Sweden increases its terror alert following Qur'an burnings

Stockholm: The Muslim world's outrage at Sweden's Qur'an burnings caused the nation to become a "prioritised target," and Sweden's intelligence service raised its terror alert level on Thursday to four on a scale of five.

The rating was raised from "elevated," where it has been since 2016, to "high," according to Charlotte von Essen, the chief of the Swedish Security Police.

“The reason for this decision is the deteriorated situation with regard to attack threats to Sweden, and the assessment that the threat will remain for a long time,” she said, AFP reported.

Von Essen emphasised that the decision to increase the threat level was not driven by a "single incident," but rather by a "collective assessment."

Similar to its neighbour Denmark, Sweden has recently witnessed a wave of public desecration of the Qur'an, including burnings. These incidents have prompted significant indignation and criticism among Muslim nations.

In July, demonstrators from Iraq twice stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad, setting fire to the compound on the second occasion.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which has its headquarters in Jeddah, has also expressed "disappointment" with Sweden and Denmark for doing nothing in response to the recent burnings.

Although it did not detonate, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the Swedish embassy in Beirut last week, and over the weekend, Al-Qaeda issued a demand for strikes against the Scandinavian nation.

Sweden has increased border controls since August 1 in response to the protests.

Travel advisories for Sweden have recently been upgraded in a number of Western nations.

The United States on July 26 urged its nationals to “exercise increased caution in Sweden due to terrorism.”

And on Sunday, Britain’s Foreign Office said “Terrorists are very likely to try and carry out attacks in Sweden,” and added, “Authorities in Sweden have successfully disrupted a number of planned attacks and made a number of arrests.”

Swedish authorities have however refused to comment on whether any attacks had been foiled or arrests made.

However, when asked whether any assaults had been thwarted or arrests had been made, Swedish authorities declined to respond.

Despite condemning the destruction of the Qur'an, the nation upheld its laws protecting the right to free speech and assembly.

The government has promised to look into legal options to stop rallies involving the burning of sacred texts in some situations, while the majority of people seem to be against such a change.