Museum Removes Erotic Art After Muslim Anger

STOCKHOLM — A Swedish museum dedicated to world culture has removed an erotic painting plastered with verses from the Muslim holy book, the Koran, from an exhibition about AIDS after Muslims complained it was obscene.

Jette Sandahl, director of the World Culture Museum, which opened in Gothenburg a month ago, said on Wednesday that the painting by an Arab artist living in France was replaced by another less offensive one.

Sweden is home to 400,000 Muslims. The row over artist Louzla Darabi’s painting comes amid tensions in Europe about a perceived increase in Islamic militancy since a Dutch filmmaker critical of Islam was murdered in the Netherlands late last year.

Sandahl told Reuters that most of the hundreds of e-mails and letters sent were “respectful and polite but some were more aggressive.”

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