The announcement of the burning, authorized by Swedish police, caused an outcry around the world and in Israel.

The Muslim activist who had planned to burn a Jwish Bible in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Saturday appears to have backed down.  

The 32-year-old, identified as Ahmad Alush, told reporters on the scene that he “only wanted to draw attention to the recent burning of the Koran” in Sweden. Alush arrived outside the Israeli diplomatic mission on Saturday with a copy of the Koran and said he had “never intended to burn Jewish or Christian holy books”, and that his gesture was “only to protest against the recent burning of the Koran with a symbolic rally in the name of freedom of expression”.

A Koran was burnt outside the Stockholm mosque in June, sparking fury in the Muslim world.

On Friday, the Swedish police approved a request to hold a rally in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Saturday, during which a Hebrew Bible was to be burned. Carina Skagerlind, press officer for Stockholm police, said: “The police does not issue permits to burn various religious texts – the police issues permits to hold a public gathering and express an opinion. An important distinction.”

The announcement of the burning caused an outcry around the world and in Israel. European Jewish and Christian leading organizations denounced the the police approval of the burning. ‘’The burning of Holy Books of any kind is an abominable act,’’ said the European Jewish Association and the European Coalition for Israel in a joint statement.

 “The fact that a majority of Swedes support a ban on the public burning of religious texts such as the Koran or the Bible should be enough to prevent this vile act of ‘protest’ taking place.,’’ said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the Europeran Jewish Association t(EJA) and Tomas Sandell, Director and Founder of the European Coalition for Israel (ECI). They called on the Swedish authorities to prevent this act.

The Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and the Fight against Anti-Semitism, Amichai Chikli, had sent a letter to the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, asking him to prevent the burning of the Torah. In the end, the government did not intervene, Kristersson declaring that he left such decisions to the police, as he had done with the Koran.

The President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog, also voiced his displeasure:  “I unequivocally condemn the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books. As President of the State of Israel, I condemned the burning of the Koran, sacred to Muslims around the world, and I am now heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible, the eternal book of the Jewish people. Allowing the degradation of sacred texts is not an exercise in freedom of expression, it is blatant incitement and an act of pure hatred. The whole world must unite in clear condemnation of this repugnant act”, he asserted.

Katharina von Schnurbein, the EU Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life in the EU, twitted on Friday that she was appalled by the burning of holy books in Sweden. “For what purpose? Such actions divide society and offend the members of the religious communities concerned. I hope the incident announced for tomorrow will be avoided.”

After the burning had been called off, she wrote that not everything that may be legally permitted is helpful for living together.