Temenos - Nordic Journal for the Study of Religion

The ‘Qur’an Crisis’ in the Swedish Press

Mia Lövheim — 2024-12-17

During the summer of 2023 news and debates about public burnings of the Qur’an dominated the Swedish and international media. In the aftermath of the flames and the debate this article aims to present and discuss the representation of the event as a ‘crisis’ in the Swedish daily press between 1 April and 1 October 2023. The article uses a quantitative analysis of the main topics in a selection of Swedish and Nordic daily newspapers, and a combination of co-occurrence and qualitative frame analysis of how the event came to be debated in a sample of Swedish opinion articles. Theories of mediatized conflicts as dynamic and complex processes revealing the state of democracy in a society are used to analyse the findings. The results are discussed in light of previous research on Qur’an burnings in Sweden and on debates about previous events involving clashes between freedom of speech and freedom of religion in the Nordic countries. The article concludes by arguing that the ‘Qur’an crisis’ as a mediatized conflict co-structures an ongoing negotiation between different positions on the most fundamental values of democracy, which has become increasingly contentious in Swedish public and political debate.

Paranormalism, Voting Intention, and Other Conspiracy Mentality Predictors in Sweden

Cristoffer Tidelius — 2024-12-17

This article explores conspiracy mentality occurrence in Sweden as part of a 2020 survey of paranormal beliefs, practices, and experiences. Using the idea of a shared sociocultural milieu of alternative views and practices of knowledge as a departure point, the relationship between conspiracy mentality and paranormalism, viewed as instances of cultic, rejected, and stigmatized knowledge, is tested through multivariate regression. As part of the regression model, the effects of other social predictors (e.g. gender, income, and cultural values) are also assessed. A nonparametric analysis further explores the relationship between conspiracy mentality and voting intention. The results of multivariate regression show that the dependent variables only predict conspiracy mentality to a limited extent. Predictors that significantly contribute to predicting conspiracy mentality are gender (being male), higher levels of paranormalism, lower income, conservation as opposed to openness-to-change values, and self-transcendence as opposed to self-enhancement values. Meanwhile, the nonparametric test pointed to distinctly higher conspiracy mentality levels among sympathizers with the right-wing populist party the Sweden Democrats and those who favoured political parties not represented in parliament.

Hallowed Grounds

Helge Årsheim — 2024-12-17

This article examines the identification and protection of the sacred natural sites (SNS) of Indigenous peoples, with a particular emphasis on a selection of cases where the Sámi people’s SNS have come under pressure in Sápmi. The article unpacks the origins and impact of the concept of SNS, from the international level to domestic decision making. A key concern of this investigation is how discourses on SNS have come to interact with and influence other issues of global governance, from environmental and biological diversity concerns and activism for cultural heritage to protective measures for the human rights of Indigenous peoples. Following this overview, the article discusses the extent to which the Norwegian authorities, commercial actors, and civil society activists have drawn on the international SNS discourse to formulate their claims in a series of cases concerning energy developments in Sápmi.

Reflections on the Special Issue: Burning of the Qur’an

Verena Meyer — 2024-12-17

The following three short texts are the outcome of a roundtable discussion at the European Association for the Study of Religion (EASR) conference held on 19 August 2024 in Gothenburg. The focus of the roundtable was the special issue, Burning of the Qur’an, which was edited by Göran Larsson, Iselin Frydenlund, and Torkel Brekke and published in Temenos, Vol. 60, No. 1 (2024). The special issue contained articles on the development in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Finland and a meta reflection on the burning of the Qur’an from a British and South Asian perspective. At the EASR conference the editors invited Assistant Professor Verena Meyer from Leiden University and Professor Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen from the University of Copenhagen to comment on and discuss the special issue. This section of Temenos publishes Meyer’s and Skovgaard-Petersen’s responses, with a short reply from Iselin Frydenlund and Göran Larsson. The discussion focuses on research ethics (‘why study a controversial topic’), legal frameworks, and the lack of ‘Muslim voices’ in the study of controversial topics.

Douglas Ezzy, Anna Halafoff, Greg Barton and Rebecca Banham (eds): Religious Diversity in Australia: Living Well with Difference

Tuomas Martikainen — 2024-12-17

Book review of Douglas Ezzy, Anna Halafoff, Greg Barton and Rebecca Banham (eds): Religious Diversity in Australia: Living Well with Difference. London: Bloomsbury, 2024, 251 pp.

Christopher L. Schilling: The Japanese Talmud: Antisemitism in East Asia

Jasmine Kolano — 2024-12-17

Book review of Christopher L. Schilling: The Japanese Talmud: Antisemitism in East Asia. London: Hurst Publishers, 2023, 144 pp.

Editorial Note

Sofia Sjö — 2024-12-17