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.

    • Zehzin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, try burning a bible in Bumfuck Arizona and see where that takes you.

      The only difference is how much of the state machinery the fundamentalist nutjobs hold.

    • nomadjoanne@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      No. They were lynching blacks 70 years ago. The American South has changed profoundly over the last century.

      What they dislike are what are current avant garde ideas. Mainstream discussion of trans rights is what, 10 years old? A lot of the most ardent opponents to these ideas would be considered leftist by the standards of the 1970s. These changes seem slow to us. Historically they are not that slow! They’re just difficult to live though.

      Trump is crass and corrupt and hurts the feelings of leftists. He’d still be a liberal by the standards of the 1970s, albeit still definitely a crass and corrupt one.

      You know who supports beheading or the abolition of alcohol in the modern US? For all intents and purposes no one.

        • nomadjoanne@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          A lot of tiny groups exist. Nobody supports the KKK. Nobody. There are also micro-sized Nazi movements in Western countries today. Nobody supports them. They are utterly anathema to mainstream morality.

          The amount of mental gymnastics you do to defend the Islamic world is a joke. They’ll imprision trans people happily. They’ll imprison gay people happily. But in the West “Muslims” and other minorities are client groups of the elites. So you know, you gotta square the circle. To be fair, there are very open-minded Muslims in the West. But they are sadly a minority in their countries of origin.

          Go insult Trump some more. It will make you feel better.

      • Zehzin@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Mainstream discussion of trans rights is what, 10 years old?

        Do you also think gay rights discussion is 20 years old?

        • nomadjoanne@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          In the mainstream, 30 to 40 years. It gained traction a lot slower than the trans rights movement, which has burst into mainstream consciousness rather quickly.