Laws vary a bit from country to country in Europe, but here in Sweden at least the cops have to protect the safety of the people in the mass gatherings, safeguarding their right to protest/demonstrate/whatever.
This system has really been put to the test lately when some right wing extremists wanted to burn the Quran outside of mosques. The police really didn't want to allow that, but were in the end forced to protect the demonstrations, since even boneheaded Nazis have freedom of speech here, no matter how dumb and inflammatory their speech is.
This has really caused some diplomatic problems for the government, who are trying to convince Turkey (a predominantly Muslim country) to allow us to join NATO. Burning the Quran and angering every Muslim in the world has not helped that cause.
Now it seems burning stuff is becoming a trend, the other day someone made the news for burning a printout of their municipalities traffic guidelines, which was kinda funny.
Given how much the government and the police wanted to stop these things, and yet still ended up helping them happen(in accordance to Swedish constitution) makes me not worry overmuch that Europe will become Soviet.
Unless Russia conquers us all, then we'll be the Soviet Union for sure.
This system has really been put to the test lately when some right wing extremists wanted to burn the Quran outside of mosques. The police really didn't want to allow that, but were in the end forced to protect the demonstrations, since even boneheaded Nazis have freedom of speech here, no matter how dumb and inflammatory their speech is.
This has really caused some diplomatic problems for the government, who are trying to convince Turkey (a predominantly Muslim country) to allow us to join NATO. Burning the Quran and angering every Muslim in the world has not helped that cause.
Now it seems burning stuff is becoming a trend, the other day someone made the news for burning a printout of their municipalities traffic guidelines, which was kinda funny.
Given how much the government and the police wanted to stop these things, and yet still ended up helping them happen(in accordance to Swedish constitution) makes me not worry overmuch that Europe will become Soviet.
Unless Russia conquers us all, then we'll be the Soviet Union for sure.