The Danish-Swedish politician was reached by the news via Turkish media on Thursday.
"They must understand that something that may be illegal in Turkey does not have to be illegal in Sweden. In Sweden, a prosecutor has already looked at my case and judged that it was not illegal," he says.
Turkey's Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc writes on Twitter that the arrest warrant, in addition to Paludan, also applies to the man who stomped on the Koran outside the Iraqi embassy in Stockholm on Thursday and eight unnamed people.
Rasmus Paludan says that he has neither had nor has any plans to visit Turkey and therefore sees the situation as a Turkish "a PR thing". No Turkish authorities have contacted him about the matter, he said.
"If they want to question me, they can call. I don't usually pick up the phone right away, but I'll probably laugh if they get in touch," he says.
Must have jurisdiction
An arrest warrant against a person in another country does not mean that that country must act.
"Then an international search warrant must be issued first. When there is, it is up to the country in question to decide whether the person should be extradited or not, says Per Hedvall, head of office at the Swedish Prosecution Authority.
Pål Wrange, professor of international law at Stockholm University, explains that much is required for extradition. One of the conditions is that the act is punishable in the country from which the person is to be extradited.
"In Sweden, it's not. Secondly, Turkish courts must have jurisdiction. In the case of acts carried out in other countries, that space is very small. It only applies to special crimes such as war crimes or anything that threatens a country's security. Thirdly, the person in question cannot be a Swedish citizen, since Sweden, like many other countries, does not extradite its own citizens.
Rasmus Paludan also has Danish citizenship, but Denmark does not extradite its own citizens either.