Research output
Complete citation
Poljarević, Emin. “The Islamophobic Context and Significance of Qur’an Burnings.” Islamic Horizons 51, no. 5 (September–October 2022).
Status
Published
Publication type
Public scholarship / commentary
Overview
This article situates public Qur’an burnings in Sweden within a wider political and social context of Islamophobia. Rather than treating the events as isolated exercises of free expression, it examines how deliberate desecration operates as a public performance that marks Muslims as suspect, unwanted, or conditionally included. The article asks what these provocations reveal about the relationship among legal permissibility, public safety, political mobilisation, and the unequal distribution of civic dignity. It shows how claims about free speech can obscure the organised production of hostility and the cumulative effects of repeated anti-Muslim spectacles. The analysis does not collapse legal and ethical judgment; instead, it argues that a democratic society must assess both formal rights and the social power through which those rights are exercised. Its contribution is to clarify why Qur’an burnings matter beyond the immediate event: they normalise exclusion and reshape the boundaries of legitimate public belonging.
Research question or central concern
What do public Qur’an burnings in Sweden reveal about the interaction between free-expression claims, Islamophobic mobilisation, and Muslims’ civic belonging?
Main argument, approach, and contribution
The article argues that Qur’an burnings should be analysed as politically staged acts within an Islamophobic environment, not as context-free speech. It combines legal, political, and ethical analysis to show how formally permitted acts may still reproduce unequal civic standing.
Keywords
Islamophobia; Qur’an burnings; Sweden; freedom of expression; civic belonging; anti-Muslim racism
Emin Poljarević 