from at least 80 countries are expected to arrive in Malmo the day before Eurovision starts on May 4th, with media crews from around the world.

Apart from protests against Ms Golan taking part in the contest, controversy has also surrounded her song which had to be re-written three times as Eurovision organisers felt it was ‘too political.’ They said some of her lyrics appeared to reference the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that left 1200 victims dead and more than 250 taken hostage.

The song, which was initially called October Rain, had the lines ‘There’s no air left to breathe’, and ‘They were all good children, each one of them.’ The song is now called Hurricane.

Ms Stenkula said that as well as the Koran-burning proposal, 10 applications have been made by pro-Palestinian and Israeli-supporting groups to protest in front of the Malmo Arena during the contest, whose grand finale will be on Saturday May 11th.

Source » dailymail.co.uk