Did the Swedish presidential palace burn in revenge for the Quran burnings in Sweden? No, that's not true: The footage in the video on social media making the claim is from a fire in Manila's historic post office building in May 2023.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok by yahasrahh on July 1, 2023, with a caption (translated from Arabic to English by Lead Stories staff) that read:
The revenge of the Holy Quran, burning of the presidential palace in Sweden
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jan 17 07:50:05 2024 UTC)
Lead Stories conducted a reverse Google Lens search (archived here) on January 18, 2024. The results led to a video (archived here) published by the National News on May 22, 2023, titled "Manila post office fire: Historic building destroyed in Philippine capital." The AP also reported on the fire of the Central Post Office on May 22, 2023 (archived here).
Sweden has neither a president nor a presidential palace, as the country functions as a constitutional monarchy with King Carl XVI Gustaf as head of state.
There have been several Quran burnings in Northern European countries (archived here), which have provoked anger in the Muslim world. On June 28, 2023, Salwan Momika (archived here), a 37-year-old Iraqi-Assyrian refugee, burned the Muslim holy book in front of a mosque in Stockholm during Eid al-Adha, a major Islamic festival celebrated by Muslims around the world, sparking international outrage.
Sweden has come under fire (archived here) for allowing the public burning of the Quran under police protection.
