Muslims boycott Swedish, Dutch products over Quran burning: Is it effective?

In protest against the burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden and Holland, Arab and Muslim nations have called for boycotting Dutch and Swedish products, amid calls by activists to adopt more efforts to prevent the recurrence of this blasphemous act.

A Swedish-Danish far-right citizen, Rasmus Paludan, burned a copy of the Quran outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, sparking the anger of Arabs and Muslims around the globe. In response, Turkey has canceled a visit of the Swedish prime minister to Ankara, while Turkish President Recep Erdogan said that “Sweden should not expect Turkey's support for its NATO membership bid” following the burning of a copy of the Quran.

Also increasing the anger of Muslims, the leader of the far-right group Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident (PEGIDA), Edwin Wagensveld, tore up a copy of the Quran, to be the second incident against Islam and Muslims in less than a week.

Egypt’s top Islamic institution, Al-Azhar, urged the Arab and Muslim peoples to boycott all Dutch and Swedish products. It called upon Arab and Muslim nations “to take a strong and unified stance in support of our Noble Quran, the Sacred Scripture of the Muslims, and as a proper reaction to the governments of these two countries, who have offended the 1.5 billion Muslims.”

“They [Sweden and Holland] have gone to excess in guarding the mean and barbaric crimes perpetrated under the specious inhumane and immoral banner or their so-called ‘freedom of expression.’ They should better call it the dictatorship of chaos and evil manners and highhandedness against civilized nations clinging to Allah and the guidance of heaven,” the statement said.

Other Arab countries voiced their condemnations and calls for boycotting products from the two countries. A total of 41 lawmakers of the Kuwaiti National Assembly (out of 50) called on all parliamentarians in the world to boycott Sweden.

“We condemn the Swedish government for allowing this criminal act,” the lawmakers said in a statement signed by them, appealing to other parliamentarians around the world to denounce “this barbaric act” and calling on all of them to “boycott Sweden and every country that does not respect the principles of the Islamic nation.”

Meanwhile, the three Kuwaiti cooperatives of Granada, Al-Khalidiya and Hadiya announced a boycott of Swedish products, Al Kabas newspaper reported.

Online, Muslim social media users started sharing the names of Swedish companies to boycott, including Spotify, Storytel, H&M, Oriflame, and IKEA.

Hamood Al Noofali, Associate Professor of Sociology at Sultan Qaboos University, published a list of Swedish companies to boycott on his Twitter account.

“Do not underestimate the boycott, as it is the backbone of their lives, and it is what hurts them the most because they are material societies, linked to life, not to the Hereafter,” he said.

نداء:
ينبغي على كل مسلم غيور أن يطّلع على هذا المنشور ليعلن العزم على مقاطعة هذه الشركات، وكذلك نشره في مختلف الوسائل.
لا تستهينوا بالمقاطعة فهي عصب حياتهم وهي أشد ما يؤلمهم، لأنهم مجتمعات مادية،مرتبطين بالحياة لا بالآخرة.#غضبة_مليارية_على_حرق_المصحف#مقاطعه_المنتجات_السويديه pic.twitter.com/gmTWru9mVz

— د.حمود النوفلي (@hamoodalnoofli) January 22, 2023

Despite the Muslims’ outrage, the incident was repeated in Denmark outside a mosque in Copenhagen, when Rasmus Paludan again burned a copy of the Quran on January 27. The act pushed Turkey to summon the Danish ambassador to Ankara in protest against this blasphemous act, Anadolu Agency reported.

“The boycott is to a large extent effective, but the recurrence of the issue occurred because the perpetrator was not punished […] A severe punishment must be imposed on whoever commits this crime,” George Ishak, member of the Egyptian National Council of Human Rights, told Jusoor Post.

The human rights advocator added that the solution is imposing a punishment, noting that although the boycott is effective per se, more efforts are required to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. 

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told Swedish Public Service TV SVT on January 23 that “the burning of the Quran is disrespectful and that it is polarizing, but that it is legal,” as his country sees that it comes under the principle of the freedom of expression. Sweden has no law prohibiting blasphemy.

According to Ishak, promoting the burning of the Quran “does not fall within the scope of freedom of expression, but is an attack on religions. Expression is to criticize, but the act of burning is a barbaric method that we monitor.”

“The burning of sacred entities affects people who can never forget this act, so the whole world must condemn this matter. Is this civilization that you burn a Bible for a group of people? Is this the Europe we know? I don't think so. This event had a great impact on the whole world, and the burning of holy books is completely unacceptable,” Ishak continued.