Holy Quran burning: Culprit says he will do it again

KRISTIANSAND: Far-right and racist group SIAN (Stop the Islamisation of Norway) that drew global condemnation for the Quran desecration incident pledged reruns of the burning of the holy book of the Muslims.

On Saturday a week ago, desecration incident happened in the Muslim-populated city of Kristiansand.

Now Arne Tumyr, who heads the SIAN organisation said that he is going to do it again.

“Just the beginning”

Speaking to local newspaper Agderposten, Tumyr told that he will definitely burn the Qur’an again.

“Yes, absolutely. This is just the beginning of a freedom movement. It is about the right to criticise religion”, 85-year-old Arne Tumyr, veteran journalist and SIAN figurehead, told the newspaper.

He furthered added that desecration of the Holy Quran is not his preferred course of action.  

“What I prefer is to sit down with people and discuss arguments and facts. But no one either wants or dares,” Tumyr lamented. By his own admission, setting fire to the Quran was intended to “wake people up”.

Earlier in 2012, Tumyr virulently attacked Islam and consider it as a threat to the Norwegian society and values.

Quran desecration

November 16, the order was given in advance by the police that SIAN would not carried out any abominable hate-crime. Tumyr chose to comply with the police ban and had disrespected the Holy Quran by binning its edition into a trash can.

Immediately after this, the SIAN’s leader Lars Thorsen set alight Islam’s religious scripture in front of the crowd sparking strong reactions among the counter-protesters and across the Muslim world.

SIAN, Norwegian organization set up in the early 2000s with the aim to work against the proliferation of Islam.

Currently, Islamic communities are the second largest of Norway’s population, and gather pace with mass immigration.